The Who - Circles {Original Version from Dutch Compilation}
24bit/96kHz (Hi-Rez Audio for DVD Burning)
01. Circles (a.k.a. Instant Party)
In Mono.
This recording is officially available on CD but appears here in superior audio quality.
Hardware:
- Technics 1210mk2
- Jelco SA-750D Tonearm (w/ JAC 501 cable)
- Audio Technica AT33PTG MC
- Pro-Ject Tube Box SE-2
- Yamaha CA-1010
- RME ADI-2 A/D Interface
- VPI 16.5 (using VPI brushes and Audio Intelligent’s Enzymantic formula, Super Cleaner Formula)
- Nitty Gritty mini-pro 2 (using Ultra pure water)
Software:
- Audition 3.0 used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks and pops), adding gain and making cue points.
- Click Repair 3.8.3 used with setting Cl:10, Cr: 0
- CueListTool v1.7 & Mediaval CueSplitter used for generating the .cue's & .m3u's.
Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
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Prof. sez:
The original mastertape of this song has been missing for decades, and no tape copy seems to be available. The sources that exist
on vinyl & CD are either dreaded fake stereo or mono sourced from crackly vinyl. Though not ideal, this transfer is clean and has much
better fidelity than the source used on the official remaster of "My Generation". It was taken from this mono-only record from 1967:
http://www.discogs.com/Pete-Townshend-Instant-Party-The-Who/release/4599390
Enjoy!
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The following is lovingly pinched from:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-whos-recording-sessions-various-mixes-etc-book-excerpts-very-very-long.270262/
January 12-13 1966
IBC Studio A, London
AUDIO:
12 minutes, A
Instant Party Mixture, Circles (version one) (mono mix), Circles (version one) (stereo mix), Circles (version one) (alternate mono mix).
These sessions at IBC were the final sessions for the Who with Shel Talmy in the producer’s chair. Within weeks the band would break away
from their brilliant but controlling taskmaster in a spectacularly acrimonious fashion. This session saw the band recording the A-and-B
sides of their intended next single. The subsequent implosion of the Who/Talmy relationship saw to it that the single would not be released,
which would be just as well as the proposed A-side, Townshend’s “Circles”, did not truly stand up to the quality of the band’s previous
A sides, while “Instant Party Mixture” was a fun but goofy parody of Dion & The Belmonts’ classic “Runaround Sue”.
The story of “Circles” is a complicated one for such a relatively slight song. There are actually two distinct versions of the song
recorded and released in 1966. The first to be issued was the second to be recorded, as a February 1966 remake of the song (produced
by the Who) was issued as the B-side of the far-superior “Substitute”. Not to be outdone, Talmy (humorously) issued his version of the
track as the B-side to “A Legal Matter” from the My Generation album—under the confusing title “Instant Party”. This version was also
issued later in the year on the band’s first US album release, The Who Sings My Generation. As with all original Talmy-era releases,
the track was available only in mono (with a horrible “duophonic” fake stereo mix used on the stereo version of the aforementioned US
album release). Finally, 2002’s Deluxe CD edition of the My Generation album saw the track given its first stereo mix—which sounds far
better than any other available mix of the track, although it is missing John Entwistle’s French horn overdub, which had been dubbed
directly onto the mono master. An alternate, slightly cleaner mono mix of “Circles” (with more prominent lead guitar) turned up on the
2007 Japanese My Generation box set.
“Instant Party Mixture” meanwhile remained unreleased until the Deluxe CD edition of My Generation. Consequently, there is only one mix
available of the track—a stereo mix.