Wishbone Ash
Dijon, Palais des Sports
June 12, 1981
- RTL radio broadcast -
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DocDondy's Repair Re-Do, Unexpectable Upgrade, Sackcloth & Ashes Series Vol. 4 (of likely quite some, starting Jan. 2020)

**Contrast clause RE torrent 660314 (http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=660314) and general re-do info: Fresh 13 January 2020 transfer from analog cassette tape, now with optimised replay and under CORRECT digitising conditions (for detailed info see below)**

Aaarrrrggghh and PHUUUUQQQQQ (and every swear word you and your fave drill sarge may imagine)! Alert and bat-eared fellow Dimers luciferburns and fatoldpig thankfully made me aware that my latest upload, Wishbone Ash's 1974/10/31 Offenbach show strangely had all bass missing that my previous 2009 version did come with - my all-time fave show of theirs of all shows! However, since I had done a fresh transfer for this new torrent, had no CD-R in the lineage and tweaked the recording w/Audacity for best results it of course should rather have sounded at least a wee little better.

I instantly checked that oddity and it turned out that my FRIGGING Olympus PCM recorder that I use for digitising my analog source cassettes had its low cut filter turned on - and that dreck eliminates all frequencies below 300h! SH*TE! :-P I really don't have the slightest idea if that was a default setting or if I erroneously applied it at one point in the past. As I rarely have the time to listen to shows on my home stereo and mostly only through earbuds or PC loudspeakers only, I didn't notice that CRAAAAAAP!

Dear fellow Dimers, words just fail me! I am unspeakably sorry for that inexcusable super-blunder and can only ask anyone who has trusted me and my torrents, and invested their ratio on them to at least TRY and bear with me ...somehow. :-(
I'll make up for all these subpar transfers bit by bit - big time scout's and Dimer's honour!

For that, I'll now go on my - presumably looooong - personal peninential pilgrimage and work my way back through all of my latest analog cassette-transfer torrents and re-do them up to the point where I find the last correct transfer or, in the worst case, back to the first time I used that doggone new PCM recorder - which would be April 26, 2017, for Mountain's 1971-04-02 Philly show. Phew! Also, all my new makeup torrents will come with this clarifying contrast clause and of course with an audio sample so you can quality-compare each show with your previous respective download. I'll also ask the mods to delete the faulty torrents after I've uploaded the corrected corresponding one.

In order to at least get SOMETHING positive from this monster of a mess, I took the opportunity and sent my Sony WM 6DC walkman - which I've always used for replaying my analog tapes - for a thorough overhaul to an analog audio expert who also specialises in exactly this device. Aside from a general check and cleaning of all moving pieces, he
a) applied new drive belts
b) reduced the hitherto inherent wow & flutter factor vastly to an absolute minimum of 0,08-0,1 %
c) adjusted the standard replay speed to + 0,05 % (tolerance would be +/- 0,3 %) and
d) balanced out a treble drop of 3-4 dB above 10 kHz on the left channel; hence channel deviations between 30 Hz and 16 kHz and from the reference frequency are now constantly below one dB.

OK, quite some tech talk but according to that expert, these are all now obviously excellent figures that
- can't always be generated,
- are all way within the defined tolerance requirements for a WM-D6C and
- are even superior to the data of new machines.
And all that for a 30+ year old device! Therefore, my future analog-to-digital transfers will definitely come with my respective source cassette's full frequency spectrum at the best-possible replay and digitising conditions. Yippie-Ya-Yeah!

Yours,
DocDondy
...now off to the corner looking for my very own dunce cap. :-)
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Sound quality: vg+/3-4 of 6
Mp3 audio sample in comments.

Lineage: 1981 RTL AM radio broadcast > unknown analog gen. cassette tape (in 80's trade/swap) > fresh 13 January 2020 transfer (replayed on just overhauled Sony WM-D6C walkman w/azimuth adjusted) to Olympus LS-PS PCM recorder (at correct full frequency setting) > Audacity 1.3 (for dropout and crackle removal, stereo channel boosting and balancing, slight editing, track marks) > WAV > FLAC (level 8) > Dimeadozen on 13 January 2020 by DocDondy > youhoo (i.e. all Ashanatix out there)!

Comes with lovingly designed full colour artwork made of several contemporary memorabilia (PDF).
Comments always welcome!

Line-up:
Andy Powell � guitar (stereo left), vocals
Larie Wisefield � guitar (stereo right), vocals
Trevor Boulder � bass
Steve Upton � drums
Claire Hammill - vocals on *

1. THE KING WILL COME
2. WHERE IS THE LOVE
3. UNDERGROUND *
4. WARRIOR *
5. THROW DOWN THE SWORD
6. LOADED *
7. PHOENIX
8. NUMBER THE BRAVE
9. JAIL BAIT
10. BLOWIN� FREE
11. GET READY *
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TOTAL 71:16 min.

Background info:
This is one of the very few known to exist recordings of the band's unique May - June 1981 line-up with folk singer Claire Hammill on additional vocals. The band did only their UK and France tours with her before she left the band on the eve of their following US tour. Along with the BBC's "In Concert" show from their London Hammersmith Odeon stint on June 2, this here is the only other existing radio b'cast-show.

French radio station RTL promoted the band's French tour and chose to b'cast a c. 70 min. selection from the 100 min. Dijon show. The powers-that-be at RTL obviously felt it would make for a better radio show to place "Phoenix" and "Number The Brave" first with the remainder of their selection following. That's why you can hear the radio host commenting on "Loaded" (track 6) before "Jail Bait" (track 9)! Odd choice IMHO so I took the liberty to present you the tracks in their actually played sequence.

Since - acc. to our helpful fellow Dimer metro_cubo - RTL obviously only b'cast in AM until the mid- 80's, the audio quality of this recording is pretty mid-rangey and of course below of what one may expect from a radio b'cast but back in the day French radio broadcasts used to be kind of infamous for their very ...er, "live" (i.e. RAW) sound (such as The Stones' 1970 Paris show, or West Bruce & Laing's 1973 paris show, for example). Plus, it is unclear how many analog copy generations my source cassette tape has under its belt. Not too many I'd say though as the hiss level is bearable.

Please do NOT even think of trying to sell this show or spreading it in lossy formats - otherwise: enjoy, trade, share!

KIND comments always welcome. :-)

Uploaded to Dimeadozen on 13 January 2020.

Wishbone ahoy!
Th:-)mas