Michael Fry
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Posts posted by Michael Fry
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PM sent, Andy. Cheers!
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PM sent MrPimmyJage. Cheers!
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PM sent, Themisfit. Cheers!
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Thank you all involved. Wonderful that this stuff is still coming to light. Bless you for bringing it to us.
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13 hours ago, bigjonlogi said:
Wow! This looks amazing. May i please have a link?
PM sent, bigjonlogi.
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17 hours ago, Unique Style said:
Great job. Thanks for posting. Is there any other way to get this other than download from YouTube?
lots of hard work on this project
PM sent. Enjoy!
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Speechless. Best Zep Christmas in years!
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What another awesome find. Thank you so much, guys!
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3 hours ago, in_the_evening said:
I will show my stupidity with bootlegs: what's a matrix?
Like Conquistador says, a matrix is where both audience and soundboard tapes have been mixed together to play in sync at the same time and just in case you're wondering why this is done here's a (sort of) quick explanation...
Soundboards have instruments and vocals clearly defined, usually with a decent balanced sound, but can be very dry (no reverb at all) which accentuates any mistakes made (e.g. vocal squeaks or guitar finger flubs). Soundboards can also lose the great atmosphere that you get from hearing the crowd at a gig.
Audience tapes record the sound of the venue's natural acoustics (nice bit of reverb!) and capture the crowd's excitement but of course sometimes the sound is distant, the venue's acoustics are terrible and the crowd is louder than the band!
Combine the two together and - voila! - you have the best of both worlds. For it to work it helps if both sbd and aud tapes are decent recordings to begin with but if you get the balance right (70% soundboard and 30% audience, say, but this can vary a lot depending on the quality of the aud) it can help the gig to sound magnificent. One of the largest hurdles is the fact that when recording gigs on tape in the 70s, the tape machines often ran slightly faster or slower than the industry standard resulting in the two tapes not quite being at the same pitch, sometimes even varying by almost a semi-tone. This obviously needs correcting before any sync can be made.
More difficult problems arise in syncing up the two sources if the speed of the original tape machine was not consistent (say, due to failing batteries, for example) which results in fluctuations in the pitch and tempo. Also, some tapes have small cuts or glitches. This all means that the two wav. files can not simply be dropped side by side on the editing software. I've read of people having to sync up the two sources in 30 second segments or even smaller! Imagine doing that for a 3 hour gig and you can see what a massive job it actually is. Extreme patience and determination required! I have nothing but admiration for the fans who do it as there are many other problems they have to correct before the matrix can be thought of as a presentable improvement.
Prime examples of gigs that have really benefited from this are: 1973-7-17 Seattle, 1975-2-12 MSG, 1975-3-21 Seattle, 1975-5-24 Earls Court, 1977-5-28 Landover and 1979-8-4 Knebworth but there are many others, especially from 1980.
One guy, Nite Owl, managed to make a matrix of the 5 Blueberry Hill audience sources - which was a superhuman achievement! (And it's a tremendous listen too.)
There are, however, a few attempts to avoid due to sync issues and some which are OK but not perfect such as the 1977-7-7 Seattle matrix.
Maybe someone out there has compiled a definitive list. That would be very useful. Can't seem to find one when searching the forum.
Anyway, hope that helps. Let me know if you'd like me to message a link to any that you would like to hear.
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Thanks for all your advice on this one. Went to Zoso.me and saw that "The Last Flight" - An Achilles-Cooleyez Production is indeed there right at the bottom of the list. It's not identified as a matrix so either it's easy to miss or it just popped up in the last week or so!
I can confirm that it is an excellent matrix. For me, it's now the most enjoyable way of experiencing the show. As for the dodgy songs, SIBLY really benefits from this mix and it's especially nice to hear the crowd enthusiasm and the slight thickening of the guitar sound. White Summer is unfortunately still a complete disaster and you can sense how uncomfortable the audience feel. Happily, STH is definitely improved. The guitar solo isn't exactly top notch but at least his runs sound slightly more fluid and you can better appreciate what he's trying to achieve.
Anyway, thanks to all (especially Achilles and Cooleyez, whoever you are). Hope this matrix now becomes better known as it seems to show that they did go out on a semi-high and that the gig wasn't quite the doom and gloom that some people have considered it to be.
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That is good news indeed! Hopefully it will breathe the life back into the gig's 3rd quarter! Things took a turn for the worse from about SIBLY up to STH , I reckon. The rest of the gig is top notch 1980 though.
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Thanks, Xolo.
From what I can tell, by downloading a file from each boot, the boots marked sbd/aud only use the audience source to fill gaps in the soundboard rather than being used to create a true matrix.
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Hi did, but not a matrix - just the aud filling the gaps in the sbd.
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1 hour ago, conquistador said:
There is a really good matrix of the July 1980 Berlin show. I can't remember the name, but I've had it on my hard drive for over 10 years.
So glad you confirmed that, Conquistador. Any idea who did it? Would be amazing if it were Bluecongo or someone like that although I suspect it would be on lists if that were the case.
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4 hours ago, ZepHead315 said:
I've seen one or two matrixes on Black Beauty but can't remember much about them. I can't imagine they were very good. I agree that a matrix for this show would be interesting, although I sincerely doubt it would put the performance in a better light lol.
Point taken!
However, I recently listened to this to re-evaluate whether it truly deserved its reputation and found that 2/3 of it was pretty good. Once I removed SIBLY, White Summer, Kashmir and Stairway, I was left with a pretty decent gig that I could thoroughly enjoy. I then made a slight adjustment to the set list order:
TKAR, NFBM, BD, ITE, TRS, TU, AML, RAR, WLL
and voila! A gig that stands up to repeated listening as much as any other 1980 gig and in fact better than some. Fitted on a single CD too!
What also seemed to make a difference was using the Mid Summers Night In Berlin remaster by nakedeye25. A matrix would have been even better but this remaster seems to be the best version I have so far heard.
I had forgotten just how good ITE, Trampled and All My Love were, I think.
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Anyone out there know if anyone's attempted this?
I know Sue Dounim did a sbd/aud matrix of Whole Lotta Love from this show and it was very good but I can't seem to find anything else. If any show needed a bit of a matrix helping hand, it's this one!
ZepHead315 - I consider you to be the fountain of all knowledge on this matter - are you aware of any worthy attempts? Cheers!
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Yes please, Steve. Link would be grand!
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19 hours ago, JohnOsbourne said:
I have to be honest, the soundboard is pretty close to what I would have expected from this show a month ago (i.e. before the audience tape came out). There is a lot of rust and sloppiness here. (STH in particular comes down a few notches.) Some real highlights, to be sure (NQ is still brilliant, unfortunately it's cut, starts in the middle of Jones' solo), so it's still an enjoyable find, but it's clearly a band coming off of a long layoff and not at 100% physically.
I am inclined to agree. The audience recording hid many rusty moments and now we can really hear the impact of Page's broken finger. That Stairway To Heaven solo clearly hurt! (As did the opening numbers!) It's not a great gig but LedZeppelinRarities' matrix mixes of WTLB and TWS are incredible and I'm sure grateful to have the show for that reason. Also thought IMTOD got a decent early outing as did TSRTS and K, with Plant singing well for '75. In fact, BD has an awesome scream from Plant in the first Ah-ah section, hinting at what he could have done with his voice later in the tour if it hadn't been for that bloody flu.
Going to listen to those fantastic matrix versions on Youtube again with JPJ's badass bass! Heaven.
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2 hours ago, John M said:
Blimey! That were quick! Thanks for the link. Great job from LedZeppelinRarities on this. Really enjoyed the sound mix.
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Solid show after the first couple of numbers. RAR and OTHAFA are a rough ride for Plant's voice and Page's finger injury but I really enjoyed the rest of the performance. Great version of When The Levee Breaks and the 2nd half of the show is fantastic.
Wonder if anyone will matrix the soundboard and the audience together. This dry soundboard definitely needs a bit of reverb and atmosphere and Wanton Song needs patching. Anyone up for the challenge?
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Top 5 for the first half of the tour only, I reckon.
Very enjoyable, though!
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It has arrived! WeTransfer link up on Guitars101. Just about to take listen. Deep breath...
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PM sent.
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Nice assessment of a forgotten show. Thank you. Do you have an overall favourite of the MSG shows and of the non-L.A. '77 shows?
Question About RAH 1/9/70
in Led Zeppelin Live
Posted
Got the complete version. PM sent.