KSAN-FM Broadcast

This is a 1st gen mono off-air recording of a KSAN-FM broadcast of this well known abbreviated performance. It's possible that the off-air recording was made in 1973 - please see the reference at the end of this description. On that day people watching the broadcast on TV could tune into KSAN on the radio for better sound.
However, the inclusion of Here Comes Santa brings the likelihood that this is a recording from the simulcast into serious doubt. It seems most likely that this was an independent broadcast of the audio recorded for the show. Intriguingly, it is also possible that the audio was recorded independently of the video.
Here Comes Santa (a complete version unlike my December 2015 release) seems to just be a name made up by collectors. As I have mentioned previously, it resembles The Christmas Song. In Here Comes Santa the silver bells on Santa's sleigh "sound so homosexual" and on The Christmas Song they "sound so gay". We know for certain that The Christmas Song was recorded during the Zabriskie Point Sessions thanks to Wromanus and I think it is likely that Here Comes Santa was as well. Perhaps the band had a ZP tape with them when they went to the US and slotting it into the recording was an impromptu joke.
The master off-air recording was made by a guy in San Francisco using a reel to reel recorder. The taper wasn't an out-and-out Floyd fan and had various master tapes and reels from a number of bands that he was happy to share.
I am not sure whether this 1st gen was recorded with Dolby B but suspect it was. I left Dolby in the off position, recorded in stereo and dropped the left channel because the hiss was stronger and it was recorded at lower volume. Like most FM broadcasts, this recording has gone through automatic leveling and limiting and the quiet sections are therefore often at almost the same level as the loud sections.
The recording has various broadcast noises, such as static, ticks and pops so I exported my initial transfer from Reaper to WAV and used ClickRepair - automated, declick 40, decrackle 40, simple method; a non-destructive approach to removing many artefacts.
In AHM there is some static at 2m11s and the taper appears to have momentarily pressed the pause button at 6m16s. You might also notice a background hum which I decided to not address in the spirit of keeping this release relatively raw.
Returning to Reaper, I applied gain of 1.27dB to side A and 2.52dB to B. Side B is noticeably quieter than A (I transferred the whole tape at the same level). Side B begins with Grantchester Meadows and also suffers from a reduced frequency response. I don't doubt the provenance of my tape but think it seems likely that side B was recorded with different equipment.
Customary expert speed correction advice was provided by goldenband.
AHM, Cymbaline, GM: +1.81%
GITC, CWTAE, STC: +1.34%
My 2nd gen cassette, which littlepieces released as Bovine Broadcast, was sourced from this 1st gen and my new transfer is much stronger. Littlepieces wrote some interesting notes for his release which are worth reading if you would like to study this recording. My old tape shows significant generation loss, illustrating the downward step that can sometimes occur in a single generation and the difference a high quality playback deck can make.
** An Hour With Pink Floyd - further background information **
My thanks to Roscoe59 for the following details.
The performance was videotaped at the original Fillmore on April 30, 1970 a day after Pink Floyd performed at the Fillmore West.
The Fillmore and the Fillmore West are often confused. The Fillmore (located at Fillmore and Geary) was Bill Graham’s first "ballroom" for live concerts. He soon outgrew it and bought a place on Market and Van Ness called the Carousel Ballroom which was later renamed the Fillmore West.
Pink Floyd was booked at the Fillmore West on April 29 but shooting this video at that location, for whatever reason, was not an option. Roy Loney, the show’s director, claims he offered the use of the original Fillmore, at that time an empty ballroom, with a stage that no one was using except the Flamin Groovies for rehearsals.
In the 1980’s the original Fillmore was renamed the Elite Club when they started using it for huge punk rock shows. In the 1990s Bill Graham got it back, reopening it as The Fillmore. It is currently owned by Clearchannel.
The program was originally produced by Jim Farber as part of a KQED series call "The 10 O'clock Mix" to be presented as a few song segments without the video effects and aerial footage. When "The 10 O'clock Mix" was cancelled funding was procured to produce the show as "An Hour with Pink Floyd" with an additional budget for filming the opening aerial footage and studio time (in the downtown studio of KQED) where the final version of the show with the effects were added.
The performance was recorded live with standard broadcast cameras and fed into a mobile unit parked outside of the facility. All editing occurred in real time and the recording was captured onto 2” videotape.
The original agreement with the Floyd, who were paid an honorarium of $100, was for local broadcast only. When the show was picked up for national broadcast on PBS the contract was renegotiated and their fee was raised to $2000. At that point Steve O'Rourke, who represented the Pink Floyd, purchased a copy on 2" video tape of the finished show. The agreement stated that Pink Floyd held the rights for non-USA usage hoping to sell the show for feature film release in Europe but due to broadcast quality issues they had no luck and decided to focus their efforts on the Pompeii project instead. The failure to sell the KQED production perhaps explains why the Pink Floyd have essentially ignored its existence until recently.
When the show was broadcast nationally by PBS in 1973 it was simulcast by KSAN-FM in San Francisco.

Neonknight, January 2016

Dodano:  16.03.2018