The Complete Doors Studio Albums at HDTracks!

The HDtracks downloads are the digital masters used in the 2007 vinyl re-issues. those transfers were done at 96/24. This seems to be the best it's gonna get for at least the 1st album. When the recent SACDs were made, they had to use a backup tape as the master is no longer useable. I've heard that SACD and don't care for the sound. I really like both the DCC CD & the HDtracks for the original mix of the 1st album.

 

Thank you. I do have the DCCs for The Doors and Strange Days, but I believe I'll now spring for the HDtrack offerings.

 

Are these digitally identical to the DVD-Audio box set?

 

I bought this set to get high resolution original mixes and thank goodness the DCC/AF's are still better, despite the higher resolution.
Anyhow, I felt it was a bargain compared to what I've paid for the gold discs in total.
So, my Doors collection consists of:

DCC/AF's: they're all amazing, but the s/t stands out in the crowd.
HDTracks 24/96: Good to have for reference. I'd say they stand up pretty well against our hosts work, but I would recommend everybody to try these high-rez files and then go back to the s/t DCC CD. It still blows me away. Could it be the best work mr Hoffman has ever done?
'A Collection: Cheap 6cd-collection with the 40th anniversary mixes. Bought this set today and I certainly feel that it spices up the Doors. Perfect for listening to the Doors in daylight

So, it feels a little bit strange. I'm not looking for anything with the Doors anymore. Happy times!

 

The DVDA boxset didn't have the album in the original stereo mixes.

 

The Morrison Hotel SACD by Doug Sax is now the definitive mastering from everything I've heard of the album. I have yet to hear all the SACDs, though I am getting to them.

 

The redbooklayer of the SACD's have the original mixes, but is also remastered by Sax/Botnick?

So we have the DCC/AF's original mix remastered, the 40th anniversary mixes, the high res original mixes, and now also a Hybrid-SACD w/ original mixes remastered?

 

On the DVD's they had the remixes, but the cd's had original mixes?

 

Correct, if I am not misreading your question. The Doors have definitely been milked for remasters more than any other well-known group.

 

Correct. So, just to get this straightened out, for me and my bank accounts sake.

1. Steve Hoffman remastered the original mixes for the DCC/AF releases.
2. Botnick et al did the 40th anniversary remixing and remastering.

3. HDTracks uses the original mixes in high rez, taken from the 2007 vinyl transfers if I'm not mistaken? But who did the remastering if any where made?
4. The Analogue Production hybrid SACD's has Botnick/Sax remixes and remasters just like the perception release however not anniversary remixes but original mix, both multichannel and stereo. Can this be confirmed?

Please shed some light for me. I'm not interested in 1000 answers about how much you love or hate the different mixes, I do not care about that. I'm in it for the collecting. I can't help it. I hate the fact that they keep taking my money, that's my burden to carry. However, I don't want to buy the same mix/master two times.

 

All of the AP SACDs have the original stereo mixes remastered by Doug Sax. The surround tracks on the AP SACDs are simply the same surround mixes from the DVD-A boxset.

 

Oh, wow. I was expecting them to pull a "Complete Studio Recordings" and leave out the non-Jim albums. This is amazing.

 

To clarify even more, this is the 40th anniversary remixes (for the surround tracks). Maybe this thread could be a sticky after we're done

One questions remains. Who did the mastering for the HDTracks release? Or is it original mix and original master?

 

Are the individual downloads the same masterings as the complete album set? The reason I ask because I bought them individually to get seperate album art and now I checked the DR values to the one in dr database and they dont match?!

My S/T album:

DR10 -1.05 dB -13.99 dB 2:28 01-Break On Through (To The Other Side)
DR10 -1.14 dB -15.53 dB 3:33 02-Soul Kitchen
DR10 -3.32 dB -16.69 dB 2:33 03-The Crystal Ship
DR10 -2.38 dB -15.46 dB 2:32 04-Twentieth Century Fox
DR10 -1.28 dB -15.50 dB 3:18 05-Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
DR8 -1.60 dB -12.00 dB 6:52 06-Light My Fire
DR10 -1.06 dB -13.99 dB 3:33 07-Back Door Man
DR10 -0.32 dB -13.30 dB 2:21 08-I Looked At You
DR10 -0.27 dB -14.88 dB 2:51 09-End Of The Night
DR9 -0.14 dB -11.81 dB 2:16 10-Take It As It Comes
DR10 -0.38 dB -14.62 dB 11:35 11-The End

DR database S/T: http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=18420


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What is going on here? The dr database one clearly says it is the 96/24 download from hdtracks.

Could you guys who bought the whole set post your DR values for all the six main albums?

 

Yes, but dr database cannnot be entirely trusted. Someone could have uploaded the wrong data, or he could have gotten a fake HDtracks release from a filesharing site.

 

I've just purchased the self titled debut album and LA Woman. I would highly recommend any fan of The Doors to get these editions of HDtracks. These are probably the best sounding high resolution albums I've heard, and I've heard music in high resolution that has been recorded more recently than these albums.

I've never heard the SACDs, but I find it hard to believe that they could sound better than this.

There is very little (if any) dynamic range compression on these editions. The 1999 CDs (which are the only others releases of these albums I've heard) have more compression applied to them, and you certainly don't hear the 24/96 advantages on the 16/44.1 CDs.

The headroom, ambience and very wide stereo effect really brings these albums out in all their glory. You can hear a lot more separation between the instruments. The original tapes were transferred to 24bit/96kHz back in 1999 when the catalogue was reissued on CD, but it would seem that these have been taken from more recent 24/96 fresh transfers from the analogue mix masters made for a set of recent vinyl reissues. You begin to realise that this is what they were hearing in the studio all those years ago during and after recording these albums.

These are all the original mixes and not the 40th anniversary mixes.

This is an interesting article I found on the official The Doors website about these HDtracks releases...

https://www.thedoors.com/community/has-anyone-else-3741

 

Did we ever get an answer about this? Maybe it doesn't matter, because even if I'm only interested in the first 6, 6 x $18 = $108, so buying the whole box is cheaper than buying those 6 individually.

I did figure something out: sassi: the DR numbers you posted match what is on the dynamic range database for the Qobuz version:

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/61971

Or, 10 10 10 10 10 08 10 10 10 09 10, just for the s/t album.

I guess one question could be: why are they different, and how do the Qobuz versions sound vs the HDTracks versions?

And there is also e-onkyo too!

http://www.findhdmusic.com/albums/search?q=the doors


==>> If/when I get the complete set, I'll post the DR numbers for the s/t album. Then we'll know.

 

Basically I think the DR numbers are wrong, but good if we can have your numbers confirming the individual ones.
Thanks!

 

... Just waiting for the next coupon. I will try HDJUN10 tonight, but this might be just for new releases.

One question: how do you get DR readings for something that's high res? I have the stand-alone TT dynamic range meter program, but that's only valid for 16/44. I'll down-res them anyway so I can listen at work, but I don't know if that'll be 100% valid or not. I suppose if I get even more different readings, I'll know it doesn't work.

 

Use the DR plug-in for Foobar2K

 

I have just brought the debut album and L.A. Woman from HDtracks in 24bit/96kHz. Does anyone know the source of these files and any process they went through?

 

Transferred at 24/96 from where? The mix masters? The EQd masters for the vinyl or EQd masters made for HDtracks which come from the same 24/96 transfers of the mix masters done for the 2007 vinyl releases?

 

From what I recall, the info about these being the digital masters for the 2007 vinyl issues came from hdtracks. They didnt elaborate on the details of that remastering. Based on what has been said about that project, the mix down masters were transferred and remastered at 9624. The results being what the vinyl were cut from and then what eventually ended up on hdtracks. I believe the LA Woman 40th album remastering also used this source.

 

The 40th Anniversary Edition of L.A. Woman may have used this same 24/96 source, but the mastering was completely different to the HDtracks version. You only have to listen to the two one at a time to realise that. The 40th Anniversary Edition is more compressed. Also, you loose all the benefits of high rez with the 40th Anniversary edition, such as the extra headroom, ambience and wider stereo effect, although I suppose that is partly down to the format as well as the mastering.

 

As @rnranimal said, we don't know much about about where the digital master comes from, but in terms of mix - the HDtracks use the original mix. The only other mix existing is the 40th anniversary mix that you can get in the multichannel perception box, AP SACD multichannel layer and several redbook releases.

As allways - the secret is in the master. My go-to discs are still DCC/AF. I didn't think HD-tracks added anything special.