Dark Star | 1972-11-26 | Grateful Dead

2:48:12
SBD
REMASTER
Transferrer:
acetboy 2021-07-07
SHNID:
gd1972-11-26.152827.sbd-remaster.acetboy.flac1644
Source:
remaster of shn #9248 with short patches from shn #123022.
Taper Notes:
View NotesThe lineage for this is originally given in shn #9248 as:
1st set: SBD>MR>?>D>CD>EAC>SHN
2nd set: SBD>MR>C>D>CD>EAC>SHN

In the notes for shn #127478 an earlier remaster it is stated that
some kind of cassette deck with ALC (automatic level control) must have been used.

When one looks at all of this closely one can see that the possibly ALC sourced tracks
are actually the first 16 songs.  Not just the first set but also tracks 15 and 16.
Then the rest of the show, tracks 17-25 have a different source.
The ALC is basically compression.  Tracks 17-25 have no compression like the first 16 tracks.

So I'm guessing that the original tape was fine, no compression.
And then somewhere along the line the show was copied with a deck that added the ALC.
Or the compression, whatever it was for sure.
The first 16 tracks are very hissy from several cassette generations.  One of those generations must
have been where the compression entered into it.

Tracks 17-25 are also somewhat hissy.  But not like the first 16.

In the original share you can hear during the first 16 tracks that the in-between songs and the beginnings
of songs have the hiss a bit louder.  Then when the track hits a certain volume level and the ALC/compression
kicks in the level of hiss lessens.  You can still hear hints of that here and there.
The vocals and instruments get loud and bury the hiss a bit.  Something like that.... lol.

So anyway, I don't ever use noise reduction but here during the first 16 songs I have used a bit.
I did it initially at one level and then scrapped that and pulled it back a bit.
I don't want to hear any artifacts.

So the other big issue with the first 16 songs is that they had serious phase problems.
So serious that it makes me think that during one of the cassette generations one stereo side got inverted.
shn # 9248 can sound better by inverting one of the channels.  But it needs more fine tuning than just a simple
inversion.  So that is fixed now.

The mix of the show once this is all sorted out is pretty decent although the vocals mostly hang over towards the
right side, sometimes they center up a bit.
And throughout the show the mix occasionally gets adjusted.
For much of the show Jerry's guitar is mostly to the left and Bob's guitar is over in the right channel.
Although after awhile and I think it's in the middle of some tune Jerry gets more centered and Bob is suddenly
in the far left channel.  The bass sometimes favors one side or the other but is centered up also sometimes.
The bass comes through very clearly though.  Basically everything can be heard pretty well.  Piano comes through good.
The vocals are sometimes maybe too loud and a bit trebly.  But you can't eq them without obviously affecting
the rest of the musical elements.  Jerry's guitar is also quite loud sometimes.
The idea was to get as much of the frequency spectrum nice and leveled out up to the hiss.
There's no high-end air on this recording, that's up there in the hiss.

About 20 minutes into Dark Star there was a patch.  It could have been fine except you can hear like a click and a jump
going into and out of the patch.  So not so fine.  Then towards the beginning of Me and Bobby McGee there was a gap with
a chunk of the song missing.  I have re-patched Dark Star and also patched Me and Bobby McGee.
shn #123022 has two different versions of the complete Dark Star and Me and Bobby McGee.
One version is the same tracks from shn #9248 only re-patched.  And the same for Me and Bobby McGee.
And then there is a second so called alternative version of the two tracks.
The interesting thing is that the alternative version of the two tracks is from the same source as tracks 1-16.
So the alternative has the same ALC-compression that the first 16 tracks has.
But this alternative version does not have the cuts in Dark Star or Me and Bobby McGee.
So I used that alternative version for the short patches that were needed.  They're pretty seamless.  I can't really find them
without looking at a spectral view of the files.

So I think this sounds pretty nice now.  It's a fabulous show.  Some of these songs are textbook examples of how good
the Grateful Dead could be.

On a side note, my antique iMac with my equally old version of Pro Tools Le has bit the dust.  Gone, kaput, expired, ceased to be.
I kind of want to get a new iMac or possibly a new M1 Mac Mini.  Maybe get Pro Tools again or maybe not.  I've thought about
going with Logic or Audition.

But I'm discovering that I can recreate my working procedures that I developed in Pro Tools using
some other stuff that I have on my other iMac.  The one that's just old.

So all of this work was done in ocenaudio and Harrison Mixbus.  If I get good at using Mixbus maybe that's all I need.
Software like Pro Tools or Logic is really overkill for me.  I don't ever use much of what they offer.
That's one reason I'm thinking Audition might be the way to go.

So, this is a remaster of shn #9248 with short patches from shn #123022.

In the earlier notes for this show there is no mention of pitch correction.  Let's just hope that it didn't need any.  lol
I'm sure they were in tune with the piano and the universe.  At least the show is in better condition now than it was.
Or I'll always think it should have been.....