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The Doors: The Best of the Doors

The Doors: The Best of the Doors

Audio Fidelity  AFZ5 206

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Pop/Rock


The Doors


The Doors were among the most controversial, influential and unique rock acts of the 1960's and beyond. After the death of Jim Morrison in 1971, the remaining members, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger continued as a trio until disbanding in 1973.

The Best of The Doors is a compilation album released by the group in 1973. The album was originally released in the CD-4 QuadraDisc format, Quadraphonic 8-Track and reel-to-reel tape and was later reissued in standard Stereo.

The tracks on The Best of The Doors have been taken primarily from the original masters of the eight albums they recorded between 1967 and 1971. Three of the band's studio albums, The Doors (1967), L.A. Woman (1971), and Strange Days (1967), were featured in the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Although The Doors' active career ended in 1973, their popularity has persisted. The Doors have been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines. The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

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Recording
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Analogue recording
Tracks
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1. Who Do You Love?
2. Soul Kitchen
3. Hello, I Love You
4. People Are Strange
5. Riders on the Storm
6. Touch Me
7. Love Her Madly
8. Love Me Two Times
9. Take It as It Comes
10. Moonlight Drive
11. Light My Fire
Reviews (1)
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Review by Rick Kosmick - August 28, 2016

"The Best of The Doors” was exclusively released in 1973 for the fledgling Quadraphonic market and remained as such until a 1980 release in Stereo. Audio Fidelity released a hybrid SACD in 2015 that included the original 4.0 Quadraphonic mix and a Stereo version newly mastered from the original master tapes by Steve Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman also mastered the original Quad mix by Paul Rothchild.

Needless to say, the quadraphonic version in SACD would be viewed as highly anticipated after 42 years from it’s initial release. The result, in my estimation, is less than stellar that rests mainly with the original 4.0 mix that I will address in the following comments.

The opening track is a live cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love”. As originally performed during a concert in 1970, and in my opinion, it is a pedestrian performance by The Doors and leads to the question why it it is included in a Best Of collection when they recorded so many superlative songs. If you want a great version of this Bo Diddley song, I suggest the raunchy Ronnie Hawkins version (with a blistering guitar solo from a young Robbie Robertson) or the live version from Quicksilver Messenger Service. As a live Doors recording, the fidelity is actually very good commencing with rising audience support from the rear channels that is followed by ambience from The Doors performance.

Of the eleven songs on this SACD, three are drawn from their debut and self-titled album “The Doors”. Two songs (Soul Kitchen and Take It As It Comes) are weaker cuts compared to several classic recordings available on their first release such as “Break on Through (To the Other Side)” and "The Crystal Ship" (both are absent from this quadraphonic release). However, the main issue is this album consists of 4-track recordings. Although the audio quality captured by the audio engineer Bruce Botnick is impressive, the 4-track tapes just do not provide sufficient musical information for a reasonably good multi-channel presentation. These recordings use basic rock instrumentation with Jim Morrison (lead vocals), Ray Manzarek (organ, piano, keyboards bass), Robby Krieger (guitar, bass), John Densmore (drums) plus Larry Knechtel (bass-unaccredited on some tracks). The vocals and instruments are placed in the front channels with some ambience in the rears with unexceptional results.

For the remaining seven tracks on “The Best of The Doors”, 8-track tapes were utilized for these recordings under engineer Bruce Botnick resulting in excellent fidelity and allowing for discreet elements in a 4-channel mix. Paul Rothchild chose to remix these songs in Quad 4.0 with the drums exclusively placed in the rear channels. The sound field remains balanced with good dynamics. However, Surround mixes usually anchor the drums in the front with some fluidity for occasional movement to the rear channels. The bass in the front channels has a very rich tone but the drums effectively separate and rob the bottom end of a solid ‘in the pocket‘ sound. In my listening experience, the placement of drums was an unwanted audio distraction.

The Stereo SACD version, newly mastered by Steve Hoffman from the original stereophonic mixes, is superlative. And yes, using original master tapes do make difference. Mr. Hoffman has reputation for a warm analogue sound that is incorporated with a brilliant quality in the upper mid-range. Morrison’s vocals are notably clear and the instruments have excellent spatial qualities in keeping with the generally sparse arrangements. This is hard rock played with a sense of openness without clutter. The result is outstanding audio quality.

Due to my mild disappointment with the quadraphonic mix of the SACD, I decided to compare a few songs with the 5.1 multi-channel mixes on the DVD Audio of The Doors: Perception. Released in 2006, The "Perception" box set contains all of six studio albums from The Doors. I pulled the last studio album “L.A. Woman” and compared two songs that appear on “The Best of The Doors“. Paul Rothchild had produced all the previous studio recordings but a dispute with the band over "L.A. Woman" led Bruce Botnick to take over co-production with The Doors as well as performing his role as sound engineer. Botnick created all the 5.1 mixes on “Perception” providing a unique and insightful view into The Doors recordings.

The first song, “Love Her Madly”, has the DVD Audio 5.1 mix with keyboards, guitar, bass and drums anchored across the front. The vocals are placed in the centre channel. A few drum roles are briefly moved to the rears. An organ appears in the right rear channel. It is a conservative mix with sparse instrumentation yet excellent clarity. The SACD, on the other hand, moves guitar along with static placement of drums to the rear channels that does provide a full soundfield but at the expense of a more natural sound.

For the classic “Riders of the Storm”, Morrison’s vocals have an excellent phantom centre with nice reverberation in the rear channels of the 5.1 mix as sound effects provide a superb enveloping surround field with thunder passing through front and rear channels against the ambient sound of rain. Conversely, the sound effects of thunder and rain appear mainly in the front channels of the quadraphonic mix. As an example of detail, you can hear the clarity of bongos in the rears of 5.1 that are partially buried by drums in the 4.0 Quad mix. Overall, I found “Riders of the Storm” on the DVD Audio to be a more expansive and superior surround mix.

In summary, "The Best of The Doors" can arguably be questioned about a few selections for inclusion on this album.

The Audio Fidelity SACD Stereo version has marvelous audio quality and can be highly recommended.

The Quad 4.0 may be enjoyed by old-school quadraphonic enthusiasts and although it generally exhibits very good fidelity, it cannot be recommended for it’s inferior mix on a number of tracks.

The "Perception” box set not only provides a plethora of great Doors songs that adds to your musical enjoyment, the 5.1 mixes from Bruce Botnick provides you with an audio perspective from someone who was actually present during the creation of some 'magical' music.

Copyright © 2016 Rick Kosmick and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics (Stereo):

Sonics (Multichannel):

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Comment by Wolfspaw - October 21, 2016 (1 of 1)

Anybody reading the review above should take it, as any review...including mine, with a grain of salt.

I disagree mightily with his pronouncement that "Take It As It Comes" is a weak song, it might be a gem that is rarely heard. In fact, it shows that the Doors already had their signature sound down on their first album. I think many great bands have found their sound on their first album, but I digress.

The Mix is also something that I quite like. Having listened to many, many multi-channel mixes they can very generally be dropped into either ambience or discreet and this is a discreet mix and it is certainly not bad at all and if it's what the Doors original producer wanted that's fine with me, and this doesn't take anything away from the mixes done by Bruce Botnick, after all it's just another mix and favorites are determined subjectively.

In short, Steve Hoffman put some quality time into this effort and it sounds great so if you're interested don't be scared off.