The Doors - Strange Days (1967) Orig. US Mono
24bit/96kHz (High Resolution Audio)
01. Strange Days
02. You're Lost Little Girl
03. Love Me Two Times
04. Unhappy Girl
05. Horse Latitudes
06. Moonlight Drive
07. People Are Strange
08. My Eyes Have Seen You
09. I Can't See Your Face in My Mind
10. When the Music's Over
All tracks Mono (see below for more info).
These mixes did never appear officially on CD.
Produced by Paul A. Rothchild
Recorded by Bruce Botnick at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, CA. March-May 1967
Hardware:
- Technics 1210mk2
- Jelco SA-750D Tonearm (w/ JAC 501 cable)
- Audio Technica AT-33PTG
- Pro-Ject Tube Box SE-2
- Yamaha CA-1010
- RME ADI-2 A/D Interface
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 3.7 used with setting Cl: 15 Cr: 0
- CueListTool v1.7 & Mediaval CueSplitter used for generating the .cue's & .m3u's.
Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
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Prof sez:
Here's another one in the series "essential in mono but not available on cd" for a change.
This rip is taken from a clean US copy (made at the Monarch pressing plant), which was chosen after auditioning
the three different cuttings that are known to exist.
An essential album viewed from an entirely different angle. Nowadays very hard to find in ANY condition,
this rare US mono version has become somewhat of an enigma (the UK mono is to be avoided, as this was a straight fold
from the stereo mastertape that was delivered to Elektra's London headquarters).
It has long been discussed on various message boards how many of the songs were true mono mixes. When asked recently,
original recording engineer Bruce Botnick has pointed out that most of the tracks were dedicated mono mixes but he
couldn't remember which songs it concerned.
So, I've done an attempt to figure this out. After two extensive comparing sessions with a folded stereo version,
I have come to the conclusion that only three songs could possibly be folddowns. I will give a brief breakdown of notable
differences here:
Tr. 01: Different echo on moog effect on vocals in parts. Listen to "We shall GO ON PLAYING OR FIND a new town";
on the stereo version the effect is mostly absent on the lines marked in capitol letters, while being there loud and clear
on the mono. The moog effect was not on the multitracks, as evidenced by the pretty awful 2006 stereo remix.
Tr. 02: The balances are more or less the same. This could be a folddown touched-up with some additional EQ and compression.
Actually, the whole album is more compressed sounding in mono than in stereo. This was probably done with the purpose
of achieving a more radio friendly sound. But point is, it's really hard to distinguish the mono/stereo differences between
most of the tracks here and it seems likely that the stereo and mono mixes were prepared during the same sessions because
the reverb (and other side FX) sound exactly the same on nearly every song. So, there really is no way for me to be 100%
certain about this song.
Tr. 03: Same conclusion as Tr. 02.
Tr. 04: The handclaps & tambourine are missing entirely on the stereo version, suggesting that the producer thought of this
song as a potential hit.
tr. 05: Likely to be a fold. Most of the manipulated white noise that is heard so clearly at the beginning on the stereo is
cancelled out when folded, giving the exact same sound as on the mono mix. No differences between the elements or the balance.
Tr. 06: Reverb on voice at the end of the song is missing in mono and the outro lasts about 3 secs longer.
Tr. 07: This always sounded like a fold to me, but clearly it isn't. The rhythm guitar which plays the muted chords is
much less present in mono (for example: it's hardly there at 0.36 - 0.39 and absent during the guitar & piano solo's.).
Tr. 08: Different bass intro and the vocals are faded much earlier at the end of the mono version.
Tr. 09: Backward recorded percussion effect (sounds like ticking) starts on both mixes at 1.39 but is faded out quickly
after four seconds on the mono, while lasting the whole chorus in stereo.
Tr. 10: Morrison does some yelling before the grand double guitar solo at 2:56 (something like "f***ing $!@^!@ ....baby",
I think, or is it just me?!). The word "baby" is much more buried within the mono mix. Also, at the end of the solo,
when the guitar notes are still fading, Manzarek hits the same note three times on the organ. These notes are better
noticeable on the mono mix. I wish I could find more obvious examples than this, but this song has very few overdubs or
studio trickery and the balancing is very much alike. Overall, there is more bass organ present on the mono mix,
but I wouldn't necessarily include that as proof of being a true mono mix.
So there you have it. Any comments, thoughts or differing conclusions about this are welcome.
I've auditioned three different cuttings of this album, in order to present the best possible sound.
These cuttings were respectively pressed at Columbia's Terre Haute, IN (CTH on deadwax), Columbia's Pitman,
NJ (CP on deadwax) & Monarch Record Mfg. in Los Angeles, CA (MON on deadwax). I chose to work with the latter cutting
because it sounded best to me. Still, there is quite a bit of distortion during the climax of Tr. 05 that is present on all
three cuttings, so I'm afraid it will have to be lived with.
This may be well be my favourite Doors album. I find it more mature and slightly darker in mood than the first album.
From the mysterious sounding title track to the thunderous finale of "When the music's over", there is no weak spot in here.
Strange Days was recorded by Bruce Botnick under guidance of Paul Rothchild, who captured the band playing
'live' in the studio mostly. Despite the fact that this was the first Doors album to be recorded on an 8-track machine,
overdubs were relatively sparse. This 8-track machine (3M Isoloop) was solid state and in combination with a valve console,
gave the album a 'harder' sound as opposed to the debut which was recorded on a 4-track valve machine with ditto console.
The record was professionally and carefully cleaned in three steps using Audio Intelligent’s Enzymantic formula,
Super Cleaner Formula, and Ultra pure water on a VPI 16.5 (using VPI brushes) and Nitty Gritty mini-pro 2.
I cleaned up a lot of clicks and pops manually (some of them are on the actual recording) and also repaired a few
tape-dropouts. All this was done without harming the music.
Enjoy!
