David Bowie
Sports Arena, San Diego, CA, USA
11 September 1974
Reworked version
Tape > PC > files > me > Audacity > CD Wave > you
01 1984
02 Rebel Rebel
03 Moonage Daydream
04 Sweet Thing/Candidate
05 Changes
06 Suffragette City
07 Aladdin Sane
08 All The Young Dudes
09 Cracked Actor
10 Rock'n'Roll With Me
11 Knock on Wood (cuts out)
12 It's Gonna Be Me
13 Space Oddity
14 Future Legend-Diamond Dogs
15 Big Brother-Chant of The Ever Circling Family
16 Time
17 The Jean Genie
18 Rock'n'Roll Suicide
19 John, I'm Only Dancing (cuts out)
This is a processed version of this recording (the raw version is on HC, right now) - I have widened the sound image. On the one hand this can cloud some of the detail of the sound *but* it does neatly spread the sound across both channels. It is a little
on the 'murky' side, but it's a good listen once you tune your ears to it, damn good performance! :)
Good version of All The Young Dudes, and the person who sent me the tape swears
by Big Brother being the best version from 1974 as the 'Bro-Bro-Bro' chant starts
at the exact right moment and that it was bodged on all other recorded concerts.
Rock and Roll With Me is sung very delicately, possibly Bowie was pulling out the
stops after the huge applause for All The Young Dudes.
There's a lovely piano intro to Space Oddity - a feature of the concerts at this time,
just a shame it's not a little clearer. Indeed Chant of The Ever Circling Family
does lead on very smoothly - and powerfully from Big Brother. Nice guitar on Time too
(with a pretty unique organ ending, too).
Lovely piano on Rock and Roll Suicide too.
If this is for you, enjoy.
I will be sharing more shows soon.
CAN YOU HELP?
For some time I have been trying to track down a high quality stereo recording of the
Bowie's Toronto 16 June 1974 afternoon show.
It does exist - because I had tapes of it, but unfortunately lost them.
I know that other fans have the recordings (and not in the noisy CD-R version that was shared) and benefit from torrents, Bowie pictures etc etc that are freely offered up online.
Please share if you have the original quality stereo tape of this show.
Thank you.
The process I use in Audacity to widen the sound, usually consists of the following -
-9db decrease (as the mixing and combining needs space) double up the tracks, add .01 sec delay to one of the channels, split channels and mix either side (balance achieved through trial and error)
Combine above doubled up track with untouched track with the latter at a higher level.
The above mixing while giving a nice widening effect I am more than aware can sometimes sound artificial to some, and I have found combining it with the untouched file means a balance is achieved between the raw sound of the original and the mixed version.
Studios used to - and I'm sure still do - resort to all sorts of double tracking and compression effects and the bottom line is this method I found by trial and error sounds good to me and others. Those who do not approve or find it does not sound good to them - no-one is forcing you to download this.
Voila...I listen to live recordings in headphones for the most part, and many people listen in headphones / earphones these days.
This may sound better to many like that, and I am aware that through conventional speakers this sort of mix / re-work may or may not sound as good as an untouched version. It's very subjective, and very much down to individual preference.
Where I don't provide samples the downloader who is unsure about this can simply pick one or two tracks to ascertain how good this is, just as I do.