Analogue Productions
Please note: The Doors was a 4-track recording. As such, the surround portion of this multichannel mix is intended to be room ambiance.
Mastered by Doug Sax using an all-tube system. Overseen by Bruce Botnick, The Doors producer/engineer.
Two 45 rpm LPs pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings/Also on Hybrid Multichannel SACD
Part of The Doors reissue series proudly presented by Analogue Productions and Quality Record Pressings!
The Doors self-titled 1967 release famously contains some incorrect speed and pitch issues. While there have been "corrected" versions made, in the interests of being historically accurate, this Analogue Productions reissue was cut without speed or pitch correction.
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 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.
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
