Hendrix Remix: Improved CDs

The full-page ad appearing these days in various music magazines certainly looks inviting for Jimi Hendrix fans.

“Here at last is the ultimate Hendrix legacy--ten incredible compact discs, each digitally remastered to let you hear his music like you’ve never heard it before,” the ad copy proclaims. “Get ready for a whole new experience.”

The page is dominated by a moody, black-and-white photo of the man called by many the most influential rock guitarist ever--surrounded by smaller color photos of the individual CD album covers.

Faced with the 10 album possibilities, a casual fan interested in sampling Hendrix’s work may be left with the question: “Where do I start?”

The more obvious question for longtime fans, however, may be: “What do they mean, ‘here at last?’ Didn’t I buy some of these albums in CD years ago?”

The answer to the latter question is yes and no.

A Hendrix fan could buy CD versions of some of Hendrix’s classic ‘60s albums--such as “Are You Experienced?”--as long ago as 1986, but it wasn’t the “Are You Experienced?” now being advertised. The music was the same, but the sound quality wasn’t.

If the distinction is confusing, it’s a confusion that is not uncommon in the compact-disc world.

One of the lures of CDs, when they came on the market in the mid-’80s, was that the sound quality would be significantly better than that of the same album on vinyl or cassette recordings. And in most cases--especially on new releases--the promise was fulfilled.

But consumers found that the sound quality on some old ‘50s and ‘60s albums that were being re-released in CD form weren’t noticeably better. In fact, the CDs sometimes sounded worse.

The reason is the music on the first CD reissues initially were drawn from the master tapes used to make the original vinyl albums and the purity of CD sound mirrored sound deficiencies that had not been apparent in the vinyl version.

“The truth is CDs are more or less like computers--you only get out what you put in,” said Ed Outwater, vice president of quality assurance for Warner Bros. Records. “So if a CD is taken from the master tape of a certain 1962 album, it is going to sound exactly like the master tape . . . which means you may hear guitar amps buzzing, snaps and interference.

“These same problems were on the 1962 vinyl album, but it wasn’t as obvious because the deficiencies in the vinyl process would have masked some of the surface noise and pops. There’s nothing to mask it on CD.”

Faced with this problem, record companies began going back to the vaults in recent years and remixing master tapes specifically for CD. They also cleaned up the hums and buzzes that might have been on the tape.

In the case of the Hendrix tapes, Warners made all the adjustments in association with producer Alan Douglas, who represents the Hendrix Estate, and mastering engineer Joe Gastwirt.

Yet few companies--including Warners in the case of Hendrix-- have identified the new copies so that consumers could tell from the packaging if they were getting one of the “new and improved” CDs or one of the original ones.

“Without question, all the major record labels have upgraded various CDs since they first came out and very few have alerted the consumer to the changes,” said Pete Howard, editor of the excellent CD newsletter ICE.

The reason, he feels, was economic.

‘My feeling is they want to avoid a stampede of exchange requests, especially from a lot of middle-level consumers who might not necessarily even appreciate the difference between the original CD and the remastered one,” Howard said.

“I think they figure the audiophile and cutting-edge consumer will find out about the upgrade anyway and contact the company, asking about an exchange. If the consumer makes a good case, the companies have been known to honor the exchange, but they don’t want to go on the record saying they will do that. CBS Records is the most progressive in this area. They even have an 800 hot line to discuss consumer concerns.”

Clyde Bakkemo, vice president of product manager and the overseer of the Hendrix catalogue for Warner Bros., believes it is time for companies to begin alerting consumers to the differences in CD editions.

In the Hendrix case, he said, Warners’ ad campaign was delayed several months to allow the remastered CDs to replace the old ones on dealer shelves. In addition, Warners plans to begin shortly putting “remastered” information on the back of future Hendrix CD pressings.

“I feel that whenever something is done to improve the quality of the product, it’s good to call attention to it,” Bakkemo said. “That’s true of the record business or a motor company that has a new bumper.”

Besides reworking the albums already released in CD, the Warners campaign involves the release of four albums for the first time in the configuration. Three--”Smash Hits,” “Jimi Plays Monterey” and the single-package, two-volume version of “Essential Jimi Hendrix”--are already in the stores. A fourth, “The Jimi Hendrix Concerts,” is due next week.

The latter features live versions of such songs as “Fire,” “Little Wing,” “Wild Thing” and “Voodoo Childe”--recorded with the Experience, mostly in 1968 at Winterland in San Francisco.

LIVE ACTION: Tears for Fears headlines the Forum on Feb. 22. Tickets on sale Sunday. . . . Also on sale Sunday for the Forum is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, March 1. . . . The Sugarcubes will be at the Hollywood Palladium on Feb. 16. . . . The Mother’s Finest show at the Palace has been changed from Monday to Friday. . . . On sale Monday is the Bulgarian State Female Vocal Choir at the Wiltern Theatre, March 30. . . . Dramarama will be at UC Irvine’s Crawford Hall on Feb. 3. . . . Hugh Harris will be at the Roxy on Feb. 7.