The Doors – The Soft Parade 180g 45RPM 2 LP Analogue Productions Vinyl

Described as among the cleanest, most solid and, above all, most recognizable sounds in rock, the distinctive Doors’ sound was no doubt due to the Morrison power, but the other Doors were equally responsible. Ray Manzarek brought virtuosic keyboard tapestries, Krieger gritty, expressive fretwork, and Densmore dynamically rich percussion grooves.

Half of the songs on Soft Parade, The Doors’ fourth LP, were written by Morrison and the other half by guitarist Krieger. “Touch Me” became one of The Doors’ most popular singles. Released as a single in December 1968, the song reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 in the Cashbox Top 100 in early 1969. It was the band’s third American No. 1 single.

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 180-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.

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

Originally released in 1969

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

“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

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

Track Listing

La Cathédrale Engloutie
Poissons D’or
Hommage À Rameau
Ondine
Four Mazurkas, Op. 50
12 Visions Fugitives From Op. 22
Próle Do Bébé