Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor MI

Source 1: ? > master cassette > RW’s 1st gen > my 2nd gen > Nak DR-1 (azimuth adj) -> Audigy 5/Rx -> Audacity -> CD Wave Editor -> FLAC 1.3 ->

Source 2 (JEMS): Sony ECM-939>Sony WM-D6 > ANA(M)>WAV [96kHz/24bit]>WAV [44.1kHz/16bit]>FLAC [Level 8] > Nakamichi CR-7A>PreSonus FireStudio Project>Adobe Audition 3.0>Cdwave editor>FLAC frontend 1.7.1 >

Matrix: Audacity -> CD Wave Editor -> FLAC 1.3 -> you

Notes, rambles, etc.:

This was my first attempt at a matrix. And my sixth. I shelved it and practically re-started from scratch. This is also my first (& 2nd) attempts at a quad matrix. More on that later, but I’m going to prepare one core info for both the stereo and quad file sets.

I worked as an usher in the early 80s. I lucked out on this one as I was assigned the front center section. My friends already had 12th row and I was now right next to them!

What. A. Show.

When the house lights went up after, my friends said the guy sitting next to them recorded it and they’d get a copy. I got my 2nd gen copy soon after. At the time I considered this one of the best bootlegs I’d ever heard, and I’d heard some. Made some myself. They all paled in comparison.

Years pass, I get my Nak and a decent sound card. I start digitizing things slowly, especially as the time it took to slice a wave file into tracks was non-trivial back then. I captured my copy of this show and burned it to CDs for a few friends.

At some point I start trading bootlegs online and get a copy of this show. It sounded great. I figured it had to be a copy of the same recording and didn’t think much about it.

More years pass - I’m cleaning up some disk drives and come across my files from when I first started digitizing. I compared it to the one I got in trade and the crowd noises are very different! What else to do, but try a surround matrix!

On playback, the first thing you’ll notice is the beeps I put up front. Since there’s no interactive surround mixing in Audacity. You don’t get to hear what it sounds like in surround until after you export. I was only able to figure out the channel assignments by trial & error. Once I got it right, I left the beeps. They should go LF, RF, RR, LR (3x) when you play the surround version.

The second thing you might notice is the recorders adjusting their levels. There was a section where source 1 got cranked way too high, so I brought that down so as to not overwhelm the other source.

When comparing the sources it seemed obvious that JEMS was definitely further back. Peter and the band started the show from the lobby, each member wearing a drum of a different size and walked down the aisles toward the stage. On the individual tracks, it’s obvious the drums are audible earlier on the recording that’s further back in the room. So of course I put that in the surrounds, and the other recording in the fronts. I think you get a bit of the feel of the transition of the drum processional. One thing that really worked is how much the crowd noise is reduced -- the whole point of a matrix, really. It’s also sort of fun hearing individual audience members at various locations around you. JEMS had one particularly zealous dude fairly close. Honestly though, the crowd is really respectful for the most part. There’s a time you can hear one person cough.

Source 2 has a really quick tape flip immediately after ‘Intruder’ - the audience drops out of the rears for a little bit. Source 1 has a tape flip right after ‘I Go Swimming’ starts, so you only hear source 2 for the first part of that song. Source 2 dropped during some of the encore calls. Source 1 ends in the middle of ‘Kiss of Life.’

Peace,

Phideaux3

Lineage: ANA(M)>WAV [96kHz/24bit]>WAV [44.1kHz/16bit]>FLAC [Level 8]
Transfer: Nakamichi CR-7A>PreSonus FireStudio Project>Adobe Audition 3.0>Cdwave editor>FLAC frontend 1.7.1
Taping Gear: Sony ECM-939>Sony WM-D6
Taped By: JEMS [Simon_Funnell]