13th Floor Elevators oddity

Just what the name says.
Chris M
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Postby Chris M » Wed May 07, 2008 9:44 pm

I've never seen any original IA Elevators albums. I would think they would be out of reach.
"I've had 40 years experience with hearing tape and vinyl. I was recording tapes before you were born" - Grant

Chris M
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Postby Chris M » Wed May 07, 2008 9:47 pm

lukpac wrote:Maybe it's just a well mixed track, but Earthquake sounds like it very well may be from more than 4 tracks.


Hard to imagine a regional label would have access to an 8 track in early 1967 but I guess it's possible.
Last edited by Chris M on Thu May 08, 2008 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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lukpac
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Postby lukpac » Thu May 08, 2008 7:39 am

Chris M wrote:Hard to a regional label would have access to an 8 track in early 1967 but I guess it's possible.


Just depended on the studio, I suppose. 8-track certainly gained popularity in the US earlier than in the UK. Atlantic in '58, Motown in '64, Columbia in '65, more widespread use in late '66 or '67.

And it looked like there were at least a couple original LPs on eBay, from what I could tell.
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Jeff
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Postby Jeff » Tue May 13, 2008 12:38 pm

I know that the Elevators LP's were reissued in the late 70's by Jake Riviera's Radar label in the UK, along with the IA Red Krayola LP's. I've never heard any Elevators on vinyl, but I wouldn't be surprised if those horrible CD mixes were created for those late-70's reissues.

Easter Everywhere is one of my absolute favorite psych LP's, but that fake-stereo mix is tough to listen to. I would kill for a decent-sounding version of "Slip Inside This House."

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Xenu
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Postby Xenu » Tue May 13, 2008 10:53 pm

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Jeff
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Postby Jeff » Wed May 14, 2008 9:18 am

Thanks.

Now who do you want me to kill?

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Xenu
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Postby Xenu » Thu May 15, 2008 12:54 pm

I'll keep you on reserve.

Big difference, eh? And that needle drop isn't even particularly spectacular.
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Chris M
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Postby Chris M » Thu May 15, 2008 10:45 pm

Looking forward to listening to David needledrop on the main system tomorrow. You guys know about the upcoming Sundazed LP reissue of the debut right?

"What is the source material you've used for your mono 13th Floor Elevators LP???

Bob Irwin replies: Many, many years ago - in fact, during the earliest years of Sundazed - I had extremely brief access to a 1:1 (Summit Sound) copy of the original mono master for the Elevators album; myself and another producer-friend were digging deep in a major label's vault and came across a huge load (hundreds?... thousands?) of ancient analog tapes, all undocumented, that were apparently intended for record-club use, (or had been submitted to the label/club for release consideration). Thankfully - with a wonderfully cooperative librarian's help - I quietly copied the reel (to 30ips 1/2" analog tape), because when I went to see if I could again extricate it just a few months ago, I was informed that all of those particular record-club tapes had been "scrapped nearly 15 years ago"... (And you can't believe some of the other things that were in there - it would make you cry...)

Admittedly, the reel was in less-than-stellar shape in some spots, ie: due to an improper wind, some of the endings of songs by the leader tape exhibited oxide-loss issues, etc.. When mastering our album, rather than pulling the fader early (as I believe has been done on all other versions of this release currently available), I sourced and attached approximately four endings/fade-outs, each less than 6 seconds, from a mint, mono, original I.A. pressing of the album.

As far as we're concerned, our new mono vinyl version is the best sounding Elevators master currently in existence. By far. The release, which KILLS in mono, to the best of my knowledge, has NEVER been reissued in anything but the less-powerful, less-exciting stereo mix. Again, we feel that the Sundazed mono vinyl of the Elevators album is positively DEADLY! Mono, mono, mono!!!"
"I've had 40 years experience with hearing tape and vinyl. I was recording tapes before you were born" - Grant

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Postby Xenu » Fri May 16, 2008 11:45 am

The key word there that kills it for me: LP. Half of the interesting shit Sundazed does nowadays is absolutely worthless to me.
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Jeff
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Postby Jeff » Fri May 16, 2008 3:50 pm

My thoughts exactly. How hard could it be for Sundazed to get the CD rights?

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Postby Chris M » Sat May 17, 2008 12:56 am

Xenu wrote:The key word there that kills it for me: LP. Half of the interesting shit Sundazed does nowadays is absolutely worthless to me.


Oh, I know. I don't even have a turntable. It will be needledrop all the way..
"I've had 40 years experience with hearing tape and vinyl. I was recording tapes before you were born" - Grant

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Postby Xenu » Sat May 17, 2008 5:52 am

Needledrops don't actually fix the problem. Great, Classic finally uses the actual My Generation mono mastertapes for their LP-only reissue. Fantastic! How the heck does that help me? I'm STILL LISTENING TO A NEEDLE-DROP. Instead of listening to a needle-drop of the abovementioned Sundazed LP, I can just listen to a needle-drop of the...ORIGINAL MONO RECORD! Because on a few seconds of this one, if I listen to a needle drop, I'm listening to two generations of needle-drop.

It seems as if some of the most interesting reissues of the past few years have been vinyl-only, and this really pisses me off. Between this and the continuing trend of never actually compiling a comprehensive reissue package of anything (is there any good reason, by the way, why the recent two-disc Forever Changes had to leave off the single-disc's version of "Wonder People?" If you're wondering, the answer is "No; there's no good reason. We wanted an incentive for people to buy the earlier version as well"), the reissue industry has been really missing the boat as of late. I don't like surface-noise; I don't like those distorted highs near the end of the side. I don't like needle-drops when I can avoid them.

There's some alternate universe in which Beatles reissues will finally come out and be vinyl-only, and I'll get to read seventeen-page sh.tv threads about how WAHHH my pressing was off-center and WAHHH it has clicks and WAHHH it isn't as good as my piss-yellow Parlophone first-matrix RL SR seal-hide-vinyl rice-bag-inner pressing. It's off-center and has clicks because it's a fucking record. Enjoy your nostalgia.
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Postby Xenu » Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:04 pm

http://www.4shared.com/file/52135640/55 ... ators.html

Can someone with access to actual speakers inform me whether this is a DES attempt?
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Postby Tom Stroud » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:33 am

Fake!

The right channel is a loop of the guitar intro and (I'm guessing) a sample of the first snare hit. Synched up, with a bit of the original channel filtered in.

It's just snare hits - no cymbals for example. Also, once the drums kick in, the guitar changes style. More strumming, less open chords. Here, on the right channel it's chords all the way.

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lukpac
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Postby lukpac » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:46 am

Nice catch. When I listened via speakers last night I thought it was odd that there was just a snare in the right channel, and that nothing was centered. That explains it.

I've never understood the reasoning behind these "fake-ups". At least with DES everything is original. With these you end up with things that weren't there originally.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD