Electric Ladyland (Prof. Stoned)

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland (US Stereo Legacy 2010)
24bit/96kHz (High Resolution Audio)

01 - …And The Gods Made Love
02 - Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
03 - Crosstown Traffic
04 - Voodoo Chile
05 - Little Miss Strange
06 - Long Hot Summer Night
07 - Come On (Let The Good Times Roll)
08 - Gypsy Eyes
09 - Burning of the Midnight Lamp
10 - Rainy Day, Dream Away
11 - 1983… (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
12 - Moon, Turn The Tides…Gently Gently Away
13 - Still Raining, Still Dreaming
14 - House Burning Down
15 - All Along The Watchtower
16 - Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Produced & Directed by Jimi Hendrix and Chas Chandler (uncredited)
Engineers: Eddie Kramer & Gary Kellgren (Record Plant, Olympic & Mayfair)
Remastered by Eddie Kramer & George Marino at Sterling Sound, New York City

Sources:
Side 1: 88697623981-A STERLING 18765.1(3) / Side 2: 88697623981-B STERLING 18765.2(3)
Side 3: 88697623981-C STERLING 18765.3(3) / Side 4: 88697623981-D STERLING 18765.4(3)

Hardware:
- Technics 1210mk2 Turntable
- Jelco SA-750D Tonearm (w/ JAC 501 cable)
- Audio Technica 150MLX stylus
- Yamaha CA-1010 amplifier
- RME ADI-2 A/D Interface (conversion to 24 bit, 96kHz)

Software:
- Audition 3.0 used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks
and pops), adding gain and making the cue points.
- Click Repair used with setting Cl: 5, Cr: 0
- CueListTool v1.7 & Mediaval CueSplitter used for generating the .cue's & .m3u's.

Vinyl Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned

v1.0: 25-04-2010
v1.1: 19-05-2020 (same rip and restoration, EQ curve applied to re-balance the sound of the Audio Technica 150MLX for a more neutral presentation)

Notes from 2010:

Prof sez:

Finally after many years Experience Hendrix has offered us all-analog vinyl versions of Hendrix first three masterpieces. So following my previous Hendrix drops, which I believe attempted to present these recordings in their best sonic incarnation, I've now decided to tackle these three titles. But not without extensively listening & comparing the sound quality with previous issue's, of course. I have to say, considering the limitations of the source material, I'm very pleased with the Legacy's. For the record, I'm talking about the US pressings only.

We have come to what IMO is Hendrix most important & best album. While working on this I was once again awestruck at how a record can have so much musical variety and yet retain such a consistent quality and unity overall. Hendrix was at the top of is game while making this and no one was going to stop him from creating this benchmark. While Electric Ladyland is a logical follow-up to Axis, Hendrix had made an enormous personal & musical growth in the meantime. 'Are you Experienced" & 'Axis: Bold As Love' were the albums that established him as a songwriter & performer but it was 'Electric Ladyland' that officially made Hendrix an artist of genius proportions. It seemed and still seems perfect in every way, apart from the production which is about the only thing reminding you this was created in 1968.

Sound wise, this album is kind of a mixed bag, even though the majority of it was recorded at the same studio. Some tracks actually sound like they were recorded at the Benjamin Franklin studio in 1733, as Jimi once joked during a live concert when the Experience was about to play on older track. At the time when the recording started, The Record Plant Studio in New York City had just opened and Eddie Kramer -who coincidently had been hired to make it operational- struggled to get a decent sound. The main reason why Hendrix had abandoned the Olympic Studio in London for the Record Plant was of course having moved back to N.Y.C. But it's 8-track facility, as opposed to Olympic's 4-track, was a feature that seemed like a major improvement. Still, the initial recordings done at the RP are downright crummy compared to what Kramer had achieved at Olympic with Axis: Bold as Love.

It also didn't help that Hendrix himself was getting more involved with the recording process, insisting on recording every track in the red and wanting to mix the finished tracks himself. Kramer, a mild mannered guy who knew the importance of a working relationship with the artist, wisely kept himself out of trouble by not interfering with Jimi's wishes but he probably wasn't too happy with this new development. Chas Chandler, on the other hand, recognized that his days as a producer and mentor of the Experience were over and abandoned the recording sessions in New York City after one month. Despite being the producer of several tracks, he got no credit on the album sleeve.

Now, this new release by EH/legacy presents the recording in its best possible sonic form. All the edits between the songs are intact (in contrary to most vinyl pressings) and the sound is clearer and more defined than ever. This also means that the tapeflaws and distortion on the original recording are more obvious than ever. Somehow, this album never sounded right on vinyl before. The original UK Track is an abomination (IMO). The Polydor's that followed were ever so slightly better but still a long shot from the quality heard here. In the US, Reprise -reportedly- screwed up the mastering of the first pressing by correcting all sorts of phase issue's that were deliberately added by Kramer and Hendrix. Still, the Reprise pressings from the early seventies managed to correct this problem and as far as I'm concerned was the best vinyl version for a long time, until this one.

This was transferred from NM copies. The records are breathtakingly quiet and after a light declick and some manual restoration work, I think I've achieved an almost tape like quality. Like I pointed out, there is quite some distortion in these recordings, and will be able to hear it in its full unaltered glory. The first 5000 copies of the Legacy are numbered. Mine is No.3166.

Enjoy!