Soft Machine
Het Turfschip
Breda, Netherlands
March 21, 1971 (sometimes dated as March 15, 1971)

Revision of T raw source

Lineage: Soundboard > unknown > Reel to Reel 7 1/2 ips
Playback Deck: Akai GX-747 > ADS Tech Instant Music RDX-150 input SPDIF > output USB to computer 16 bit 44.1 Khz > Audacity > FLAC
Additional lineage: FLAC > Audacity (cut combined audio tracks) > MATLAB (speed adjustment) > Audacity > FLAC > TLH > FLAC (level 8)

Setlist:
01. Facelift
02. Virtually
03. Slightly All The Time
04. Fletcher's Blemish
05. Neo Caliban Grides
06. Out-Bloody-Rageous
07. Vocal improvisation
08. Eamonn Andrews
09. All White
10. Kings And Queens
11. Teeth
12. Pigling Bland
13. Slightly (9/4) > Noisette
14. Applause

Running Time: 93:41

Band:
Elton Dean - saxophone
Mike Ratledge - keyboards
Hugh Hopper - bass guitar
Robert Wyatt - drums & vocals


Raw audio originally circulated by T________ on Sept. 20, 2011


Date Question:
T________ originally circulated the audio without an exact date (1971-03). TomP's remaster says March 15. According to
http://www.calyx-canterbury.fr/softmachine/chrono.html, Soft Machine played in Breda on March 21.


T________ Notes:
These flac files are sourced from a reel-to-reel tape recorded at 7 1/2 ips that I got in trade in about 1977 from a fellow
trader / taper in The Netherlands. It's a soundboard recording. This is a raw transfer.

I am also releasing Soft Machine 1971-03 Het Turfschip, Breda Netherlands sbd (T-818). It is the mastered, corrected T
release version. Anyone that wants to work on the raw source recording is free to do that as long as you mention the source
tape you used. Don't use T-818 version as a source because that one is the version that shows what I can do. Use the (T
source raw) recording for your source, it's the one I used.


Revision Notes:
It seems that T-818 has been widely circulated, but not so much the raw source. Also, there are apparently versions that
come from CD trades of T-818 where T________'s notes have been lost, and there is no acknowledgement that it's a remaster.

Additionally, TomP remastered T-818 despite T________'s message not to do that. I imagine the message got lost and was not
relayed correctly. I prefer the sound of the raw audio to T-818. I've listened to a lot of T________ remasters and as a
general rule, he really likes amplifying the high frequencies (specifically like the 3-6 kHz band). To my ears, boosting
that range causes recordings like this one to sound hissy and shrill. In fact, I think TomP's remaster of T-818 essentially
undid some of high frequency boosting in T-818 and applied hiss reduction. Just goes to show you that people can have very
different opinions on what sounds best. T________ may have realized this so we can all be very grateful to him for making
the raw source available as well.

The raw audio was untracked and consisted of 2 flac files. I am not confident in the setlist/track divisions, but I have
divided the tracks like in the TomP remaster. There are cuts in the audio after Track 4, during the middle of Track 6,
and after Track 12. For the cut in the middle of track 6 (Out-Bloody-Rageous), there was repeated content. I edited out
the repeated material, with the change happening at 6:44.040. It now sounds continuous. I also cut out a few seconds of
dead silence between the tape flips.

This is a minimalistic revision of the raw audio. The raw audio was running fast, and channel levels were imbalanced.
Tracks 1-4: Left -1.7 dB, Right 0 dB, -1.8% speed adjustment
Tracks 5-6.5: Left 0 dB, Right -3 dB, -0.6% speed adjustment
Tracks 6.5-12: Left +1.55 dB, Right -2 dB, -1.2% speed adjustment
Tracks 13-14: No level adjustment, -1.2% speed adjustment

I did the speed adjustments in MATLAB, and the other edits in Audacity. I exported the results as tracked FLAC files
and fixed SBE with TLH.
-ledwhofloyd (Ross), Mar. 2022