Pentangle
1991-08-03 Westborough, Massachusetts Old Vienna Coffeehouse Late Show (M-SBD+AUD)
*~* First-ever Pentangle soundboard & audience MATRIX recording/mix *~*
01. --tuning--
02. The Trees They Do Grow High
03. The Baron O' Brackley
04. Sweet Mother Earth
05. Meat On The Bone
06. Lucky Black Cat
07. O'er The Lonely Mountain
08. Dragonfly
09. Child Of The Winter
10. Is It Real?
11. Reynardine
12. Yarrow
Encore :::
13. Cruel Sister
14. People On The Highway
Total Time :::
::: SUPERB quality ambient stereo* SBD/AUD matrix mix. Check samples for aural absorption appraisal or joy incitement.
::: Warts: Not very many at all! SBD started 1:09 late (~30 seconds into 1st song) so AUD-only for that bit. About 1:45 into #3 sounds cuts in&out for about 45 seconds but was somewhat fixable (but still quite audible). Overall, quite excellent.
::: TO my recollection, there was no opening act, the evening was just 2 shows of Pentangle.
::: Recorded with permission of the band.
::: First-ever digital transfer off the master & then matrixed to boot. Right folkin' on!
Recording Information ::: 1 channel mono soundboard & 1 channel audience (single Sennheiser 300 microphone with shotgun shell) -> Nakamichi BX580 cassette deck -> master Maxell MX-S 100 metal cassette, Dolby B.
Playback 2014-05-19 ::: master Maxell MX-S 100 metal cassette on Nakamichi 680ZX cassette deck, Dolby B on, azimuth & speed adjusted (pitched!) for individual recording, heads cleaned & demagnetized -> Sony Linear PCM Recorder PCM-M10 (LPCM 44.10kHz/16bit WAV files) -> computer -> Audacity [normalisation to remove DC offset, channel/phase alignment, volume adjustments, fades, manual one-at-a-time glitch, bump, pop, click, dropout & dullspot repairs, matrixing work thru channel duplication with volume adjustments, -1.8% further speed fix with single pass after spectral analysis & with pitchpipe verification, NO equalisation] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> yr ears. Mix is somewhat different than what was done with the early show - even with extensive notes, twas hard to duplicate. But I do like 'em both!. First uploaded week of 2014-05-30.
Line-up ::: Bert Jansch - acoustic guitar, vocals // Jacqui McShee - vocals // Peter Kirtley - electric & acoustic guitars // Nigel Portman Smith - electric bass, piano // Gerry Conway - drums, percussion.
Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.
DimeTravel 026 ::: Thanks to the original taper, yrs truly. ::: Corrections welcome ::: Nice to have 2 shows in one night on the tour so we got to hear some other songs. ::: Same notes as for the early show ::: The fact this got taped as both AUD & SBD was an accident. I showed up & the place was so small it wasn't clear everything would be mixed in the board (or at least that's my recollection). Wish that I'd done it a lot more often but for many years I really didn't like the recording but... live & learn - tho' I shoulda realised why I never did get off on the sound of these shows on my cassettes. I always thought it had something to do with the band, whom I knew weren't that pleased with the sound set-up (& perhaps it hadn't been the most exciting night on the tour). But... what I realised was I had always listened to the 2 channels at the same time (AUD & SBD) & hadn't never accounted for the huge delay in the AUD channel. Once fixed, what a tremendous difference in the recording & one's perception of the music, which essentially jumps into focus. The playing is fantastic. I can't give you an exact percentage of SBD to AUD due to the way I mixed it, but it's approximately 70% SBD & 30% AUD. *I'll call it ambient 'stereo' as between the 2 mono sources & the subsequent mixing, it sounds like a stereo recording. While I almost always prefered a SBD to an AUD, listening to the flood of Dead matrixes over recent years made me realise I greatly enjoyed the added depth of some AUD mixed in, albeit at a low edge, which is what I've done here. A unique sound & one of my favorite bands of them all. Listen, enjoy, show appreciation, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees (PS - Yes, for those who remember how heavy & huge those Nak 580's were - I did carry one into the club. Surely the soundguy thought I was nuts - but I loved those glass heads! - and it sounded a lot better than my D-6).
Support the artist and/or their families! Jacqui McShee www.pentangle.info/JMPentangle/HOME.html --- Bert Jansch www.bertjansch.com -- www.myspace.com/pentangle
Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!