Audience

CDR

2

DVD 986; lineage: Audience recording. Cassette (Maxell XLII 90) > Nakamichi 581 > Edirol UA-1EX > Audacity 1.3 > Wav (24bit/96kHz) ----> Samplitude10 (32bit/96kHz) > Wav (16bit/44kHz) > CDWave (1.98) > FLAC. Neonknight Tape / Little Pieces Production (LPP)

As noted, only higher gen recordings of this show have surfaced thus far. Alot of higher gen hiss has built up copy after copy. When viewing the recording in a spectrum analyzer, its readily apparent where the later copies contributed the easily removed portion of the hiss. So I shaped a FFT filter designed to remove this built up generational hiss. After listening to various samples and toggling back and forth and fine tuning it, I settled on a setting that I was comfortable was not removing any content or nuance in the recording. The exact settings were different for each cassette side but essentially I used an arc starting at about 10k and ending at 11.75k at -15db, then a straight cut from there. The result is perhaps a 20% reduction of hiss.

I also applied some minor gain changes throughout to address some of the suttle level changes that occur occasionally. These were almost all within 0.5db to 2db.

I also used the PEQ to increase the level slightly at ~2k-3k by ~1.5db. This created a bit more open sound. All of these changes are intended to make this source a little more enjoyable to listen to for those who appreciate this show even though its a relatively weak recording.

***Neonknight's Notes***
I obtained the cassette used for this transfer from a experienced Danish collector in the mid 1990s. A couple of people I have shared it with previously commented that they believe it to be clearer and found the instrument definition better. As with all versions, "A Saucerful Of Secrets" cuts before the Celestial Voices Sequence. I provided Littlepieces with a 24bit/96kHz wave file so he could adjust the speed and make other corrections.

***Littlepieces' Mastering Notes***
The objective was to make the necessary corrections with a minimum amount of processing iterations using the highest quality settings. This is a mono recording that was processed as two channel stereo as is often the case. It has a small variable phase shift throughout. Also, most of the time, the left channel was lower than the right channel. The best solution for these things, given this is a mono recording, is to eliminate the inferior left channel. No more phase shift and no more channel level differences.

I removed some repeated segments, and manually removed over 150 pops/noises and more than 20 micro dropouts (most being from 12-20ms), and then speed corrected. There were segments where a series of these micro dropouts were adjacent to one another and therefore not all of them could be removed. This left a segment during the 8th minute of FOS a little bumpy for a very short time. Also there are a few small tape drags sprinkled throughout.

All versions of this show that have surfaced are higher gens. Underneath the high hiss level is a great performance.

986

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