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Poster: ROMICS Date: May 23, 2007 12:37pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: soundboards-schmoundboards

Give me a nice aud any day. Streaming 25 years ago today and I gotta admit it's hot, but I prefer to relive shows through headphones with all the glory of my fellow heads around me! Jah bless tapers!

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Poster: tigerbolt Date: May 23, 2007 1:10pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

front of the board audience are the best and are the ones i seek out and the MOTB gang are putting out some great f.o.b. but give me a good matrix of a show any day over a aud or sbd.matrix's are a perfect blend of both just check out the sick bits series.

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Poster: TheGreat_and_Knowledgable Date: May 23, 2007 1:37pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

where can i download or check out the sick bits series???

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Poster: dehead Date: May 23, 2007 1:54pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

here's a link to a list from an earlier post

http://bt.etree.org/?search=sick+Bits+Vol&cat=0&incldead=1

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Poster: Scrim Date: May 23, 2007 3:29pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

Matrix recordings rule

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Poster: sydthecat2 Date: May 23, 2007 3:59pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

I am privileged to have some absolutely wicked audience recordings. It is an honour to know a great taper and I have known a few. They rule! I love those moments where I hear something or my world is being rocked and then it's confirmed by some cat in the crowd. (I have a superb recording of the Greek in '81 where tapers or some folks near them are chatting and the guy calls Tennessee Jed and bingo that's what they play. It's a great moment. But the ambient noise in the finest AUD's take nothing away from the performance. So sweet!

I go back to these tapes when I want to really "do" the show. I have been fortunate to get a little of the cream of every era. The Capitol Theatre performance in 1970 with the triple Dark Star is apparently only available as an audience and yet that's the Hard to Handle Lesh chose for The Phil Zone CD. The whole show is wonderful and I've dug it for almost twnety years now. If you're hardcore, the Watkins Glen recording on this site is worth a download. I make a strong case for it in the review section. I'm talkin' the show proper not the famous soundcheck gig. It is one of the supreme accomplishments of early taping and if you like crowd ambiance it is wonderful.

I remember playing my Rich Stadium 1990 AUD for a friend once and he actually mistook it for a soundboard.

I did notice a serious drop in quality in audience recordings in the nineties. Is it because the maestros pulled out or do I blame it on an obsession with DAT and Dolby?

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Poster: Scrim Date: May 24, 2007 10:26am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

The decrease in quality is due to the fact that they were playing bigger venues and stadiums. Their sound system is a little different to fill the place up, and the acoustics of the larger places not as good. The tapers were too far back in many instances.

In the early 80's, they could still play the cozy places. The PA stacks were closer together, and not pushed as hard, and acoustics were better. Tapers could get closer to the source.

Crap in, crap out.

The audience recordings are really revealing of what the place actually sounded like. For instance, it's interesting to hear the sound waves phasing in and out due to wind or extreme heat waves in the large summer stadium shows.

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Poster: Scrim Date: May 24, 2007 10:36am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

Oh, and the '90 Rich stadium show had some real good clean sound. I was there. But the 1989 show sounded pretty crappy.

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Poster: caspersvapors Date: May 23, 2007 12:51pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: soundboards-schmoundboards

word, I love a really great aud