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John H's Collection

Pink Floyd   11/20/1971

Taft Auditorium, Cincinnati, OH
Source audience
Media flac   2 discs
Notes *Sources*

Recorder 1: Pink Floyd 1971-11-20 Cincinnati, Recorder 1, low gen HG tapes [24-96]
Lineage: Low gen Maxell XLII-S cassettes (1996/97) > Technics RS-B565 > Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 > Reaper v4.61 and iZotope RX4 > FLAC (24bit/96kHz)

Recorder 2: 1971-11-20 - Live In Taft - [1st Gen Rec 2] - Taft Auditorium, Cincinnati, Ohio
Lineage: cass/1 > DAT/2 > cdr/? > EAC > wav > shn

*Notes*

Recorder 1 is closest to the stage and has some very good fidelity captured. Recorder 2 is out into the room by the sound of it and significantly lower fidelity. However, it adds to the sound and room ambience and even reveals occasional fragments of the original surround mix due to proximity to the surround speakers vs recorder 1.

Although both recordings are monophonic, the quad surround format is needed to present the front to back perspective and to allow for more of the sound from recorder 2. The stereo mix is presented in a listenable perspective (rather then presenting the recordings hard L/R as data) and as such features much less of recorder 2 sound.

Both recorders 1 & 2 are mono recordings transferred to stereo format tape. The right channel contains a superior recording in both recordings and is used alone for both here. Recorder 1 has some surprising fidelity but its raw condition makes it a challenge to present. The recording is dolby encoded and doesn’t decode well on the tape deck. Transferring the tape without dolby results in the most complete sound even if unnaturally bright and dynamically altered. The particular combination of dolby pre eq and emphasis with the louder lead guitar parts results in thin piercing high mid bursts exaggerated as much as 30db.

Recorder 1 cuts at the end of the seagull section in Echoes. Recorder 2 alone is the source for the end of Echoes and Blues.

*Mastering*

I balanced recorder 1 as well as possible in eq and dynamics. The level fluctuation from the dolby pre emphasis and possibly from recording device compression in addition was corrected as well as reasonable. (ie. You don’t want to just turn down the quieter parts - captured with higher fidelity and dynamics than the loud parts - to be academic.) The shrill emphasis around 3.8k that was going out of control, especially during the loud lead guitar parts, was dynamically eq’d into place.

I synchronized both recorders together to the correct speed. The humble rear recorder restores some natural ambience and surround mix elements as well as the end of Echoes and Blues. I left the recorders to start and stop as they did between songs with no production to smooth anything over. You get the perspective the tapers running their machines at the show.

Audio tools used include Reaper for the main DAW, iZotope RX, Universal Audio and Waves plugins. Speed correction and sync work was done in Reaper using the lossless Elastique Pro 3 algorithm. The quad master is 24 bit 96k 4.0 in a 5.1 container with digital zero C & Lfe channels to insure compatibility in all media players. The stereo master puts recorder 1 just left of center and recorder 2 right for the most natural presentation.

Every attempt was made to restore the sound to the fullest quality without damage. Compromises that are often made for challenging recordings for commercial presentation are strictly avoided in favor of preservation of all remaining content, damaged as it might be.

*Release formats*

2 recorder quad master (in 5.1 format) 24/96 & 24/48
2 recorder stereo master 24/96 & 16/44.1

All FLAC level 8. Sample rate reduction for SD versions with SOX codec. 24 to 16 bit conversion by truncation.

Jimfisheye - June 2020
Trades Allowed Yes
Ratings Show: A    Sound: A
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Owned by John H · Last Updated May 23, 2023