Best Of North American Tour

*** Notes:
This set is assembled to be a definitive 1977 tour album with some of the best performances from the North American 1977 tour featuring consistent high fidelity and discreet surround sound as heard at the original shows. We are very lucky to have all the elements of this album captured between multiple audience recordings in such a complete way. Starting with having definitive performances to choose from in the few audience recordings that actually have near professional release audio quality. MSG, NY was recorded by two different people, one close to the stage and one further back in the venue. Combining these properly lets us hear the live surround sound motion for the guitar and keyboard soloing as it was mixed in the venue. Finally, we have a recording made near their rear speaker stack that we can use to isolate the rear channel of their quad fx reel from. Audio tools now exist to allow us to sync together these multiple analog audio sources with perfection to the micro level while keeping the audio unharmed to achieve this.
This project started life as a Yeeshkul! discussion for a fantasy best of 1977 concert. It started to appear that all the pieces were falling into place for a pro level concert restoration and this project is the result. The individual shows by themselves have surprising high fidelity and discreet surround sound from combined multiple recorders but also have various incomplete sections (like only the distant recorder rolling while the guy in front flips a tape). This compilation gives you the complete show from all angles using all these recordings. Not all the edits between venues are seamless but the ‘visible’ ones are smoother than the original flaws they replace. Such as the front recorder dropping out to flip a tape in NY, a very loud explosion from a loud firework also in NY, Dave having a rough vocal moment, and just a couple musical moments better enough to demand the effort. In addition to the edits between venues, a few bad notes and a missed drum fill were fixed as well.

*** Sources:
All lineage information comes from the original notes included with the recordings. Some of the more questionable lineage is to the best of everyone’s knowledge.

* 1977-07-02 Madison Square Garden, NY. Recorded both near the front of the stage and past the half way point back and to the right side of the venue capturing live surround panning between them. The front recorder is one of the best fidelity audience recordings from the tour. Many tracks here that would get best of tour picks regardless of fidelity as it turns out. Front and right side surround fx reel elements are present.

Recorder 1 released as: pf1977-07-02.aud.motb.0177_flac24 (shared 2011-10-23)
Master audience cassette taped by Louis Falanga: unknown mics -> Sony SD152 -> Maxell UD C60 and a UD C90
Transfer by Bb Menke: Nakamichi CR-7a -> Korg MR-1000 -> DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo] -> Korg MR-1000
Mastering by Derek McCabe: Korg AudioGate -> PCM WAV [24bit/96kHz] (unknown if this also included any sonic processing)

Recorder 2 released as: Pink Floyd 1977-07-02 New York, NY - Uncirculated - The Lostbrook Tape Series - Volume 43
Master audience cassette: Internal Mic -> Panasonic tape deck -> TDK SD C90
Transfer: Alesis TapeLinkUSB -> Audacity -> WAV [16bit/44.1kHz]

* 1977-05-09 Oakland, CA. Only one audience recording of this show but it’s near the stage and usually regarded as the highest fidelity audience recording of the tour. (Although adding the rear recorder to the MSG show for a quad playback betters this single recorder in many ways.) Another case here of some tracks that would get best of tour picks regardless of fidelity. Front fx reel elements are very well captured and left and right side surround elements are present.

Recorder 1 released as: pf1977-05-09.fob.menke.motb.0053.flac24 (shared 2009-01-29)
Master audience cassette taped by Reinhart Holhwein: Sony ECM 280 mics -> Sony SD152 -> 2 x TDK SA90
Transfer by Bb Menke: Nakamichi CR-7a -> Korg MR-1000 -> DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo] -> Korg MR-1000
Mastering by Derek McCabe: Korg AudioGate -> PCM WAV [24bit/96kHz] (unknown if this also included any sonic processing)

* 1977-07-06 Stade Du Parc Olympique, Montreal, Quebec. Three audience recorders here. The best two are in the middle of the venue and surround fx elements are very distant. The 3rd recorder is closer to the stage but extremely lo fidelity. Together they restore a fidelity that makes the cut and allows the use of some better performances. There was a 4th audience recorder that was too poor to be useful.

Recorder 1 released as: Pink Floyd 1977-07-06 Montreal Recorder 1, unknown gen [24-96] (shared 2012-01-23)
Unknown generation cassette transfer by Neonknight: Maxell XLII Cassettes x 2 -> modified Technics RS-B965-M -> Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 -> Audacity 1.3 -> FLAC [24bit/96kHz]

Recorder 2 released as: Pink Floyd - Stade Du Parc Olympique, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 6 July 1977
Master audience recording -> DAT(2) -> Amadeus -> MacFlac -> FLAC [16bit/44.1kHz]

Recorder 3 released as: PINK FLOYD - MONTREAL 6.7.77
Unknown generation cassette -> unknown CDR recorder -> SHN -> WAV -> TLH 1.0.0.72 SBE check and fix -> FLAC [16bit/44.1kHz]

* 1977-05-01 Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, TX. Two audience recorders here. Significantly lower fidelity recordings here but combined, offered a performance upgrade that makes the cut for part of SOYCD pts 1-5.

Recorder 1 released as: "Iron Pigs On Fire" T-700 (shared 2003-01-05)
Master audience cassette recording and transfer by Tannehill: Sony ECM-19B mics -> Sony TC152 -> (2)Sony Chrome CRO-90 Plus2 -> Nikko 32 Band EQ -> Akai DR16 -> Sony PCM-R500 -> HHB CDR-800 -> CDR -> Exact Audio Copy -> SHN [16bit/44.1kHz]

Recorder 2 released as: Pink Floyd - 1977-05-01 Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, TX (rec 2)
1st generation cassette transfer by Mesquite: dat -> cd-r
Mastering by fatoldpig: cd-r(2) -> Exact Audio Copy (secure with C2) -> CDWave -> Cool Edit Pro 2.1 (split tracks and remove any repeats) -> WAV -> Traders Little Helper (with Align to split tracks) -> FLAC(7) [16bit/44.1kHz]

* 1977-04-22 Miami Baseball Stadium, Miami, FL. Two audience recorders here. Again, significantly lower fidelity recordings but that combined, offer an excellent bit of performance to replace a small section missing from the MSG recording of SOYCD pts 6-9 due to a tape flip. There is a 3rd recorder shared but it does not include this song.

Recorder 1 released as: 1977-04-22 - First Generation
1st generation cassette -> CDR[?] -> SHN [16bit/44.1kHz]

Recorder 2 released as: Baseball Stadium, Miami, Florida, USA, April 22nd 1977 (recorder 2)
1st generation cassette -> DAT(0) -> CDR(?) -> FLAC [16bit/44.1kHz]

* 1977-02-03 Hallenstadion, Zürich, Switzerland. Three audience recorders here. The 3rd recorder was right in front of the rear surround speaker stack. The quad fx reel elements from the back speaker recording here have been isolated to allow use with any show. There are no live performance elements kept from this source for this project. Recorders 1 & 3 together capture the opening quad fx played before Sheep.

Recorder 1 released as: Zurich Master Speedcorrected (Recorder 1)
Master audience cassette -> cdr(?) Shared in the pinkroioshn hub without any notes about speed correction or lineage.

Recorder 3 released as: pf1977-02-03 Zurich Dsto0-Pacco Master (shared 2010-05-30)
Master audience cassette (BASF CrO2) -> Nakamichi ZX-7 -> Tascam HDP2 -> WAV [24bit/96kHz]

*** The 1977 quad fx reel:
Pink Floyd prepared a discreet quadraphonic fx tape to be used during the show which features in Sheep (opening sheep sounds and the quad panned sermon voices), POTW pt1 (wind fx), Dogs (quad barking and the backing surround keyboard part for the solo section), POTW pt2 (birds in the back), Pigs (quad grunting), SOYCD pts 1-5 (wine glasses intro), WTTM (the quad panned throbbing synth backing track), HAC (the ‘reduced to AM radio’ event that sweeps across the venue), WYWH (the opening radio bit and wind fx), SOYCD pts 6-9 (wind fx and the wine glasses outros), Money (cash register sound fx).
The quad fx elements coming out of the front surround speaker stack are usually well captured by the recorders nearer the front of the venue. The left and right side surround stack capture varies depending on recording locations and are distant in most audience recordings. The rear surround speaker stack is almost always too far away from the recording position to even be heard in most audience recordings. The luck comes in here with the 3rd recorder at the Zurich show who recorded the show sitting directly in front of the rear surround speaker stack. Since the Floyd used the very same fx reel at every show, the fx reel elements from this rear speaker capture could be isolated and used to restore the discreet surround fx elements from the back of the venues which were far away in the other recordings.

*** Mastering notes:
The recordings of the NY & CA shows have an exceptional fidelity not often heard in audience recordings. The emphasis was on keeping this high level of fidelity throughout the concert. Then expand NY to quad with r2 sync’ed up in the rear to reveal the live surround motion captured. The Quebec show is the next best sounding source but a big step down (more accurately, further away) as all the recorders are more centrally located in the audience. Combining the 3 audience recordings brings out a better dynamic range and some of the excitement and energy to bring it up a level. Both TX & FL benefit from two recorders as well although these are more distant and lo-fi sounding, more typical of audience recordings. The parts used from these two shows needed a lot of heavy handed work to make them fit in without distraction.
All sources were finessed to restore the sound and perspective as originally intended and presented as well as possible. Everything from eq work to dynamics restoration to erasing loud audience noises and other artifacts with spectral editing. Using parameter modulation in Reaper allowed for very complex targeted eq work to raise subdued elements while suppressing the brash distorted artifacts. Sync alignment was tricky for some sections. Proper perspective of the reverberant elements echoing in the venue and bouncing off the back wall vs. the direct surround panned parts was restored as well as possible. This got very challenging for parts where each recording contained direct and reverberant elements but with different latency profiles from different distances from the PA surround speakers.
Audio tools used include Reaper for the main DAW, iZotope RX, Universal Audio and Waves plugins. Speed correction and sync work was done in Reaper using the lossless Elastique Pro 3 algorithm. Sources with sample rates lower than 96k were upsampled with SOX.
The master is 24 bit 96k 4.0 quadraphonic in a 5.1 container with digital zero C & Lfe channels to insure compatibility in all media players. In addition to the quad master, I produced a 24 bit 96k stereo mix with proper balances of the sources (not just a straight fold down). Although a compromise, it still retains the fidelity and completeness of the presentation.

Jimfisheye, November 3, 2017

Dodano: 15.11.2018