The 13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere {Deluxe Edition} [A Prof. Stoned Comp 2024]
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** Stereo Album Demix/Remaster 2024 **
01. Slip Inside This House
02. Slide Machine
03. She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)
04. Nobody To Love
05. Baby Blue
06. Earthquake
07. Dust
08. (I've Got) Levitation
09. I Had To Tell You
10. Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)
bonus:
11. Fire In My Bones
12. Before You Accuse Me
13. Splash 1 (Now I'm Home) {as 'Roky & Clementine'}
14. Right Track Now {as 'Roky & Clementine'}
All tracks Stereo
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** Mono Album Remaster 2024 **
01. Slip Inside This House
02. Slide Machine
03. She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)
04. Nobody To Love
05. Baby Blue
06. Earthquake
07. Dust
08. (I've Got) Levitation
09. I Had To Tell You
10. Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)
bonus:
11. Fire In My Bones
12. Before You Accuse Me [Unedited 45rpm Mix]
13. (I've Got) Levitation [45rpm Mix]
14. She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own) [Alt. Mix]
15. Levitation Blues [2 Rehearsal Takes]
All tracks Mono
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** Live at the Houston Music Theatre; Feb 18, 1967 - Demix/Remaster 2024 **
01. (I've Got) Levitation
02. Roller Coaster
03. Fire Engine
04. Reverberation (Doubt)
05. 'tuning'
06. Don't Fall Down
07. Tried To Hide
08. 'tuning'
09. Splash 1
10. You're Gonna Miss Me
11. Monkey Island
12. Kingdom Of Heaven
13. She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own) [cuts off near ending]
All tracks Mono
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Total time: 2h41m17
Demix/Mastering: Prof Stoned
Special thanks to The Poodle Bites (stereo & mono LP rips & sleeve scans), Johnny (Epitaph vinyl rip & research), Eugene, Lew, Pete and whoever else that contributed to unearthing and researching.
v1.0: 13-07-2024 (first released as 'Easter Everywhere: Remixed')
v2.0: 20-11-2024 (retitled 'Easter Everywhere {Deluxe Edition}'; Mono Album folder added, Tr. 01,04 & 10 from Stereo Album folder have been redone (and much improved), Live in Houston folder is identical to v1.0)
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Note:
The Stereo Album: Everything here was given the demix treatment. The most radical changes were made to the album tracks; the resulting mix is not 100% true to the vision of the original which has the vocals often buried in favor of the guitar, so purists are advised to stay away. Attempted was to bring out a bit more of Roky's beautiful voice while still retaining that guitar-heavy and thick bass sound. 'Slip Inside', 'Dust' & 'Postures' appear in mono on the original LP. A later stereo remix of 'Dust' was used here, while the other two tracks (and also the unedited version of the single B-side 'Before You Accuse Me') were demixed into a primitive stereo version with drums and guitars separated and vocals/bass guitar centered. 'Slip Inside' & 'Postures' were mastered from the mono vinyl rip here, due to having slightly better fidelity IMO (compare the vocal sound of Postures from v1.0 with this).These fantastic vinyl rips from the original USA stereo and mono pressings used here were done by 'The Poodle Bites' and used with kind permission*. We cannot thank him enough for the effort he put into these. They can be found in 24/96 high resolution on his blog (see links in folder).
The Mono Album; sourced from Poodle's rip.
Here are some of his notes in edited form: // "Slip Inside This House": Identical mono mix. "Slide Machine": Unique, dedicated mono mix, with much better balance between instruments. The acoustic guitar and percussion (modulo hi-hat) are noticeably louder, and the guitars have been balanced with each other and given a light reverb. "She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)": Dedicated mono mix, the same as used on the mono single but with less surface noise. All vocals are louder & clearer than on the folded stereo mix, and the jug is louder and has less reverb. "Nobody To Love": Likely stereo fold-down. "(It's All Over Now) Baby Blue": Likely stereo fold-down. "Earthquake": Likely stereo fold-down, with the only difference I can detect being more guitar/pedal noise in the intro: this starts in left channel of the stereo mix around 4 seconds in, but at the beginning in mono. "Dust": Identical mono mix. "(I've Got) Levitation": Unique, dedicated mono mix, with much louder bass & rhythm guitar tracks, and a later fade-out. In this mono mix, one of Roky's double-tracked vocals is mixed louder than the other one, whereas the two vocal tracks are more balanced on the stereo version. The tambourine is missing during the first two choruses, but appears in the third. The jug is audible throughout, as in the stereo LP mix: note that the mono LP mix is different from the mono single mix, the latter of which does not have any audible jug. "I Had To Tell You": Unique, dedicated mono mix, with extra harmonica parts audible which were mixed out of the stereo version. The harmonica is also generally "drier," though some reverb comes out during the solo section. The acoustic guitar is mixed higher, the bass is a little bit lower, and Roky's voice is louder with respect to Clementine's harmony. "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)": Identical mono mix. //
The 'Live in Houston' tape is the only live document we have from 1967 but fortunately it is of excellent quality. This recording was the work of the band's two principal engineers Frank Davis & Walt Andrus. It is not a soundboard recording as has been suggested but rather it was captured with room micing. The tape cuts out two times, notably during the intro of 'Baby Blue' which Davis and Andrus did not bother resume capturing. A second set consisting of jam sessions exists in true stereo, but this first set seems to have been recorded in mono only. I believe this is by far the best it has ever sounded, restoring most of Roky's vocals to the fore and improving on the overall balance. Stacy's playing deteriorates near the ending of the set since he was suffering a traumatic LSD trip.
Enjoy!
[* I'm going to assume you are aware of the sad history of the first two Elevators albums master tapes and why needledrops of the original albums are the only acceptable source material for remastering. If not, there are plenty of informative threads on Hoofman's board.]
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A note about mastering with demix technology:
You may have heard some of my recent offerings where I have used demix pro for spectral extraction. I believe it is the most revolutionary audio processing tool since ages. It enables us to break a mono signal down into dedicated elements: vocals, drums/percussion, bass guitar, guitar, piano and whatever remains after. These extractions can be of such precision they allow for a realistic reconstruction of a mix, but it depends greatly on the source material.
Why is this useful? Well... the original mix may have flaws that affect the quality of the sound. By nature, the process of mastering is designed to improve upon such flaws by applying equalization and/or processing of dynamic range. But what if one element within a recording needs more treble, while another element is already bright enough? At that point, EQ is not sufficient anymore because your choices will affect both. Of course, mastering does not begin and end with just EQ; there are always other ways of emphasizing or hiding elements in a recording. But spectral extraction allows you to improve upon the sound of one element without 'harming' the sound of all the others and also to re-balance those elements if necessary.
I have used Demix pro and now also Spectralayers on some of the recordings here. The remaining material just received a straight forward mastering, also with great care and precision of course.
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I have used the following digital studio gear and monitoring in the making of this:
- Spectralayers 10
- DeMix Pro 4.5.0.
- Cubase
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Quad-Core (incl. various extra plugins I purchased over the years)
- Adobe Audition
- Izotope RX9
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Sources (in order of first appearance):
– Easter Everywhere // International Artists – IA-LP-5, International Artists – IALP # 5 Format: LP, Album, Promo, Mono Country: US Released: 1967
– Easter Everywhere // Label: International Artists – IA-LP-5 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo Country: US Released: Oct 25, 1967
– Texas Rockmusic Heritage Vol.2 - Paradise Lost // Label: Lone Star Records (5) – LSR 19630 Format:2 x CD, Compilation, Unofficial Release Country: Netherlands Released:1994 (though it is believed this was actually released in 2003, attempting to avoid copyright issues)
– The 1966-1967 Unreleased Masters Collection // Label: Collectables – COL-CD-8816 Format:3 x CD, Compilation Country: US Released:1994
– Various – Epitaph For A Legend // Label: International Artists – 13 Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Stereo Country: US Released: 1980
