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Poster: dead-head_Monte Date: Jun 30, 2009 10:06am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: a few more early Taper tid-bits and factoids

Some of the early taper history details have also come out these past 24 months. I find them to be fascinating. Bill Gadsden was the "other Taper" (besides me) on 6-10-73. Bill's AUD source for this was also FOB, and sounds just like mine. His tape was recorded with unknown mics and cassette deck and provides the sources for the content I missed.

The Grateful Dead's prototype wall of sound era had begun. By mid-1973 they were on a roll. The sound they got in RFK Stadium on 6-9 & 6-10-73 was EPIC. The fact that the Allman Bros shared the stage there added to the magnitude of this venue. Over 100,000 people showed up for both days. So I have since called this a momentous Modal Spectacle -- because of the amazing Sound they got there. And there was the Jam on Sunday night June 10.

Simply put, the Sound was so fucking incredible at RFK, Bill's tapes and my tapes sound virtually indistinguishable. Go figure. That's how good the Sound was. It didn't matter what you taped with, as long as you were FOB.

Then it turns out that Bill Gadsden came across the Buddy Miller tapes. A friend of Buddy's was the guy who worked with the sound crew at Fillmore East. This is the guy who was hip to the hole drilled in the wall there by April, 1971. He ran a secret SBD patch through it. The patch ran through the hole in the wall which was behind the SBD. The hole entered into a broom closet. Buddy was recording with a stealth reel-to-reel inside the broom closet April 26, 27, 28, 29, 1971. Including April 25, this 5-night run is best known for The Vault commercial release, "Ladies and Gentleman, The Grateful Dead." Thanks to help from Bill Gadsden, the stealth SBDs are circulating today. Funny, I had copies of these tapes in 1972. They circulated out of Princeton, NJ area. I never knew and never met Bill Gadsden. Then I d/l the lossless files from the archives on GD Live dot com 30 months ago. They are since long-gone. Bill tells the Buddy MIller taper story. We always hear about Duane Allman sitting in and Beach Boys sitting in during this run. Often unmentioned in this historic run is the fact that NRPS opened all 5 nights with Jer playing pedal steel.

Another early Taper factoid came out after Jerry Moore's passing a few weeks ago. Lossless Legs was seeding, and Rob Berger was transferring most all of Jerry's tape collection to celebrate his life. It is only then that we learned that Jerry Moore's first know recording that circulated was Old And In The Way, June 8, 1973, at the 8th annual Bluegrass Festival in Warrenton, VA. Here's the post on LL.

My 1st time taping was the next day, GD at RFK Stadium, June 9, 1973. I never knew Jerry Moore. But Jerry and I were both independently taping FOB at Roosevelt Stadium on July 31, 1973. I met Jerry Moore and Rob Berger on LL several months ago. We chatted briefly about early Taping events and gear.

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Poster: fenario80 Date: Jun 30, 2009 10:23am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: a few more early Taper tid-bits and factoids

Thanks, Monte. Great stuff. I had no idea you were such a pioneer, and it is kind of amazing that you run into people 35 years later ...

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Poster: dead-head_Monte Date: Jun 30, 2009 11:33am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: a few more early Taper tid-bits and factoids

It's my thanks to you - all of you - for sharing with me. I mostly like to thank Arb for prodding me to share my old tapes, after I asked about it. Plus, Earl gave me several contacts for some older musicians I did sound work for in the mid-70s. I also transferred and circulated some of this music. Thanks Earl, you spared me a roller-coaster ride. It was very emotional for me. This was about 2 years ago. The emotions are still there. Thank You all.

AUD.fob mic used for June 9 & 10, 1973 GD at RFK Stadium - hand-held on mic-stand shart w/ arm raised high
Sony ECM-99 single-point stereo mic (2-channel, no matrix -- I think it was an X-configuration)dead-head_Monte-sony-ecm-99.jpg

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Poster: Arbuthnot Date: Jun 30, 2009 3:41pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: a few more early Taper tid-bits and factoids

thanks Monte for filling in the blanks, although it is interesting your saying that yours and Bill G's recordings are indistinquishable; it has been quite some time since i did a side-by-side comparison, but i'll take your word for it; if i recall correctly, someone did an AUD composite of both sources, and i guess the true test would be to see how the sound changes during the patched segments; did Bill record the whole show and in the years since lose the other reels?

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Poster: dead-head_Monte Date: Jun 30, 2009 6:15pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: a few more early Taper tid-bits and factoids

I began transferring many of my old tape recordings about 20 months ago. My GD June 10, 1973 AUD.fob was first. I discovered Bill Gadsden's partial AUD of this same show existed at this time. Of course it was a recent Charlie Miller job. Most incredibly to me personally, Bill had the complete AUD source for Eyes of the World, the set 2 opener. Perfect, because I took a huge taping break there at the show myself. I missed the first 14:35 of Eyes. Compare our 2 AUDs there. Also, PITB has a reel-flip loss from 5:22 - 6:23 in my orignal source transferred, linked at the top of this paragraph. My master has Bill Gadsden's AUD patched in there. It's nearly seamless when you listen to it, but I may have over-stated it slightly. Perhaps a perfect X-fade makes it completely seamless and transparent. Ditto w/ Eyes. My June 9 and June 10 master cassettes were suffering from tape damage. I lucked out on the transfers.

My remastering had a few flaws in it -- newbie errors. Kevin Tobin -- Brokedown House Production -- fixed my flaws, and did a new composite AUD remaster. He used my AUD, Bill's AUD, and the SBD for patches. Kevin's AUD remaster is professional. Afterwords, Kevin went back and pitch-corrected the SBD, also a Charlie Miller gem, for June 10. Since my AUD's pitch was matched correctly with Bill's AUD, the audiophiles decided it was the SBD that was off. Lastly, Kevin Tobin then belted out a MTX master and a DTS 5.1 master for this date. Unfortunately, the MTX suffers a few phasing problems w/ brief synch losses in places on a few tracks. Kevin's composite AUD is a snappy rendering by a professional masterer for this show. I think this sound sets the bar for ear candy remarkably well for the GD sound in 1973. Some people tend to confuse this show with being the best GD playing of 1973. I seriously doubt that. But it's surely in the running for one of the best shows of 1973, and for best Sound they ever got in 1973. I'm still haunted by this.

Thanks for asking, and for caring.