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    marye
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    New year, new update. Tell us of your musical adventures in real time!

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  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    The sound

    Of thick air...

  • uncle_tripel
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    always...

    ...avoided the NR on recording
    and found very early the highs just got too muted for my ear,

    returning to some more 1978 this week:
    june 4th 1978
    at Campus Stadium, UCSB in Santa Barbara, Ca

    some more friends of the devils? lol...
    ...= the "on stage" harley davidson acceleration into--->NFA

    make LOVE, not war!

    PEACE!
    uncle_tripel

    PS: new avatar = mickey & jerry on 7/4/86 @ Rich Stadium

  • JimInMD
    Joined:
    Noise Reduction and...

    I used Dolby for a brief blink of an eye when I first started copying tapes. Being young and naive, I thought who wants tape noise to come through on the recording, duh.. no brainer, I flipped the Dolby switch on my Nak and hit record. I just want to hear the music, no hiss.

    Very quickly reality set in. Was it Dolby A or Dolby B? Was the source tape recording using Dolby, if so, if you hit Dolby wouldn't it further compress the recording and further alter the sound, you can't play back using Dolby Squared, right? And what do you do in the car, in the boom box (yes.. we were just a few years out of 8 tracks when I started getting tapes). And who really flips or unflips the Dolby switch anyway based on how you think the recording was made. After all, were all these tapes properly notated every step of the way.

    So I quickly gave up on noise reduction, I had a good enough tape deck that I shouldn't be so worried about tape noise. I quit Dolby and never looked back (and never worried about pressing the Dolby button again).

    Just spit balling here, but my prejudices sometimes come to the surface when I hear a Dicks or Daves or Road Trips that sounds a bit muffled and I wonder if the particular Reel or Cassette or Betamax or whatever might have had a Dolby snafu baked in. To be clear, I have no proof this has ever occurred, I just wonder sometimes.

    I should emphasize Jeffrey Norman / David Glasser, etc. have gotten better at their jobs. So if there is any compression or noise reduction used anywhere along the way, they better at making this music sound as good as it possibly can, regardless of the sordid history of the source tapes. Thank you GD, Mockingbird Studios, the good folks and Plangent Processing and all the others that get this music to my front porch. Oh, and thank you tapers too!

  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    Ooops, forgot

    I can’t say for sure off hand about everyone who recorded Dead and NR, but Betty was known for not using it, and if things are done right, no need.
    Nothing comes for free, so every time you do something, it will effect other things, sometimes negatively…a cost benefit trade off…perhaps just like BITD with high gen cassettes? To Dolby or not to Dolby, that is the question lol
    I always have tried not to do any permanent adjustments/fixes, preferring to try and fix some other way, eq etc, but nothing permanent that you can’t fix yer fix!

    Imho NR etc becomes more of a band aid for when things weren’t able to be right, or to help mask issues beyond repair, i.e., the ravages of time.
    Don’t think I’ve ever used any on a master recording?

    Onto rest of GDM soundtrack this afternoon…

  • 1stshow70878
    Joined:
    Thx Oro

    So 15 ips or 30 ips would have been impractical for shows I imagine. Expense, changing reels too often, and as these were for listening by the band not studio use, etc. But what about them using noise reduction? I'm guessing no Dolby.
    As an aside, I seldom have my Dolby on when listening to cassettes even though most were recorded with it. Even factory tapes with Dolby seem less muffled without it and I'm not listening at thunderous levels (most of the time) where hiss is an issue.
    Skylabs, a top notch mid-western audio repairer, no longer works on certain categories of equipment: Consoles, quad receivers, linear tracking turntables, automatic turntables, and reel to reels. Just not worth it from a cost perspective for what those machines sell for vs. repair costs. There are still plenty of specialists who will and R-to-Rs are available restored at very reasonable prices but good luck finding pre-recorded tapes (old or new). Nobody makes them anymore. I was never tempted but my cassette guy sells tons of R-to-Rs for like $200-$300 fully restored, but they are more run of the mill Sony and not high end. And they sell fast!
    Thanks again and cheers bro

  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    First half of GDM soundtrack

    Ist show. The more surface area (wider the tape), and/or the faster the recording speed, the higher the resolution. And yes R2R can most certainly sound best. (Like anything though, if done well)
    The problem is a good one is very expensive, they’re as hard to keep maintained etc as a TT, and good linage quality tapes are rare and expensive, oh, and more a pain to “flip” than even a record…but they can sound amazing!

    Remember, many CDs AND most vinyl are sourced from (hopefully) master R2R tapes! A purist with the gear and ears might argue that direct to (vinyl) disc recording is the ultimate…but good luck lol
    One of the main reasons digital still gets such a bad rap is twofold
    1- the conversion used originally, and lack of attention to disparity’s between different DACs in the chain. Conversion has come a loonnggg way baby! AND…
    2- a significant number of the CDs first produced to meet the huge demand were not sourced from the master tapes, and lineage and source quality were often a joke! Caveat emptor: not all CDs are created alike!…or Blu-ray’s, or DVDs, or Vinyl etc Like drugs boys and girls, know your sources!

  • 1stshow70878
    Joined:
    4-11-78

    5th show in the box.
    OK, now were getting there.
    Great 1st set.
    2nd set list looks good too.
    Moving right along...
    Cheers

    Random ?s for the tapers and the knowledgeable. Were these original tapes running at 7.5 ips on reel to reels and were they done with any Dolby or whatever? And do you audience tapers use any noise reduction? Been talking to an analog guy who says with reel to reel running fast you get superior saturation and the best analog sound of all, which to his ear beats CDs and even vinyl, and Dolby is unnecessary for good reel to reel recordings.

  • uncle_tripel
    Joined:
    "Don't...

    climb on the fence, you idiot"

    august 6th 1974

    now that's much better, the sound is less polished or over-dubbed...or whatever...

    support your local library,
    my better half's employer also

    Peace for All!
    uncle_tripel

    PS - Hey Bobby, party like it's 1984, Happy B-day!

  • Colin Gould
    Joined:
    Right now

    This is a little niche for this forum since I’m streaming it on BBC iplayer so it’s probably only accessible in the UK,
    John Martyn - Live at Reading University 1978
    This is an episode of ‘Rock Goes to College’. We saw him several times 78 -79 and his solo concerts were always excellent. It’s available for the next 27 days and is highly recommended. For those who can’t access it I recommend his album ‘One World’ which was his current album when this concert was recorded.
    Edit: To be honest I’d recommend any of his albums really

  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    Slumming it ; )

    With Dave’s 17, since the rude abrupt halt to my research via the archive being down : (
    Ah well, I’ll just have to suffer lol

    Hope their highly trained crack equipment crew gets it just exactly perfect sooner than later 🤞Was gonna do the big five O anniversary treatment of Rocktober 74, complete in order as I don’t think I’ve done so? Sigh…bastards!

    Kudos to Uncle T supporting the local Library! (TOO is a librarian ; )
    If you don’t use em, ya lose em!
    And remember, they killed Marion ; )

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New year, new update. Tell us of your musical adventures in real time!
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In reply to by proudfoot

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Kiel Auditorium

Roll away the dew

There is a glitch in the first few minutes of Franklin's

Itll be interesting to see how they patch that in the box set

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In reply to by Oroborous

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First time checking out the whoke shows from this run.
Of course I’ll need to fire up Go To Nassau later, haven’t heard that in too long!

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Mighty tasty

It has indeed been a long time since I heard GTN

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8 years

In reply to by Oroborous

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Love go to Nassau.

Man, we are due for some 1980 to be released. Will it ever happen again?

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In reply to by proudfoot

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Part of the soundtrack of my younger days with his 80s hits

"No one here gets out alive"

Indeed

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In reply to by TN John

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Family Dog

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Immediately makes me think of the first show “that got away”
Crotchfester 9/1/79. Greg Kihn and the Goodrats opened.

I was still only 16 so the rents were not gonna let me go “all the way to Rochester” (that’d have to wait a year) to do anything, let alone go with a bunch of known “drug addicts” lol But I did hear all about it from said DAs, including how the GoodRats gave out these little toy Rats (think Florida Panthers) as a promotion, which of course the unruly east coast Dead Heads, who had had enough warm up noise and wanted the Dead, began pelting the band with the Rats, literally forcing them off the stage!
“When you go down to deep Elem…the DH will put you on the rocks”
Now on one hand I’m sure it was hilarious, if you were there, but on the other hand kinda embarrassing. But that was unfortunately often the case when promoters picked poorly. As kind as DH mostly were, we weren’t always polite to openers. Another ugly one I recall was poor Joan Jet opening up for Bobby and the Midnights: booed her off…

Anyway, 4 winds Greg Khin

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In reply to by Oroborous

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5/16/80 of course!

Dammit PF, we went and checked out some GK tunes to refresh our old synapses, and now TOO and myself can’t get that GD ear crack from the Breakup song outta our heads ; ) lol

Why earcrack you say? Because its almost as addictive and damaging as crack!
Ok, Jerry’s 5/16 High Time might just erase it lol

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In reply to by Oroborous

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.

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Waiting at Kidd Valley Burgers for my order

On the PA

Love Unlimited Orchestra
Love Theme

What a fantastic production

That wahwah pedal....

Feeling like a kid again

:)))

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...was wandering...

and all of a sudden; oh, yes 1974-05-25 UCSB outdoorstadium is where it's at

...like the wild geese in the west

Peace for All!
uncle_tripel

on a side note:
finished this weekend's reading assignment
"BEAR: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III"
highly recommended for even the casual HEAD,
and perhaps less of the embellishments than Mr. Scully's book

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In reply to by uncle_tripel

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You should follow that up with “Owsley and Me”

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In reply to by proudfoot

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8/19/80

a show that is truly release-worthy

44 years ago

wow

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Just played this Neil Young album. It and ‘Tonight’s the night’ alternate as my favourite NY studio album. Just to be tangentially political, I noticed the Democratic convention is in Chicago and it reminded me of someone I worked with many years ago. He flew into Chicago in 1968 to begin postdoctoral studies and was amazed/horrified to see so many heavily armed people about. Then he got to where he was staying and saw what was happening via the television. An interesting start to his time there.

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Jerry garcia's recording of Cigarettes and Coffee right now and more 90s JGB today, taking it easy.

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In reply to by uncle_tripel

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Again money out the window because of his whole-hearted, over-the-top recommendation of "BEAR: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III by Mr T, sorry meant uncle.

I'm an audio book man, so I got the audio book. Cost 15,000 bucks!! But apparently read by Owsley. Anyone know his voice and can verify when I get!

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In reply to by Dennis

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Haven’t heard this sweetness in fo ev er!

It’s good Dennis…not sure it’s $15k good lol.

8/19/80: thanks for the tip PF. That show is on my current to do list, prolly in the next day or so. Look forward to it!

Good lord Colin, nothing like a good first impression!

Earcrack: got another dose today via some Macca hits.
Guys an Earcrack machine! Lol it started with TOO waking up with the outro to ‘Listen To What The Man Said’ the Wonder of it All part…out of nowhere, hasn’t heard it recently etc, bizarre, just woke up with that part loudly in her head?

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In reply to by Oroborous

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as always, I recommend you don't look at the set list ahead of time.

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In reply to by proudfoot

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9 19 90

Wow

Another great show

A second MSG box, please

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...get me day started with a little...you just gotta poke around...
1983-10-22 Carrier Dome Syracuse NY

...don't tell me this town ain't got no heart

Peace for All!
uncle_tripel

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9/8/90

Sorry teach about the poor spelling, I missed school that day…cause I was peakin ; )

Edit: hey Joey, what’d ya think of those Richfields?

Dbl Edit: Aaaaa, Carrier dome shows, good shows, fun trips, awesome fully stocked rented bus first two years, unfortunately a terrible venue…

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Previously enjoyed 8/16 via GOBC, so onto 8/17…

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Has anyone been to Hulaween in Live Oak, Florida?

Comments?

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Yes PF, 8/19/80 is mos def a fine 1980 offering!
Not the best recording, not the worst, but a fun show and great set list, thank goodness, these 1980 sets are very repetitive so getting burnt and thus really enjoyed this show for that alone! Really dug the post drumz sequence especially that sweet CAT, and Phil on the jam after, Foe Git a bout it!
In fact, Phil’s been killing it a lot this tour…go figure ; )

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1972...1st time listen on the archive; it's #139581...Berkeley Community Theater...
with Mr. Bill Graham intro and a Dark Star,
so without further delay,
I'm OFF...

Peace for All!
uncle_tripel

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1977-06-04 Menke. Inglewood CA

Its good. :)

Edit: kind of like a one off show, even just looking at the setlist it seems like they really went all out for these people.

Great show - early on had Set II from a very fine audience source that seemed to have a bootleg lp 1st(?) generation in the lineage. Not sure what the original pull may be on the archive (been 15+ years since last listened to the cassette) but seemed to be from the balcony. Should a could a been at this run. Two friends chose better and experienced it. The night after (8/22) I think was Venetian Night - illuminated boats and much partying on the lake. Chris was raving about the run and I remember him recounting the beauty of that somewhat odd third night Set II. So the next day we were headed to Alpine for the first GD show at that unknown (to us) but eventually legendary venue in beautiful southern Wisconsin. My 4th show. Picked up our tics that morning at a small ticketmaster outlet in the northwest suburbs and away we went. Those were the days.

Right now listening to the Mason Taylor aud (131445), Set II - Rooster > China Cat Rider > I Know You Rider. I loved this sequence from the get go and right now it is every bit as crazy good as i remembered. An all time bluecrow favorite. Love that Bobby breaks out the return of Rooster for the Chicago audience. Excellent version. And a note perfect segue into a ripping China Cat > Rider. Those first notes of China Cat and the audience going crazy. Whole second set smokes - on the jam out of Estimated now. If the vault soundboard quality is there I would love to see this show released!!

edit - did not realize the Mason Taylor source is cut at Comes Time - gotta jump to another source.

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In reply to by bluecrow

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Chi CA go, Chi Ca go, so far so good, first set.
Perhaps a step back from the 19th?
Looks like I’ll have to switch to an Aud for part do…

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Hartford Civic Center