What are the differences on the Boxed remixes?
If you have Tubular Bells and Ommadawn on either CD or LP, you have the original mix. Hergest Ridge on early LPs is the original mix, some Hergest Ridge LPs pressed after 1976 and all the Hergest Ridge CDs contain the Boxed remix (see 2.12). When Phil Newell began work on the Boxed remix of Tubular Bells, he discovered that some instruments – including a piano – were missing from the multi-track tape, and had to re-record them. The difference is particularly noticeable in the climax of Part One, where the bells are softer (they were sonically distorted on the original recording). Mike had more or less destroyed the original set of Tubular Bells by hitting them with coal hammers (Mike says he used a sledgehammer), so a new set was bought and recorded. A quadrophonic remix was made prior to the Boxed version, so the bells are likely to have been recorded then. The “reed & pipe organ” sounds much more like an organ than the buzz on the original mix – this also sounds like a fresh recordin
(FAQS) Hergest Ridge on early LPs is the original mix, some Hergest Ridge LPs pressed after 1976 and all the Hergest Ridge CDs contain the Boxed remix (see 2.12). The original mix of Hergest Ridge is not rare at all. It can be found on around 90% of all Hergest Ridge LPs worldwide. The Boxed remix is available on very few LPs: I remember a US reissue and a French reissue – and of course the Boxed LP. But it has never been released on official CD – that’s why people think it’s rare. They don’t have a record player and can’t listen to old vinyl. That’s all. The design of the Hergest Ridge LPs (title at the top or at the bottom) doesn’t say anything about the version on the record. It seems to be totally random which version you get, e.g. there is a US reissue with the Boxed remix, but a later US reissue again has the original mix. To add to the confusion, there is a Spanish edition of Boxed that contains the ORIGINAL Hergest Ridge, and Tubular Bells without The Sailor’s Hornpipe (it fini
