The Doors – The Doors – Analogue Productions – 2 x 180g 45RPM Vinyl

“… To be honest, these are better than I ever dreamed rock music from the sixties could sound. I want to thank everyone at Analogue Productions for bringing me such sweet sounds from some of my favorite music ever. My highest recommendation!” — Jack Roberts, dagogo.com, September 2012

One of rock music’s most famous debuts, The Doors self-titled 1967 smash is legend. And now it becomes the kick-off for a positively stunning reissue series from Analogue Productions and Quality Record Pressings!

The Doors was born after Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek — who’d met at UCLA’s film school — met again, unexpectedly, on the beach in Venice, CA, during the summer of 1965. Although he’d never intended to be a singer, Morrison was invited to join Manzarek’s group Rick and the Ravens on the strength of his poetry. The group later changed its moniker, taking their name from Aldous Huxley’s psychotropic monograph “The Doors of Perception.” The band signed to Elektra Records following a now-legendary gig at the Whisky-a-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip.

The Doors’ arrival on the rock scene produced a string of hit singles and albums destined to become clasics. Belting out a standard like “Back Door Man” or talk-singing such originals as “The Crystal Ship,” and “I Looked at You,” one reviewer wrote that leather-clad frontman Morrison exuded “both sensuality and menace.”

The Doors reached Billboard’s No. 2 slot and delivered the No. 1 signature smash “Light My Fire” plus “Break On Through,” “The Crystal Ship,” and “The End.”

Analogue Productions and Quality Record Pressings are proud to announce that these 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 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.

A truly authentic reissue project, the masters were recorded on tube equipment, and the tape machine used for the transfer of these releases is a tube machine, as is the cutting system. Tubes baby!

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

Originally released in 1967

Ray Manzarek, keyboards

Jim Morrison, vocals

John Densmore, drums

Robby Krieger, guitar

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

“…the amount of detail and space produced here is superior to any version of this that I’ve heard save for the Elektra original, which is serious competition though good luck finding a clean quiet one. Even then the 45rpm cut’s spaciousness, dynamics and bass power and particularly the overall sound on what are the inner tracks on the original LP are better on the double 45 cut using an all vacuum tube chain just as was the original…The double 45 has greater dynamics, detail, spaciousness and appropriate grit – everything the smooooth 192k/24 bit sourced version lacks…Definitely on my recommended list and the Quality Record Pressings vinyl is superb.” Music = 9/11; Sound = 9/11 – Michael Fremer, Analog Planet, July 2012

“… Kassem has once again (as with the Impulse 45 RPM series) met the highest of expectations with these (album) covers. The 200 gram platters, housed in QRP rice paper sleeves, are equally impressive, arriving clean, flat and playing silently with nary a pop or tic throughout … this dead quiet, ultra-dynamic pressing showcases the epic (“The End”) bringing out low level detail that simply can’t be heard on the already fantastic-sounding Monarch pressing original. … Immediately upon dropping the needle on the Analogue Productions 45 RPM reissue of Strange Days, you know that you’re about to experience something special. … This 45 RPM pressing gives up none of the emotion or midrange complexity of the original and forces none of the overly tight bass sometimes heard on audiophile reissues in the process. … This is as good as an audiophile reissue can get and I give it my highest recommendation.” — My Vinyl Review

“I received test pressings today for both Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman. I have to tell you that these are the very best pressings I’ve heard in many, many moons. Great plating and your compound is so quiet that I clearly heard every fade out to its conclusion with no problem. Doug (Sax) and company did a lovely job, the tapes sound pretty damn good for being almost 50 years old and his system is clearly the best…You should be very proud of what you and your troops are doing.” – Bruce Botnick, The Doors producer/engineer

Track Listing

1. Break On Through (To The Other Side)
2. Soul Kitchen
3. The Crystal Ship
4. Twentieth Century Fox
5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
6. Light My Fire
7. Back Door Man
8. I Looked At You
9. End Of The Night
10. Take It As It Comes
11. The End