The Doors - L.A. Woman

Please note: Individual Doors titles are not numbered. Only the Infinite 45 RPM LP and SACD box sets are numbered, and limited to 2,500 copies. Please also note, the song "Love Her Madly," is presented in 5.0 not 5.1 surround. The song doesn't contain any content on the subwoofer channel, due to an accident when creating the multichannel mix, according to Bruce Botnick, The Doors producer/engineer. It's the only song on the album without this track.

Mastered by Doug Sax and overseen by Bruce Botnick, The Doors producer/engineer.

Hybrid Multichannel SACD

Part of The Doors reissue series proudly presented by Analogue Productions!

The surround sound program on the Doors SACDs comes from the original 96K, 24-bit files mixed and mastered by Bruce Botnick for the DVD Audio Doors/Perception release. Those mixes were made from the original one-inch, eight track, 15 i.p.s. analog master tapes. For the SACDs, the mixes were then up-sampled without filters to DSD using the Weiss Saracon format converter and authored by Gus Skinas at the Super Audio Center.

The title track from this, the last Doors album recorded with Jim Morrison, who died shortly after it was released, has, said one reviewer, “maybe the best Chuck Berry riffs since the Stones.” And that’s not even mentioning “Love Her Madly,” which became one of the highest charting hits for The Doors.

“Love Her Madly,” was written by the Doors, led by gutarist Robby Krieger, who it's said was influenced by the  numerous times his girlfriend threatened to leave him.  The song peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart  and reached No. 3 in Canada.

L.A.Woman was still high on the charts when, like in the lyric “actor out on loan” of its closing track — the celebrated “Riders on the Storm,” Jim Morrison died in the summer of 1971.

Via such tracks as “The Changeling,” “Crawling King Snake,” and the frothy, rollicking title track, the collection leaned heavily toward the Blues — in particular, Morrison’s boastful “Lizard King” brand of it. All-in-all, Rolling Stone proclaimed L.A.Woman, “The Doors’ greatest album, including their first,” and “A landmark worthy of dancing in the streets.”

Analogue Productions and Quality Record Pressings are proud to announce that six studio LP titles — The Doors, Strange Days,Waiting For The Sun, Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel and L.A.Woman —  are featured on 200-gram vinyl, pressed at 45 rpm. All six are also available on Hybrid Multichannel SACD! All were cut from the original analog masters by Doug Sax, with the exception of The Doors, which was made from the best analog tape copy.

This is no time to wallow in the mire. The Doors are on Analogue Productions!

Originally released in 1971

Musicians:
Jim Morrison, vocals
Robby Krieger, guitar
Ray Manzarek, keyboards
John Densmore, drums

Technical notes about the recording process by Doors producer/engineer Bruce Botnick:

"Throughout the record history of the Doors, the goal between Paul Rothchild and myself was to be invisible, as the Doors were the songwriters and performers. Our duty was to capture them in the recorded medium without bringing attention to ourselves. Of course, the Doors were very successful, and Paul and I did receive some acclaim, which we did appreciate.

"If you listen to all the Doors albums, no attempt was made to create sounds that weren't generated by the Doors, except for the Moog Synthesizer on Strange Days, although that was played live in the mix by Jim, but that's another story. The equipment used was very basic, mostly tube consoles and microphones. Telefunken U47, Sony C37A, Shure 56. The echo used was from real acoustic echo chambers and EMT plate reverb units. In those days, we didn't have plug-ins or anything beyond an analogue eight-track machine. All the studios that we used, except for Elektra West, had three Altec Lansing 604E loudspeakers, as that was the standard in the industry, three-track. On EKS-74007, The Doors, we used four-track Ampex recorders and on the subsequent albums, 3M 56 eight-tracks. Dolby noise reduction units were used on two albums, Waiting For The Sun and The Soft Parade. Everything was analogue, digital was just a word. We didn't use fuzz tone or other units like that but created the sounds organically, i.e. the massive dual guitar solo on "When The Music's Over," which was created by feeding the output of one microphone preamp into another and adjusting the level to create the distortion. The tubes were glowing and lit up the control room.

"When mastering for the 45-RPM vinyl release, we were successfully able to bake the original master tapes and play them to cut the lacquer masters."

- Bruce Botnick, July 2012

Click here to read a 1997 interview in The Tracking Angle with Doors producer/engineer Bruce Botnick.

 

1. The Changeling

2. Love Her Madly

3. Been Down So Long

4. Cars Hiss by My Window

5. L. A. Woman

6. L'America

7. Hyacinth House

8. Crawling King Snake

9. The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)

10. Riders On The Storm

Customer Reviews (4.40 Stars) 5 person(s) rated this product.

Just like the 45 rpm posted on 02/09/2022 5 Stars Reviewer: Brian VanPelt The 2x45 rpm set, from Analogue Productions, has sections where I am absolutely mesmerized. This SACD sounds the same as that 45 rpm set, and it mesmerizes me in the same places. To my ears, DSD allows me to hear the source tape - to me DSD is transparent in that regard. If I have to find anything wrong, I suppose there are a couple of times when Jim Morrison sings too loudly into the mic and causes a small distortion. But that's not the fault of this SACD. Other than that, this is perfect. The presentation always has Morrison's voice in the center with the drums, and the other instruments fill out the sides. There is a perfect balance between the instruments and Morrison's voice, so that you can clearly hear each and every one. Every song is awesome and the sonic image can be wide and deep. Crank the whole album. You will not believe L'America - I never even liked that song before now, and now it's great. Highly recommended. This review was f

Very Nice posted on 08/20/2021 5 Stars Reviewer: Adam I don't consider myself a huge Doors fan. But Riders On The Storm has never sounded better than it does in 5.1. Highly Recommended for Doors fans and recommended for music fans alike.

mix issues posted on 02/04/2021 2 Stars I don't know if its my system or something is wrong with the cd but the rear surrounds are super low almost not existent and almost no sub. I did purchase pink Floyds ' wish you were hear' and its the best SACD I have heard. I hate to give it a bad review but I'm disappointed. Maybe its a bad cd or my 5.1 receiver / player is not picking up the data and translating it into a 5.1 mix

Incredible Sound! posted on 05/02/2013 5 Stars Reviewer: David LA Woman in 5.1 just simply sounds unbelievable! You will hear things you've never heard before. Great new mixes really make things jump out at the listener. I'm sure I'll have to buy the rest of the catalog real soon!

Great surround mix! posted on 03/21/2013 5 Stars Reviewer: Tim Casey I'm just focusing on the surround mix here; I already have an excellent DCC Gold stereo CD of this album which I'm quite happy with. But this surround mix is incredible! It's apparently an old mix, sourced from a previous Doors boxed set on DVD-audio (I think). So if you own the box, you already have this mix. If not, once you hear "Riders On The Storm" in 5.1, you'll be glad you bought this SACD. Another cool thing about this mix is that the mixing engineer leaves tracks on that weren't in the original stereo mixes. At the time, the band probably nit-picked everything, turning down this or that guitar riff, intro, etc.; but forty years later, nobody remembers what was rejected from the multitracks and you get to hear extra little bits of stuff all over the place. I've only purchased their debut album on SACD along with this one. I may eventually get them all, but it'd be GREAT to have a "greatest hits" surround SACD as well (hint, hint).....

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