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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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  • JimInMD
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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 ; )

  • uncle_tripel
    Joined:
    yeah, so ...

    ...this weekend I visited our local library, been awhile...
    took home the 5 CD GOGD Movie Soundtrack box...
    today's listening party:

    oct 20 1974 set 2

    maybe, I'll need to listen to this box abit more, or maybe not...?
    finding the mix is almost like, well, you know, too studioish...

    ... DL announcement later this week, hey now, how about it?

    make LOVE, not WAR!!!

    uncle_tripel

  • proudfoot
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    Soon

    10 9 89

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New year, new update. Tell us of your musical adventures in real time!
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...with some unbelievable dry sunny weather
(82 degrees in these parts) in the mid-atlantic for late october,
I'm putting on my boogin' shoes for
oakland coliseum
june 8th 1974

can hardly wait to get started...

PEACE for ALL!
uncle_tripel

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In reply to by uncle_tripel

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I was there, I recognized the t-shirt Jerry is wearing :-)

Second set opened with a great Cold Rain & Snow intro that stretch until the first raindrops started down, then, "I married me a wife.....", and the cold rain poured down!

And poor Dennis in only a t-shirt!

Dark Star just started.

12-18,19-73, and the other chop jobs from that Fall tour (11-20, 11-30, 12-4, 12-6) should be Plangentized/Normanized, Boxed up, and released.

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...to build upon #52 and continue the 80's theme 'til delivery day
(order confirmation "check!")

turn-on, tune-in, and veg out (that was the 80's, right?)

october 22 1983 carrier dome syracuse ny

jerry noodles set 2 opener
crazy->tease->fingers->china cat

PEACE for ALL!
uncle_tripel

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In reply to by uncle_tripel

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After 2 1700 mile RTs and all that road noise and not much sleep, I’m basking in glorious quiet!
Did catch a nice 12/30/81 I don’t believe I’ve heard before, on the XM around 2AM Wednesday!

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But in 12 hours I'll be listening to, and seeing wit mine own eyes, Los Lobos, for the umpteenth time, at the beautiful Lobero Theater. World Series game 1> Los Lobos.
This will be a fun evening.

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In reply to by proudfoot

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.
Edit: just heard Phil passed : (
May the four winds blow him safely home!
Thanks for everything! So much, I can’t even begin to comprehend…

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Phil’s birthday.

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After a emotional Phil centric playlist we also fired up 3/15/90!
Man that sounds good!
And popped a Fremont Dark Star Stout in his honor, SALUTE!

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I was always a Phil guy. Jerry and Phil, no offense to the others. After Jerry passed, I was on the Phil side as close as I could get.

I'm sad beyond description. Phil made a difference. With all the trouble in the world, when I think of bombs, they are always Phil Bombs.

Again, sad beyond what words can describe. May the four winds blow you safely home Mr. Lesh.
There's a weird emptiness here tonight. A well-earned void.

Edit: I changed my mind and went for Augusta 84. Phil denotes and destroys the final jam in Morning Dew. The Phil and Jerry combo was just exactly perfect. I'll do 3/15/90 tomorrow.

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In a conversation with CNN in 2006, Lesh reflected on the feeling of performing with his bandmates.

“It’s paradise. At that moment, I’m not really there. And no one is. We are the music, and our personalities as such really cease to exist at all. We’ve been subsumed into the greater personality of the group mind, that’s what’s been created. That’s what’s created when we are creatively improvising, and the flow is really happening. When we are actually channeling, we are opening that pipeline to another reality that speaks to us. And we are acting as transformers, and we have to step that down into musical thought. But this is not something you can do consciously, learn how to do or be taught. It’s just something that happens to you when the stars are aligned properly and when your individual consciousness is open enough.”

"November and more, as I wait for the score,
They're telling me forgiveness is the key to every door.
A slow winter day a night like forever,
Sink like a stone, float like a feather.
Lilac rain, unbroken chain, Song of the sawhet owl.

Out on the mountain, it'll drive you insane, Listening to the winds howl
Unbroken chain of sorrow and pearls, Unbroken chain of shy and sea.
Unbroken chain of the western wind, Unbroken chain of you and me."
- Robert Peterson

"You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall you fall alone
If you should stand then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home"
- Robert Hunter

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...to the Lesh family
and to the extended family members,
and to the GD community at large.

will begin a tribute to Phil today with
3/19/90 box of rain
Terrapin Station: passenger
3/15/90 set 2
10/12/07 Camden NJ
12/03/05 Buffalo
Fallout From The Phil Zone

RIP Phil

such a long, long time to be gone
and a short time to be there

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I was at the Los Lobos show last night.
When the guys took the stage, David Hidalgo
stepped up to the mike and said:
"This is for Phil Lesh."
They proceeded to open with "West L.A. Fadeaway."

There were quite a few heads in the audience, and we got
Evangeline, Not Fade Away, Bertha, La Bamba>Good Lovin>La Bamba
plus ALL the great tunes Los Lobos is known for. Bitter sweet. What a day it was.

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When my wife texted me the news I listened first to Unbroken Chain and then Box of Rain

Verklempt? Oh yes.

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In reply to by proudfoot

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2FTV CD 2, that New tator jam is prime Philski!
11/7/85: Let It Grow>Space>Gimme Sum
6/30/85 Shakedown
Live Dead
12/6/73 RT bonus disc
Warlocks Pedromix; H/S/F, Attics, Dark Star>space>Death Don’t>Mr F. Gimme Sum>Dew. Bid U
5/11/72 discs 3&4
11/5/77 set 2
BOR 3/20/86
VIola 5/2/70
11/8/69
Ramble On 6/22/83
Jack Straw 8/27/83 (Aud!)
7/9/95 Unbroken, BOR
2/10/01 Phil & Phreinds
Rock & Roll Blues P&F

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From Two From The Vault is one of my all-time GD moments. It has that soothing melody that feels so good after a "My nerves are shot, and I can't take it anymore" section of music like That's It for the Other One. Exactly perfect.

I wish they would have found a way to keep it in their repertoire a little longer. On the sunny side, I was able to see them perform it both with Phil's band and Furthur in the post Jerry years.

One of those great, quirky songs. Thanks Phil, you are missed.

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Gary Lambert played That's It for the Other One as an homage to Phil from this show today on Sat Radio. I caught it on a mini road trip. On the way home they not so coincidentally played New Potato Caboose from the same show about two hours later.

Phil was hot that night. Perhaps the most special show in Boxzilla, with many contenders.

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In reply to by JimInMD

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Dark Star 4/8/71

Hard to Handle 4/29/71

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Nice cover of’Brokedown Palace’ by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings on Utube.

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In reply to by Colin Gould

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Subtitled "the pagan sound of British and Irish Folk 1966-1975" this is another excellent compilation released by Grapefruit a few years ago. Typically 3 cd sets from the above timespan, there are now quite few excellent compilations released on this label. This particular one follows on from one called "Dust on the Nettles" - also recommended, that came out a few years before this one.

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Earlier LP titled C.C.B.B. - A Lot of Bottle
(EMI import from England)
Later just C.B.B. - Sense of Direction
Bought used in the '70s for $2.50 and $2.75.
A little nostalgia to start the day.
Cheers
Hey Daverock - I never realized these guys are British, lol!

1stshow - they are one of those bands I've heard of, but never actually heard. I always imagined them to be in the same bag as another band I never heard - Chicken Shack. Of course, not having heard either, it's impossible to tell.

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Listening to Postcards of the Hanging & comparing it with Dylan & the Dead.
The Dead recording is really crisp while the Dylan one sounds very muddy, & the lyrics of I Want You are almost impossible to make out.

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In reply to by daverock

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Aagh. Thats what they sing at the end of the 1973 Wickerman.

Not a happy moment

That movie haunted me for weeks afterward

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In reply to by proudfoot

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Dark Star on the drive to work today

Awesome

From Ladies and Gentlemen the Grateful Dead

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...house of blues
december 10 2005 set 2
P & F

shakedown>jam>new speedway>jam>candyman>cryptical>
TOO>jam>feedback*>caution*>feedback*>fire>gimme shelter>
Donor Rap > Band Intros
us blues>brokedown

* with BIG BROWN

Friends are:
chris robertson / larry campbell / john molo / mookie siegel / barry sless

PEACE for ALL!
uncle_tripel

PS: 52 is in the house

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do a boob tube search of - My new musical invention - The ResoLute! Patent Pending Synth Lute

My kid sent me this. I know we have a goodly number of pickers out there.

Thought this might interest you.

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In reply to by icecrmcnkd

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and then 10/27/84, both nice!

Glad to hear Ckid!

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december 16th 1992 set 2
oakland coliseum arena

...they're ON and
it's a beautiful thing!

PEACE for ALL!
uncle_tripel

PS - 10/18/84 thanks for the nudge, I remember the drive north on the NJTPK
with Chumpweed [he passed out in the park before the start of City Island
(thnx DL for this week's Taper's Section) in downtown Harrisburg,
and he was hell-bent on staying in control for the Meadowlands Arena],
and I was very happy that I didn't write the boys off
after the 10/6 Richmond show as two friends had done;
yet for some reason the UJB clearly sticks out...
...maybe, yes, ah now I know, it was my 1st live ujb.

I haven't heard this show since attending it,
but will attempt to stream it in the very near future...thnx Oro

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Going to make a great release someday!

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Finally getting to this one while 52 waits in the mailbox. Will Duke be the best of the box? I'm guessing Dave thought so or it wouldn't be the break-out single show release. Rare day when I should be able to hear a whole show in one sitting. Thanks Honey!
Cheers

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In reply to by 1stshow70878

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Chumpweed lol, now thhhaaatt is a moniker!
Dug 10/18: Nice Stranger Candyman, Big RR, Dancin, etc, but the Playin sandwich was the shizzle. Pretty good tour, perhaps not so much of the go go juice as earlier in the year? Forgot how good 10/20 second set was…

1stshow: I thought Duke was good, but not top dog…but from the 11th onward their all so good it’s hard to choose! Enjoy!

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As good a night as any for mentioning the above British label. I notice they have started selling cassettes now as well. Very groovy.

I dipped into the Box yesterday from where I left off - which was 4/11. As Oro said - top drawer. That's a great Fire-Scarlett and the first set is good. The only downside was neither the 1st or the 3rd cd would play on my hi fi. They both played on my portable one though, so I am hoping now I have broken then in they will play on the main one.

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What a great 2nd set!

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...phil & friends
november 23 2005

st.stephen>eyes>ujb>gdtrfb
donor rap>band intros
encore: dark star

PEACE for ALL!
war is not the answer

uncle_tripel

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Should be an interesting year without the Archive being available. I don't even use it most of the time unless I'm really stuck for an answer. It just takes too long to validate my guesses. I'm just in it for fun first thing in the morning. Good luck to all. I've been trying to win a calendar for many years now.
Cheers

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In reply to by 1stshow70878

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Archive was up and running for a while this morning and I used it confirm my 30 Days entry. Down again now as to show playback. In deep deep trouble if its not there as resource haha.

Listening now to Cold Rain and Snow Red Rocks 7/7/78 (July '78 Box)

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11/3/84 now

Heard 11/2 before but forgot how fun it was.
11/3 is new, and starting out hot!

Howdy BC!
Yep, I’ve been hitting this 84 via relisten so archive is up!
Thank goodness lol

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Right now you can still play shows on Archive using Webamp (click button top of page).

Back at ya Oro!