Electric Ladyland - 50th Anniversary

My listening environment is a 5.1 Klipsch Reference surround setup, and for stereo, I played back on Adam A7X studio monitors with room correction by Sonarworks. I judge what I listen to by my ears not by meters, but we are technology enslaved, this package is full of tech, so tech matters. I’d like to preface this review by saying that I bought this wonderful package solely for the uncompressed 5.1 surround audio mix alone and any other bonuses with this package are gravy to me. I speak to problems with the audio. Problems, some not revealed by the Klipsch system, became nakedly apparent in the Adams. I’ve included waveform prints to show anomalies in some of this product.1st image is the ELL CD waveform, 2nd image And in the Beginning, 3rd image being the waveform of the 5.1 mixThe most common mistakes in mastering can actually be traced back to an issue commonly referred to as the ‘Loudness Wars’ – when source mixes are delivered to each stage at an exceedingly loud volume, each stage tries to ‘beat’ the stage that came before it. This adds distortion, reduces audio fidelity as a whole and can create an unenjoyable experience.One of the main issues I find when listening to other masters is that some people make tracks louder than they need to be and over-limit – this goes for artists too – delivering tracks that are simply too hot. There’s nowhere to go from there but down. I have reformed after decades of hard limiting my meager tracks, due in part to rejections from streaming services for peak levels.In my later experience I found that music sounds much better a little louder with more dynamic range than something hard limited even if it wins the loudness wars. The loudness wars are over by the way, so I’m told. If I were to die, go to heaven or somehow have the God given rights or accessibility to the original tracks, I probably would have got caught up in the moment and fall into the same trap of making Jimi’s music really pop out of the speakers as loud as possible. The authors surely know better than I!In all fairness to this super package, the original recorded material has natural, very desirable distortions in the recording and mixing signal chain by way of tubes, compressors, amps and the tape recorders. Nowadays It’s a very desirable to emulate analog sound of yesteryear equipment that people pay a lot of money to find that sound. Jimi’s amp would have a certain distortion recorded by the process. Distortions recorded by the process. So when you hear the B-3 distortion squawk, it is recorded in the process. It’s the sound of the B-3 speaker distorting from being overdriven during recording. Jimi’s amps were usually overdriven. In my opinion this is where some purists might for the lack of a better word, hear inconsistencies on the CD. There are inconsistencies. A distortion brickwalled… is a special problem and should be handled with more care.The stereo CD! After reading reviews about clipping, I just had to see for myself. Put the tracks into my trusted wave editor and listened while it ripped. All tracks have clipping. Let me distinguish that the peak amplitude never goes over 0 dB so on paper it is not clipped, but the True Peak goes over on every track and causes red light clips on the meter in the editor. For most of the modern world today that utilize True Peak metering, this clipping is undesirable. Most of the CD has “overs” averaging +.5 dBTP. Voodoo Child is the worst and is slaughtered with a True Peak over of +1.63 dBTP with reported possible clipped samples in the thousands. That’s major clipping that results audibly. I heard this clipping as distortions and other anomalies on my Adam monitors. Most of Voodoo Child rides hard clipped red in the meters. It’s a distorted mess! To brickwall limit these tracks in such a way was totally unnecessary and harmful to Hendrix sound as compared to say the treatment of the King Crimson, Eric Clapton, Skynyrd, Beatles. Night and day. I don’t understand the treatment of this disc.The opening track cymbals has a shrillness to me that is most unpleasant. I know you want em’ bright but that shrill! I skipped to Voodoo Child and the brickwall limiting and its distortion are horrible. it is hard to understand this approach with all the digital tools available. So this disc will come out of your speakers as loud as they get. I aborted the stereo cd version and went for concert CD. Despite the content this CD sounds really bad too, abort. The source track sounds bad! Why bother? The room correction made the stereo material somewhat more palatable.The Making of CD. All the brash loudness and distortedness of the concert CD and CD 1 are traded in for the most intimate recordings of Jimi I’ve ever heard. In these tracks and the accompanying book reveal some of Jimi’s unique songwriting and playing ability in a snapshot of history. A glimpse at his creative process and writings. Pretty cool. To hear Jimi’s stripped-down riffing in this way was a surprise, an unexpected pleasure, and a real treat as I had not heard these tracks before. The spirit of Hendrix comes through on these recordings. These recordings for what they are, are super clean and very listenable. Yet by the end of the disc when things transition to the studio comes more clipping in the tracks. Nowhere as bad as the ELL CD. I agree with others here that the ELL CD and the concert CD were a waste of effort, hard work by Jimi and aren’t worth the plastic they are printed on. It seems like these “remasters” are just tossed in as an after-thought or to pad the package at popular pricing. Being from an audio background I really enjoyed the documentary.On to the good stuff. The uncompressed 5.1 remaster is nothing short of spectacular. I guarantee you will hear Jimi’s subdued parts or sequences like you have never heard this before on this recording. You can hear right away that more time, attention and love were put into these remixed tracks, more so than the remastered CD. The authors had the enviable task of taking sounds from the original 12 track recordings and there are passages never heard like this before. This advancement in technology at the time gifted the authors with additional tracks to work with. The bass and drums are more upfront in these recordings than others before it. There is brickwall limiting on a few tracks, but it was handled more tenderly with love. The Klipsch system was bountiful with the sound and there are plenty of pan sequences. Nothing sounds pressured or rushed into. All these tracks are improved over the predecessor. To not find one track outshining another was pleasant surprise. All tracks are consistent in sound making a magnificent mixdown.Is it worth the price? I think so!!! That 5.1 uncompressed mix, surprise of the making of CD, the book and the enjoyable documentary make this package worthwhile for this diehard Hendrix fan who can’t get enough Jimi.Speaking of Jimi: One ponders what would Jimi think? After all, Jimi was about freaking people with volume and distortion! What would Jimi want here for his sound today? I think Jimi would believe it’s really kind of groovy to have shared. Thank you to the Authors and the Hendrix family for sharing this magnificent package.