Bird Song | 1971-04-29 | Grateful Dead

View NotesNotes:
-- All disc changes are seamless
-- Thanks to Bill Gadsden for supplying the reels
-- Thanks to Rob Eaton for supplying the patch source
-- Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction

SOURCE 3 OF 12

3:49:02

SBD

gd1971-04-29.sbd.miller.105925.flac24

Source:

SBD -> Shure Line Mixers -> Advent Advocate Dolby B Unit -> Master Reel (Sony Deck - BASF Tapes - 1/4 Track - 7 1/2 ips)

Lineage:

Master Reel (Teac A-6100) -> Advent Advocate Dolby B Unit -> Fostex FR-2LE -> WAV (24bit/96k) Mastering Info: WAV -> Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.03 -> FLAC/24

Taper Notes:

View NotesNotes:
-- Thanks to Bill Gadsden for supplying the reels
-- Thanks to Rob Eaton for supplying the patch source
-- Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction

SOURCE 4 OF 12

gd1971-04-29.sbd.boswell.smith.114145.flac16

Source:

SBD MR@ 7.5 ips>R @ 7.5 ips.(Wilson Boswell). Transfer info:Akai GX636 > Apogee Mini Me @24/96>Mini DAC(monitoring/mastering) > Lynx One soundcard>Wavelab 5.0(dithered to 16/44 via 'UV22HR' Apogee algorithim > FLAC

Taper Notes:

View NotesMatt's notes:

patches for 4/29 are 'bird song'(16 tk source).  'bobby mcgee' and 'china>rider' were patched with the Ramrod source

Thanks to Bob Menke for the patch sources

I decided to put this out for a number of reasons but mainly it's an improvement as to what circulates.  The main reason being Will's reels are in prime condition and have never had to be baked over a number of times.  The exact lineage of all the 4/71 FE reels are still a mystery so perhaps we will really never know the whole story BUT some low gen reels @ 7.5 ips. have survived in one piece and these are some of them..  According to the story from Wilson and Pat Lee, Peter Kafer and Bill Gadsden "purchased" the supposed masters from a guy named Buddy Miller(now a country musician) and brought them up to the Northwest for them to copy back in 1973.  Will's are 7.5 ips. and Pat's are 3.3/4 ips.  Nobody for sure knows exactly which were masters since Buddy decided to keep a few for himself which is truly the crux of the mystery or if even Buddy had masters himself.  I realize in some circles this is considered heresy but it's true and until Buddy comes forward and flat out states he had masters this should be considered as a possibility.  We can only now just listen carefully and try to figure it out that way.. Anyhow please enjoy!


My notes:
Big Thanks to Matt. Wonderful!!
Thanks to jpc3 for tagging the files
text file created & seeded 06/23/2011 gballen

SOURCE 5 OF 12

gd1971-04-29.mtx.hansokolow.97660.flac16

Source:

matrix of SBD: shnid=33565 and AUD: shnid=26568

Taper Notes:

View NotesThere is so much work on this in terms of time/pitch adjustments and level adjustments that I cannot list them all.  It's been an ongoing project for a long time, as the quality of this AUD made it a very challenging show to matrix.  The main thing to know is that I made use of every bit of the AUD that is useable.  Most AUD tracks are missing the beginnings of songs and often the ends as well.  A string of songs  in the first set are also not present on the AUD:  Cumberland Blues, Me And My Uncle, Bird Song, and Playin'.  Those parts are, of course, all SBD.  The AUD is very inconsistent, clearly the mic was stuffed under someone's shirt at points, turned in different directions, etc.  I tried as best I could to account for that by changing the levels, but there is a fair amount of hiss on the AUD, so when the level is boosted, the hiss will be more present.  That's just how it is.  Also there are moments of a loud, obnoxious crowd, mostly notable in quiet parts like Dark Hollow and Ripple.  I tuned out a fair amount of the crowd in Ripple, as it is just distracting.  I tried to make this thing as smooth as I could, but some of the transitions when the AUD kicks in or out are still a bit jolting..

I went through a fair amount of confusion about the patches in Me And Bobby McGee and the transition between China Cat and Rider that were reportedly found on cassette from a master reel hidden at the Fillmore.  Until just now I thought I was making a big revelation that these are not actually patches from this night, but upon reading the notes on db.etree.org, I find that this is already known.  In any case, I decided to remove those sections and fade to the AUD only, so this is now, I believe, a totally complete version of this show.  The parts that are AUD only are from 2:32 to 3:22 of Me And Bobby McGee, and from 3:44 of China Cat to 0:09 of Rider, then again in Rider from 1:58 to 2:33.  As for the patch in Birdsong, that song is not present on the AUD, but I instead used the patch from a different SBD, shnid: 16782.  Midnight Hour has some scratchiness on the SBD that I left in, as going to the AUD only would be worse.  The cowbell is also quite strong in the AUD of this song, and I left that in, as there is always room for more cowbell.

SOURCE 6 OF 12

gd1971-04-29.sbd.haugh.33565.flac16

Source:

Borrows other material to "recreate" show without cuts

Taper Notes:

View Notes----------------------------------------

No breaks between any songs.  Seemless disc changes and no songs 
are cut (i.e. complete versions of Bird Song, Me & Bobby McGee and 
the jam btwn ChinaCat > Rider). Patched with interleave material 
for master reel SBD recordings from April 27th and 28th.

This version can be assembled onto longer media (like DAT
or DVD) and be enjoyed from start to finish without a single
break or inturruption (other than the set break).

----------------------------------------

Source: 
MSR > 7 inch (7.5 ips) Revox A 77 > Alesis Masterlink > CD-R

Patch sources:
Last 0:45 seconds Bird Song: gd1971-04-28 
MSR 7 inch (7.5 ips) Revox A 77 >Alesis Masterlink>CD-R

Middle 1:30 Me & Bobby McGee: gd1971-04-28 
MSR 7 inch (7.5 ips) Revox A 77 >Alesis Masterlink>CD-R

Jam 0:50 seconds between ChinaCat > Rider: gd1971-04-27 
MSR  7 inch (7.5 ips) Revox A 77 >Alesis Masterlink>CD-R

----------------------------------------

SOURCE 7 OF 12

gd1971-04-29.sbd.serafin.19639.shnf

Source:

SBD > 8 track RTR @ 15 i.p.s. (Vault Master) > 2 track RTR @ 15 i.p.s. (Phil Lesh 1987 mixdown Safety) > 24/96 DAT > SSSB (SHNTOOL used and verified)

SOURCE 8 OF 12

gd71-04-29.sbd.frisco.16782.sbeok.shnf

Source:

Soundboard

Lineage:

SBD > MR > CD > EAC > Cool Edit > CD Wave > SHN

Taper Notes:

View NotesLineage:  (mostly) SB> MR> CD; Refined by Chris Frisco, 20 glitches painstakingly removed without deleting any of the
wav; Bird Song patched; See info file for further details; Circ's w/ NRPS opening set

Refined by Chris Frisco, and seeded to CDead on Oct.22, 01
This is from the recently circulating SB> MR> CD version,
with 20 glitches painstakingly removed without deleting any of the wav.  Each sector was repositioned, one by one, until flaw was sucessfully removed. Also, Bird Song was patched from an alternate SB source (8.35 ~ 9.11) and is now complete!

SOURCE 9 OF 12

View NotesGlitches:
[ All of these glitches are from the master reels and are not 
  digi-noise.  Many of the glitches aren't even tape problems and
  are suspected to be percussion or someone knocking something,
  but are noted here for completeness ]
d1t04 1:07 - quiet tick/pop? (Sailin')
d1t08 2:54 - quiet tick/pop? (Lodi)
d1t08 2:59, 3:00, 3:25, 3:26 - quiet static/tick
d2t01 1:50-1:57, 3:33, 3:42, 3:43, 5:54 - strange quiet clicking noise in right 
channel.  Not digi-noise (leading theories:
pick knocking a pickguard or pickup or a
watchband knocking the side of a guitar) 
(Portland Woman)
d2t03 2:42 - tick (Lousiana Lady)
d2t03 3:03, 3:05, 3:09 - quiet ticks
d3t04 8:37 - end of reel?, rest of song missing (Bird Song)
d4t02 2:33 - splice, at least a verse missing? (Bobby McGee)
d5t06 3:59 - end of song missing, faded out (Chinacat)
d5t07 2:04 - tape problems, short splice (Rider)
d5t11 4:12 - click (Bill Graham comments)
d5t12 0:09 - click (Midnight Hour)
d5t12 4:02-7:40 strange click in left channel.  Not digi-noise, percussion



-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The Story of the Tapes *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-


"Who's the Dead freak?" With that innocuous question the story of these tapes 
begins. It was the summer of 1973, between attending 6/10/73 at R.F.K. 
Stadium and the Watkins Glen soundcheck. A friend of mine was listening to 
Live/Dead at his parent's house. A local cabinetmaker was working at the 
house and asked the question. He mentioned that he had a bunch of Dead tapes 
from the Fillmore East back at his house. For about a year, three 90 minute 
composites of the 4/71 shows had made their way around taping circles in the 
Princeton, N.J. area, but not the complete shows.
Within hours, Peter Kafer and I were at the cabinet shop with our reel to 
reel decks. What we found when we got there were 11 master reels of the 4/71 
shows, along with a host of other 1st and 2nd generation tapes from the 
Fillmore East of other bands, but also including 9/20/70. Also there were the 
1st generation reels from 11/23/70 at the Anderson Theater.

The 4/26-29/71 master reels were recorded by an individual named Buddy 
Miller, a local N. J. area musician. Buddy has become a very well respected, 
and recorded, Nashville guitarist. He is currently touring with Emmy Lou 
Harris, and can be heard on her current CD, Red Dirt Girl. Buddy was a friend 
of the cabinetmaker and, since he travelled a great deal, the tapes resided 
at the cabinet shop. Buddy was set up to record these shows by a friend who 
was a member of the Fillmore East soundcrew.

These shows were NOT recorded in the same manner as the February '70,the May 
15, '70 show, and  the material from the September 18, 19, '70 shows. For the 
April '71 shows, a feed was run off the soundboard, which was upstairs in a 
balcony box, stageleft. There is a good picture of the soundbooth in Amalie 
Rothchild's book, Live at the Fillmore East. The feed went from the 
soundboard into a broomcloset nearby, literally a broomcloset. Buddy 
remembers a bucket and mop! The feed was mixed down on two little Shure line 
mixers and recorded on a middle of the line Sony deck onto BASF 90 minute 
reels at 7 1/2 ips. There was also a little consumer Dolby B unit used, which 
is why these recordings seem so 'bright'.

We taped everything that summer of 1973 onto BASF reels. The following fall, 
Peter took his reels with him to California to begin his freshman year at 
U.C., Berkeley. From here he met various West coast tapers such as Bob Menke 
and Rob Bertrando, and the tapes began their circulation on the West coast. I 
took mine to Trinity College in Connecticut and began to circulate them out 
East.

Two years later, we wanted to retape the original masters, since we now had 
somewhat better decks and Maxell reel to reel tape had come on the market. We 
recopied everything. At this time, Buddy Miller simply gave us many of the 
Fillmore and Anderson Theater reels for essentially the cost of blank tape. 
His own musical interests had moved on. Of the 4/71 masters, we were given 6 
of the 11 reels and Buddy retained the other 5. I've had these reels in my 
possession since then.

Why has it taken so long for these reels to enter the digital world? 
Basically because I dropped out of the whole tape collecting scene about 1980 
due to family, career, etc. 

However, two of my old taping buddies, Bernie Tenenbaum and Chris Zingg, 
implored me to get my reels digitized before the analog reels degraded. 
Fortunately they had been safely stored in cardboard boxes, away from heat 
and light, in the back of a closet. I knew nothing of the digital world, 
didn't have a DAT or CD machine, had no idea what a tree or a 'B and P' was, 
and was absolutely amazed at how big the community of collectors had become. 
When I effectively left it at the end of the '70s, it was really only a 
handful of people.

This past Spring I reconnected with Buddy Miller for the first time in over 
20 years. He actually was able to dig up 2 of the 5 original BASF masters 
that he had hung onto, and mailed them up to me. With 8 of the original 11 
now in hand, and my complete set of Maxell 1st gen. copies  to fill in the 
blanks for the still missing 3 masters, I digitized the shows. The missing 
reels, #'s 4, 5, and 6,  run from 4/27 Hard to Handle through the pre-break 
portion of Bird Song on 4/28. For this I used the Maxells. Along the way, I 
was directed to Jim Wise for advice and assistance in digitizing and getting 
the shows out into the community.

I transferred the shows to CD incorporating the New Riders sets, instead of 
treating them discreetly. I really believe that the performances should be 
considered in their entirety. Back in the '70s when these shows got 
circulated, the Riders sets got ignored after awhile, which was a shame. They 
are a lot of fun to listen to, and a great warmup for the Dead show to follow.

The reels were played on a Revox A77 and digitized directly onto an Alesis 
Masterlink ML9600, sampling at 16 bit, 44.1 k. The Alesis was a wonderful 
solution for someone in my position, sitting on a bunch of reels. It removed 
the intermediate step of re-recording everything onto DAT. For those who are 
curious about the Masterlink, check it out at www.alesis.com.

One final bit of information that makes this whole 27 year story all the more 
fascinating is that these 2 track masters were used for the recent 16 track 
release, Ladies and Gentlemen....The Grateful Dead. While the 16 track 
recordings had Bill Graham's introduction and his tribute/tirade speech 
before In the Midnight Hour on 4/29, it was not nearly as strong and present 
as it was on the 2 tracks for some reason.Through an introduction facilitated 
by Jim Wise, Jeffrey Norman and David Lemieux asked if I could send out the 2 
tracks to be used on the release. With 5 days to go before the production CDs 
were due at the printing plant, I FedEx'ed them out and they were used for 
those two Bill Graham pieces. A wonderful chapter after all these years.

There has always been a question about 4/25/71. The BASF master labelled #1 
begins with Big Boss Man from 4/26. Back in 1973 we saw nothing of any taping 
of 4/25's show. I have asked Buddy about it and, after 29 years, he doesn't 
believe he recorded it, which would be consistent with 4/26 being #1. Just a 
guess: since the record company was there to record the run, our 
surrepticious broomcloset tapers just lay low the first night to make sure it 
was clear to try to tape. I know there has been a high-gen fragment of 4/25 
that has circulated for years that supposedly came from cassette masters that 
were also made of these shows. While anything is possible, if this were true 
one would have to wonder why no material from cassette has ever surfaced of 
any of the other 4 nights. The mystery remains, but one day I am gonna have 
to put this mystery to rest.

I hope everyone enjoys these new and improved versions of the 4/71 Fillmore 
East shows.  They have always been the heart of my Dead collection and many 
others as well, I suspect.

Bill Gadsden

SOURCE 10 OF 12

gd1971-04-29.sbd.murphy.1858.shnf

Source:

MSR 7 inch (7.5 ips) Revox A 77 >Alesis Masterlink>CD-R

Taper Notes:

View NotesThe new Vault release, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Grateful Dead" is a
compilation of all five shows from the April, '71 Fillmore run. LAGTGD is
from the multitrack masters and is commercially available on Arista, or from
GDM at http://mars.dead.net

     For the obsessive completist collectors, here are the complete 4-29-71
NRPS & Dead Sets directly from two-track masters. The well-known cuts from
previous versions are still present on this version (Bird Song, Me & My
Bobby McGee, and China Rider). 

shn conversion and upload done by Bob Murphy

Media requirements: Five disks , two choices:
    Four 74 minute disks and one 80 min. disk (five disks total) to have the complete show in order, OR
    Five 74-min. disks (five disks total) with the encores pasted at the end of disk #2


listeners' notes (see also pub comments by Darrin):
Glitches (all glitches are from the master reel, and are not digi-noise):
d1t04 1:07 - quiet tick/pop? (Sailin')
d1t08 2:54 - quiet tick/pop? (Lodi)
d1t08 2:59, 3:00, 3:25, 3:26 - quiet static/tick
d2t01 1:50-1:57, 3:33, 3:42, 3:43, 5:54 - strange quiet clicking noise in
right
                                channel.  Not digi-noise (leading
theories:
                                pick knocking a pickguard or pickup or a
                                watchband knocking the side of a guitar)
                                        (Portland Woman)
d2t03 2:42 - tick (Lousiana Lady)
d2t03 3:03, 3:05, 3:09 - quiet ticks
d3t04 8:37 - end of reel?, rest of song missing (Bird Song)
d4t02 2:33 - splice, at least a verse missing? (Bobby McGee)
d5t06 3:59 - end of song missing, faded out (Chinacat)
d5t07 2:04 - tape problems, short splice (Rider)
d5t11 4:12 - click (Bill Graham comments)
d5t12 0:09 - click (Midnight Hour)
d5t12 4:02-7:40 strange click in left channel.  Not digi-noise, percussion

SOURCE 11 OF 12

SOURCE 12 OF 12

Dr. Michael Parrish, Steven Martin and Jack Warner

SHNID:

gd71-04-29.weinberg.warner.26568.sbeok.flacf

Source:

Audience

Lineage:

AKG190E > Uher 400L > Technics 1506 > Cardas audiophile cables > HHB CDR 800 master CD > CD > Plextor PX-708A > EAC v0.95pb5 > CD Wave > shntool v1.01 > FLAC16

Taper Notes:

View NotesMaster audience reel (Taped by Marty Weinberg, AKG190E>Uher 400L) > Technics 1506 playback > Cardas audiophile cables > HHB CDR 800 master CD > CD > Plextor PX-708A extraction (EAC v0.95 prebeta 5) > tracking (CD Wave) > sector boundary verification (shntool v1.01) > .flac encoding; A > D by Steven Martin; Tracking and EAC > SHN by Jack Warner

*Most tracks are cut at the beginning
*D1T1 cut at 0:07
*D1t10 Serious tape problems first minute or so
*D1t11 cut at 2:15
*D2T5 cut at 0:17
*D2T12 cut at 0:25  