Rainbow Theatre
"The Best Of Tour '72 - Restored"
Remastered From Original 1st LP Pressing
Sound: A
A note from the Prof.:
Today, 34 years and a couple of days after this was first recorded, I present to you all a significant digital upgrade -maybe even the definitive version- of the legendary "The Best of Tour 72" boot. It KILLS both the "Swinging Pig" and the "Original Masters Series" bootleg CD's of this album that most of you all know. These two boots were both taken from the same inferior source which is ruined by a heavy NoNoise treatment. This is a trueful reproduction of the original vinyl bootleg and will make you hear details in the recording that you never heard before.
***About the Original Bootleg***
The content of this CDR has been carefully mastered from a rare vintage (1972) vinyl copy (strictly rated: EX), the very 1st pressing of this classic floyd bootleg, and therefore the closest source to the (unfindable) original tape. The recorded content of the original LP was handled professionally from start to finish (not counting the cuts in the recording). The sound is beautiful. A very wide stereo image with clear separation of instruments & voices. There is little hiss or distortion. The unmastered source that the bootleggers used must have been 0th or maybe 1st generation tape. The original pre-vinyl tape has had a mastering treatment with a compressor, Dolby(A) and likely some EQ-ing.
The vinyl itself is nice and thick, made to last. This could very well have been pressed at a pressing plant which was used by major record company's as well. As you can read in Clinton Heylin's excellent book "Bootleg! The Rise and Fall of the Secret recording industry" this used to happen a lot in the early 70"s, and it would explain why the bootleggers were so keen to hide the name Pink Floyd, even on the record label itself.
Although the pre-vinyl part in the source info chain is speculated, it's 100% certain that this is NOT a soundboard and/or FM. Ever since this came out, the SQ has led people to believe it is. Even the above mentioned book, erroneously stated this was taken from a BBC radio broadcast. And even to this day, this recording is way more often labelled as "radio" or "soundboard" than as what it is: "EX audience".
Have a look here to learn more about the countless vinyl pressings of this legendary bootleg:
http://backtrax-records.co.uk/floydboots/pages/b8.html
(NB: A few more details to identify the first pressing: The record label is dark blue with silver characters and edge. The matrix number on Side 1 is 16-421 and can be seen both on the label and also in small characters between the running grooves. The label says: "We did it for you". Same goes for Side 2 but the number is 16-422 instead and the label says: "We did it for you too" On both sides you can see: "composed and arranged by TOUR 72". There's no mention of Pink Floyd anywhere. The only direct sign referring to PF are the tour dates on the back of the laminated sleeve. This LP or the 2nd pressing are very much worth the hunt.)
***About the Mastering***
The vinyl was cleaned carefully one hour long using anti-stat. Because both the SQ of the original recording and the mastering of the LP are so outstanding, I felt it would be a waste to correct anything in that aspect. This means that no further eq-ing or compression has been applied by me. ObviousIy, I did not use any noise reduction; the big sin that made the previous (and unfortunately) common cd(r) versions of this recording sound like poop.
There is a little bit of vinyl distortion hearable, most notably in the gentle parts during the last 11 min. of Side 2 on the left channel. It's nothing to write home about but still. I picked out the biggest clicks by hand and handled the rest with the excellent 'Waves' Click & Crackle plug-ins.
I corrected the speed of the recording with +0.15 semitones. I tuned Rick Wright's organ with great precision to an exact A (440 Hz), bringing down the playing time from 41:13 to 40:52. I also swapped the channels as heard on the LP to match the stereo image as much as possible with PF's then stage order; Dave's guitar & vocal are clearly on the left, the toms are coming from the left to the floor-tom on the right, (as if you are standing in front of the drums).
An edit was done to make side 1 run seamlessly into Side 2. The point where the edit was made can be heard on both sides of the LP, so not a millisecond got lost.
Enjoy,
Prof. Stoned