New High Definition (24/96) transfer from Marbal's own 1st Generation Safety Cassette!
Island Green 1972-05-21 (24bit/96kHz)
** Recorder 2 - Marbal **
2nd British Rock Meeting
Insel Grün, Germersheim, Germany
May 21st 1972
New High Definition transfer from Marbal's own 1st Generation Safety Cassette. Artwork production by Beechwoods.
Lineage History:
-Master Recording (1972-05-21): Telefunken Magnetophon 300 reel to reel
-RtR to Cassette (1981-09-18): ASC AS 5000 reel to reel > unknown cassette deck > Maxell UDXLII C90 cassette (Dolby 'On')
-1st Gen Cassette (2011-07-18): Nakamichi CR7A > Maxell UDXLII C90 cassette (Dolby 'On') > Tascam HD-P2 (WAV 24bit/96kHz) ===> Adjustments (WAV 32bit float/96kHz) > WAV (24bit/96kHz) > CDWave (1.98) > FLAC
01 [16:07] Atom Heart Mother
02 [11:30] Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
03 [08:31] One Of These Days
04 [11:03] Careful With That Axe, Eugene
05 [23:37] Echoes
06 [13:14] A Saucerful Of Secrets
|| [84:05] Total
*** Beechwoods' Transfer Notes ***
Marbal kindly lent me a number of his tapes and reels, and this is the first new transfer from those. The master reel has deteriorated with time and is now lost, but Marbal's 1st generation ¼" reel and 1st generation cassette survive. After many comparisons and a number of reel transfers on different machines it was agreed that the cassette offered the best basis for a definitive release.
The tape was a 1980-82 vintage European Maxell UDXLII 'Type II' / High Bias cassette, and the tape inlay and label confirmed that Dolby Noise Reduction had been used at the time of recording. Playback azimuth was checked and aligned. A number of transfers were made using different settings of Dolby and Bias to determine the combination necessary to achieve a natural playback EQ. Playback with Dolby On and the cassette's Bias of 'Type II' 70µs EQ produced a very weak result. This is often the case when playing back a Dolby encoded recording on a different deck than the one that it was encoded with. Playback with Dolby Off resulted in an exaggerated level of hiss and a unusual EQ. Playing back with 'Type I' 120µs EQ, with Dolby On, was determined to be the best combination resulting in the most natural EQ.
Once these basics were established, a set of transfers at different levels were then done, to allow use of segments with optimal recording levels at different points (the original recording was very dynamic, with very high transients during crowd-noise, and at points during OoTD and the start of AHM).
It was from these raw transfers that Little Pieces began his work.
*** Littlepieces' Mastering Notes ***
On this recorder the fidelity of the 1st two tracks, AHM and STC, are not as strong and consistent as the last four. A significant factor for this appears to be the position of the microphone. It was not that the mic was being covered but that the position wasn't as good and was changing periodically. Sometimes these changes would clearly allow more sub 90HZ content in that seemed to crowd out some of the higher end. Of course these segments would become relatively darker when this happened which is part of the reason the first two tracks were a little variable and overall not as strong as the last four.
This is a mono recording that was processed as two channels. Almost the entire recording has a small shift of 2-4 samples. Most of the time the left channel's output is stronger than the right and has more high frequency content. The level difference was greater during softer segments where it would often become 2-3dB and the darker right channel would become relatively darker. Because of the relative weakness of the first two tracks, I used only the left channel on all but 2m of AHM and all of STC. Using only the left channel and removing the darker right channel added some clarity and presence to the first two tracks and corrected the minor phase shift. On the 2m segment of AHM where the right channel was retained, I manually aligned the channels.
Although the last fours tracks are better quality, they have the same left channel bias as the first two. But during the louder segments, the right channel is providing value to the lower half and therefore was retained and the channels manually aligned. During most of the softer segments of the last four tracks, the lower half became less relevant and the right channel receded and became relatively darker, so only the left channel was the used on these segments which improved their clarity and presence.
This recording has more mic artifacts than any recording I can recall working on. I manually removed more than 500 noises at least half of which were mic related. It had its share of typical pops and tics but the more disruptive and unusual artifacts were bumps, thuds, rubs, and an array of odd artifacts, many of which were difficult to imagine their origins. Extended scraping sounds, ripping sounds, bubbling type noises, bubble wrap like sounds, rustling of plastic, and many buried low frequency noises as well as other types. The problem with these is that most were apparent during quieter sections such as the intro and outro of STC, Echoes, SOS, as well as others. These artifacts would really take the listener out of the moment and increase the distance to the stage. This is why much of the time spent on this remaster was to remove or moderate these disruptive artifacts in order to close the distance to the stage. Some people's louder and more untimely vocal outbursts were also moderated usually by reducing their upper frequencies above the relevant content. This would take the edge off their outburst and make them sound a bit further from the mic. An interesting very low level artifact that was not removed occurs at the very end of CWTAE at ~10:42m. Its sounds like a camera mechanism advancing.
Marbal's wishes were for this recording to sound as good as it could including the use of EQ to achieve results. The objective was to maintain a natural sound quality while lifting the fidelity of the first two tracks and making them more consistent with the last four tracks as well as improving the last four tracks.
The SQ of the first two tracks, AHM and STC, changes many times including levels changes as much as 4dB. AHM SQ seems to subtly improve at ~70s, 2m, 3m, and eventually stabilizes at ~4m. It is then relatively consistent til about ~8m when it sounds as if the tape recorder unit was jostled significantly perhaps causing the unit and/or mic to be effected and increasing the sub 90HZ output and diminishing the high end for a few minutes. It clears up for a few minutes and then has a few periods of levels changes and darkening until the end of the track. STC tends to be the weakest track on any audience recording. The quiet nature of the track seems to cause it to recede and seem more distant relative to the other tracks on most audience recordings. This, along with seemingly the same mic issues as AHM, made STC the most challenging track on Marbal's recording. The first few minutes includes a level change of 3dB which given it is a very quiet section is effectively more like a 5-6dB difference. The first 3m of STC is easily the weakest segment of this recording but the track seems to improve after about 3m and then has the same intermittent periods of level changes and darkening as AHM.
Given the issues with AHM and STC, they required more significant and varied EQ and gain changes than the remainder of the recording. All changes were made with the FFT-EQ. As with most of the recording the sub 90HZ levels were moderated and the low end above that point was increased. In addition, varying increases to the midrange and upper end were made in an attempt to improve the SQ continuity within these tracks and to make them closer to the fidelity of the last four tracks. The high end increases in the first two tracks sloped to 0dB at no higher than 8k.
As stated the last fours tracks SQ and levels were much more consistent than the first two. On the louder segments, the sub 90HZ levels were moderated and the low end above this point was increased on all these tracks. On OoTD and CWTAE some modest increases were made to portions of the midrange and high end as well. This was done to a lesser degree on Echoes and almost none on SOS.
Finally, on all tracks, I rolled off some hiss varying my approach according to the level and characteristics of the segment.
There are times when the high end sounds a bit too splashy or enhanced. This is part of the original recording and generally occurs when the levels between ~9-11k jump up. Though this may sound as if it has been boosted, no increase was made to these areas as obviously none were needed. In fact, during SOS where many of these occur, the upper half was not increased anywhere.
The following are other things of note:
- The subtle change at around 8m of AHM is an example of one of the several SQ changes that was preceded by an prominent tape recorder or mic movement and has now been smoothed and is no longer prominent. Others have been completely removed and the EQ adjusted so that the change is completely transparent.
- At 2:03m of CWTAE, there is a minor inside cut that is apparently a splice from tape damage and is on the master DAT as well.
- At the very end of STC a few seconds prior to the applause the level jumped up 6-7dB. After smoothing this segment it is now almost transparent but seems like it could be another minor inside cut.
- In the middle of Echoes there was a damaged beat that I repaired with the preceding beat.
- The correct track order as on the master is STC then OoTD. This 1st gen safety copy had CWTAE after STC followed by OoTD. I moved OoTD to its proper position and removed ~9s of audience that was already included at the end of CWTAE.
- Pretty Naked Women are good.
*** Historical Background ***
Marbal's memories of the Floyd's appearance were that 'we had a bunch of idiots crowding us and screaming very loudly, especially a girl who went crazy. So we tried to get away a little'.
The First British Rock Meeting took place in Speyer, Germany on September 4th 1971. It was a great success, bringing Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallagher plus others to an appreciative German audience. The event was organised by MAMA Concerts, Marek Lieberberg and Marcel Avram. The event was repeated the following day in Vienna, Austria under the title 'The Sensational British Superstar Festival'.
Lieberberg and Avram planned the 2nd British Rock Meeting to be a lot bigger and a lot better. Early promotional material was printed with the venue as Friesenheimer Island in Mannheim. The Mannheim authorities refused to licence the event. Sites in Korsika and Hockenheim were considered as alternative venues, but the prospect of 70,000 rock fans and 4 days of festivities made it a hard sell. Eventually, they settled upon Insel Grün, just outside of Germersheim. The authorities there got cold feet just days before the festival gates opened, but when they saw the number of people heading towards the event, it was allowed to go ahead.
According to local reports, 'many toted what looked like all their worldly goods in blankets or on poles. Tents were pitched so closely together that it was often impossible to step between them... Boys outnumbered girls a good 2 to 1. But half of the girls appeared to be braless, making it more difficult to distinguish them from boys.
'One festival goer, a US GI named Don Wikey was quoted as saying "As long as the music plays there won't be any trouble. It's when the music stops that people start smoking too much hash." Estimates at the time suggested that as many as 15,000 of the fans present were US Servicemen.
Insel Grün is now home to a sprawling Daimler-Mercedes Global Logistics Centre.
Marbal Tape / Beechwoods Transfer / Little Pieces Production (LPP)
October 2011
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