GRATEFUL DEAD
1966-07-29
Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco, CA
ENTIRE SHOW
A-SBD
SSSB Audio Rating: AR1a

LINEAGE: SBD > RTR @ 15 I.p.s. > PCM > D > SSSB


LINEAGE: SBD > RTR > PCM > SSSB; other artists: Jefferson Airplane; FIRST / LAST / ONLY: "In
The Pines", "Cardboard Cowboy"; any/all editing, fades, NR, hiss elimination, phase
shifting/"time smear" correction, jitter elimination, EQ, and quantization noise elimination
(when
down-converting audio to 16-bit / 44.1kHz for CD-R mastering), were all performed using 24-bit / 96 kHz digital realm processing at Serafin Station Studio B [this show was
re-released onto my Kindness Dubbing list in 06/01]
DISC ONE
Track 01: Big Boss Man (04:44.820)
Track 02: Standing On The Corner (03:26.270)
Track 03: Beat It On Down The Line [7] (03:32.418) >
Track 04: > In The Pines (04:54.155)
Track 05: Cardboard Cowboy (03:27.489)
Track 06: Nobody's Fault But Mine (04:06.135)
Track 07: The Next Time You See Me (03:40.836)

Uploaded exclusively to GDLive.com by:
John "Jay" Serafin, owner/audio engineer @ Serafin Station Studio B
"Making Kindness Dubs For Everyone!"
No Profits Or Copyright Infringements EVER!
Web Info: http://members.home.com/kinddubs
E-Mail: kinddubs@home.com


JAY'S PERSONAL COMMENTS:

It's REALLY AMAZING that I find a LOT of 1966-68 shows which sound better
than a lot of the 1970's reel to reel-originated shows, and even a lot of the
early PCM shows. NOTE: When PCM was first made available on the commercial
market, it was only limited to 8 bit quality sound, and would only work with
certain Sony BetaMax videocassette decks. As time and technology grew, the
PCM units became easier to use, they would work will almost ANY VCR (be it
VHS or the now-dying BetaMax formats)... and finally they were able to get
16-bit sound to work CORRECTLY around the mid-1980's.

But, a little known factoid about the sound quality: the Dead weren't always
the ones who were setting up the RTR decks. The record companies were
bringing in the Otari 2" 4 and 8 track decks which ran at a minimum of 15
i.p.s., and were able to be better calibrated to more brands and formulations
of open reel tape. This is why a lot of these shows sound so pristine... but
yet there were a lot of reel changes (when there weren't two RTR decks
there... one to run, and the other on "standby" so that the recording could
be started as the first deck began to run out of tape! So, this is why some
shows literally have no gaps where the reels were changed!

It is my understanding that for this show, a single Otari 4 track 1" wide
tape running at 7.5 i.p.s. was used. Some of the songs from this Fillmore
run were going to be used as promos, and possibly as a live album early on.
The record companies were REALLY hot on the Dead, and they wanted the Boyz to
also try new songs to see how they would be received by the audience, as well
as how they would sound live. Hence, "one-offs" like In The Pines, Cardboard
Cowboy, were played, and then evaluated by the record companies.

The PCM archive tape is deteriorating, as can be heard in the left (vocals)
channel (only). On very loud vocal peaks, you can just hear a very slight
distortion. It's not really as bad as it look "in print", but it can be
heard. Again, it's only during the loudest vocals, and not on any of the
instruments (right channel). This is a problem inherent to ALL tape-based
media, in that it will deteriorate over time. Thank goodness that the Vault
is very regulated as far as it's climate, air quality and purity, and that a
lot of shows are being re-archived onto non-tape-based media.

In The Pines and Cardboard Cowboy are FIRST / LAST / ONLY TIMES PLAYED songs.
In The Pines is good, a song of sorrow. But Cardboard Cowboy, I can live
without. It just doesn't "make it" with me. Other people like it, maybe
because it's very rare to hear a good quality copy of it, or to even hear it
at all, or just because it's a Dead song... who knows?!?!?

The entire show had an "energy" to it, but not a very high level. There
weren't any real between-song lulls like we've come to expect, and sometimes
it can be heard when the guitars are slightly out of tune (and adjusted
during the songs). Bobby is pretty prominent in the mix, Pig's organ is
really present (no dirty jokes, please!), but Jerry's guitar, depending on
the song and how attentive the engineers were at any point in time, was
either present, low volume (being picked up by the other instrument
microphones nearby, or "invisible" for very short periods of time. It never
ceases to amaze me that audio engineers, especially with the Dead and the
Fillmore's own crew, who were excellent most of the time, could be so
ignorant of the fact that things weren't right! But, that just makes the
show all that much more interesting, I would imagine!

This is the ENTIRE show... all songs are included, so you get the "feel" of
how things were played back then. Short sets, a lot of bands for the evening,
nothing like what we've been accustomed to for the past 20 years. I
personally did see a few of these "huge number of artists" shows back in my
early days, and it had a circus-like atmosphere sometimes. Depending on who
was playing, everyone shared everyone else's amps, drum sets, etc. Even the
Dead did, though they would bring out quite a bit of their own equipment to
supplement what was on stage. And there was only about 10-15 minutes between
acts, so either you rushed to the washroom, or you "held it in" for 3-plus
hours. The Fillmore did have a curfew, which USUALLY was enforced, but
sometimes they would run over. Bill Graham always tried to orchestrate the
start time of the shows so that every group got a pretty good amount of time,
but there were a number of shows where some groups only got to play 3 or 4
songs, as the band(s) before them ran long, or the "headline" act(s) were
going to play long.

As with the 7/16/66 show which I uploaded here, this show will fit onto a
single 74-minute CD (in fact, you can put BOTH the 7/16/66 and 7/17/66 shows
onto a single 74-minute CD with 2 minutes to spare!). NONE of the shows I
upload to GDLive will ever require "overburning", as that goes against a
number of industry standards (one being that the maximum allowable recording
time be 76:14). And some people's equipment cannot play back correctly the 80
minute discs which are prevalent lately. Not to mention that unless your
CD-R/RW recorder specifically is made to record 80 minute discs, there's
going to be problems with the recording (it's technical, but the abbreviated
version is that the stepping motor, which positions the recording laser, can
only be positioned in certain designated spots, and cannot go "between" point
A and point B on the disc... if it tries to, it can partially overwrite what
has been already recorded onto the media).

Enjoy the show!

PERSONAL RATINGS: (on a 1 to 10 scale with 10 being excellent)
Audio Mix: 9.2 (Jerry's disappearing act is what lowered this rating)
Audio Quality: 9.7
Energy Level: 8.5
Show "Completeness": 10.0 (entire set)
Song Selection: For the time period, nothing out of the ordinary at all.
Surprises: In The Pines and Cardboard Cowboy