The Other Ones 07/19/98 Fiddler's Green Englewood, CO Lineage: SBD > D (unk. sample rate) > ? > CD-R > SSSB Received from an ANONYMOUS Kind person! Disc 1 Set 1 too98-07-19d1t01 03:24.284 Playin' In Tne Band -> too98-07-19d1t02 06:25.138 -> Playin' In Tne Band Jam -> too98-07-19d1t03 09:58.571 -> All Along The Watchtower too98-07-19d1t04 11:07.513 Scarlet Begonias -> too98-07-19d1t05 13:54.854 -> Fire On The Mountain Rap -> too98-07-19d1t06 07:21.918 Jack-A-Roe too98-07-19d1t07 08:31.300 Mnglewood Blues too98-07-19d1t08 08:56.374 Down The Road Again Total time: 1:09:30.9752 Disc 2 Set 2 too98-07-19d2t01 02:21.529 Jam And Medley -> too98-07-19d2t02 07:29.837 -> White-Wheeled Limousine too98-07-19d2t03 10:26.914 Bird Song -> too98-07-19d2t04 09:34.425 -> Samson & Delilah -> too98-07-19d2t05 09:51.451 -> Drums Total time: 0:39:44.156 Disc 3 Set 2 Cont'd too98-07-19d3t01 16:56.897 Banyan Tree -> too98-07-19d3t02 03:41.082 -> Playin' Reprise -> too98-07-19d3t03 08:40.091 -> Wharf Rat -> too98-07-19d3t04 11:04.565 -> Throwing Stones -> too98-07-19d3t05 11:29.404 -> Not Fade Away too98-07-19d3t06 05:21.443 E: Ripple too98-07-19d3t07 01:22.146 Happy Trails To You (music on PA while audience leaving venue) Total time: 0:58:35.608 BAND: THE OTHER ONES SHOW DATE: 07/19/98 VENUE: FIDDLER'S GREEN LOCATION: ENGLEWOOD, CO >> NOTE: MOST VERSIONS ARE INCORRECTLY SHOWING "DENVER" FOR THE CITY << SET(S): SETS I / II LINEAGE SBD > D > ? > CD-R (W/PRE-EMPHASIS) > SSSB AUDIO RATING: AR1 MEDIA REQUIRED: DAT: 1x180 min. CD-R / MINI DISC: 3 RELEASED ON: 09/13/01 LINEAGE: SBD > D > ? > CD-R > SSSB; anonymous person sent show which is why lineage is not 100% verified; *=Weir on acoustic; **=w/Jorma Kaukonen on guitar; "Fire On The Mountain Rap" has part of song played in alternating 7 & 8 beats/measure time signature, and contains new/alternate lyrics; "White-Wheeled Limousine contains new/alternate lyrics; "Bird Song" sung duet style by Weir & Hornsby; "Happy Trails" (Roy Rogers & Dale Evans) was played over PA while audience exited the venue; 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 released 09/01] JAY'S PERSONAL COMMENTS: A lot of info on this show! I guess the best place to begin is where I obtained it. Honestly, I don't have a clue as to who actually sent me this show on 3 CD-R discs! The mailer had no return name or address, the postmark was very smudged (the only thing showing was the number "5" at the end of the Zip Code for the Post Office it was mailed from. There was a brief typed piece of paper inside with no name of who the "seed" person was. No lineage info, but I have been able to determine a lot of info about what this show has "been through" just by analyzing the audio quality, as well as the errors it originally contained. You notice that in the lineage above, it shows that the CD-R says "with Pre-Emphasis". This essentially means that certain specific bands of frequencies are "accented" more, somewhat like a noise reduction technique might do. The problem is, however, that not all "pre-emphasis" techniques are equal (very similar to Dolby NR). There is a set of "guidelines", but no set and accepted "standard" which state that frequencies between "x" and "y" are to be raised in their volume by whatever amount of dB level. I tried to bypass the pre-emphasis, with pretty horrible results. So, a LOT of experimentation and editing work (both automatic as well as manual) had to be performed before a "best overall quality" level was reached... balancing frequency ranges and eliminating and/or highly attenuating the errors in the show which were present due to conversions during the show's lineage. Before I get to the GOOD stuff about this show (and there is a LOT of positives about this show and the recording), I want to get the "negatives", "speculations", and "most likely culprit" sections out of the way. If the show was played (in it's unaltered form) in different CD-R players, it sounded different. Some of my players showed the "pre-emphasis" was being active (mainly my professional Marantz CD-R transports), while others did not sense this. The players that did not show pre-emphasis as being active gave much worse sounding audio, with a lot more errors being present. These errors were not from any damage to the media, but they occurred in the lineage. 95% of the errors were in the form of very annoying "ticks". There are three major reasons for this happening, and it could be any one (or more of the following (in "most likely cause" to "least likely cause" order): 1) The SBD DAT recording was most likely made at a sampling rate of 48.0 kHz (this is the most common rate used, as it allows for higher frequencies to be recorded. NOTE: The MAXIMUM frequency a DAT recording can record and play back is one-half of the sampling rate (also known as the Nyquist principle). For a 44.1 kHz DAT, it can only record/playback frequencies up to 22.05 kHz. 48.0 kHz sampling rates will, logically, allow for a maximum frequency of 24 kHz. This may seem like it's well beyond the range of human hearing (and if a SINGLE tone is played at that high of a frequency, most people will not hear it). BUT, because of "harmonics", and "overtones", these super-high audio frequencies CAN be heard as subtle nuances to instruments like cymbals, guitar effects, trumpets, violins, etc. While they are almost inaudible, they are picked up by the human ear and can actually be heard by 75% or more of people under the age of 45-50. It gives the recording a slightly more natural sound, since frequencies aren't being "cut off". When the recording, at 48.0 kHz, was edited, it was incorrectly down-sampled by cheap outboard equipment or the editing program itself. Essentially, it introduced these "ticks", especially noticeable, during loud transients (a drum beat) or during very soft passages of music. It's due to inefficient resampling techniques... 2) The pre-emphasis could have easily introduced this noise, as it occurs in only certain low and high frequency bands which are usually used in the pre-emphasis encoding on the CD-R recording... 3) The resampling occurred correctly, but when the show was originally edited, if non-professional software was used, it could have introduced this noise by interpreting the "quantization noise" (the inherent and always present noise that is generated when audio is reduced from it's original sampling rate to a lower rate). Good editing software will "push" this noise up to above 20 kHz, where it's less likely to be heard (if at all) by the listener... 4a) IF all the above were not part of the equation, this noise could have been made during the duplication of the master CD-R discs by dubbing at too high of a speed, and as such, bits were dropped or "repaired" incorrectly, thus introducing the noise into the recording... 4b) IF all the above were not part of the equation, this noise could have been made during the duplication of the master CD-R discs by a "stand-alone" outboard CD recorder used to make a copy of the CD discs, it's internal "resampling" rate converter was NOT TURNED OFF, resulting in a 44.1 kHz playing rate trying to be resampled to a 44.1 kHz recording rate. This is VERY common, and cannot be turned off except on higher quality stand-alone units. If a "stand-alone" outboard CD recorder was used to make a copy of the CD discs, it's internal "resampling" rate converter was NOT TURNED OFF, resulting in a 44.1 kHz playing rate trying to be resampled to a 44.1 kHz recording rate. This is VERY common, and cannot be turned off except on higher quality stand-alone units. Those are the most likely "culprits" in why this show had literally thousands of these ticks in them. SOME were actually problems at the soundboard and with the equipment (more on this later), but 90+ percent of them were introduced by external means. The DAT would usually have had diginoise on it if it were to blame, and I have NEVER heard a DAT recording exhibit this type of introduction of unwanted noise. Unfortunately, these "ticks" are NOT able to be distinguished from the audio waveforms! Hence, it would be impossible to simply delete the 0.0001 seconds of noise and be done with it. Since the ticks became an integral part of the music itself, it can't be seen as a glitch when viewing the audio waveforms. If it could be seen, it would have been simple to take a "snapshot" of the glitch, and have the professional editing software I beta test simple perform a "seek and destroy" procedure. Believe me, I tried at least a dozen times to try to find these glitches, and what may look like them to the "untrained eye" is actually music, not the noise. I'll explain later on how I eliminated over 98% of these ticks by using a process which generally would not be though of as being "effective" or "realistic"! Whoever worked on this show has a good basic grasp of audio editing, but either does not have the knowledge of how to eliminate "noticeable" splice edits (where a section of music is removed for whatever reason and the two section re-joined as seamlessly as possible, or doesn't have good software to perform this (or both). This was the case in 2 very noticeable "harsh" and improperly performed "splice" edits of Disc 1. They've now been cleaned up, so they are now seamless. Disc 2 had a problem with the very end, where the fade-out took place. Not only was there a "double fade", meaning that the fade took place and then the music came back up again and the fade occurred a 2nd time, but there were also 2 other "fade" sections (the time span where the fade-out took place, and these came after the real fade-out took place, with a "gap" between them. Again, it seems that it was a lack of good editing software which led to this (or just the person didn't "listen" to the discs before they were originally recorded). I agree a lot of these "unknowns" are speculation, since I don't know who made/sent these discs to me, or whether this person got them this way, what the person's audio knowledge is, etc. But the very "educated guesses" I made above come from 3 decades of doing audio engineering, so my ears and my memory can usually come to a very close, if not "right on the money" reason(s) for the problems above happening in the first place. Another problem of note: in the percussion section, there is a problem with one of the noise gate units which was used to keep unwanted audio from bleeding through one of the conga drums. This is a slightly different "tick" noise, one which I am familiar with. The noise gate was set to open too late, and so, it "missed" the opening "slap" of the hand/stick on the drum. You don't hear the "attack" as it's known, and this was simply a problem that was caused by the audio people. The tick is much less noticeable and annoying, and only present during the small sections where the conga is used during LOUD musical passages. So, the bottom line for the "repairing" of this show: Originally, it was "boomy" for the drums, due to the pre-emphasis being very prominent, as well as for the higher frequencies (guitar overtones, cymbals, etc.)... not really good for listening to at home, it sounded more like a "dance mix" with the heavy beat and such. By using a modified "LP noise reduction" process along with "crackle, pop, and click removal processes stacked on top of one another, I was able to "smooth out" the pre-emphasis to the point where it's now extremely clean and smooth. It also eliminated all but the most minor (i.e. almost inaudible) "now-built-in" ticks, which I pretty much had to leave in, otherwise more would pop up, or you'd notice where the audio had been edited out. There's probably an average of 3-5 of these little ticks per song, which is better than one every few seconds! The "downside" is that with the pre-emphasis gone, SOME (not a lot) of the very upper midrange audio is slightly attenuated. But, the show is actually much more "natural sounding" now, like you would have heard it if you were in the first 5 rows of the venue. If you heard a "before and after" sample, you'd think that there is actually a lot missing. Bit if you listen to the entire show, it sounds very good. Not so harsh anymore, no more "too much attack punch" to the drum beats, it's "toned down" now. Sure, the frequency range is still there, so you're not missing the overtones, harmonics, and subtleties you may think would have been removed, but they were attenuated by only about -1.0 dB. Nothing to miss out on. LET'S GET DOWN TO THE GOOD STUFF, NOW THAT THE PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH! I loved this show. A little unusual, as I've haven't heard a lot of The Other Ones music. I've heard bits and pieces of several shows, and I was impressed by the musical abilities of the "non-Dead" personnel working with Phil, Bobby, and Hornsby in close harmony and playing off of each other. Despite a few technical glitches by the sound crew (not really noticeable or annoying, except for the conga drum problem), the mix was very good, balanced nicely where nothing is really only in one channel. The vocals, by the time the 2nd verse of "Playin' In The Band" got underway, were in the correct proportion to the instruments, and that's not always easy to achieve. Phil probably had a BIG part in setting up the initial mix during the sound checks. Disc 1 / Set I: Very nice to listen to... extremely enjoyable from opening note to closing fade! "Playin' In The Band Jam" suffered from 2 very bad edits, but they were taken care of with careful cross-fading. Only one of them is barely noticeable. "Watchtower", albeit nicely done, didn't impress me much, as it sounded more like a Dead show's version than a TOO variation. Ah, you can't win them all. "Scarlet Begonias" started out of the gate smoking with the instrumental intro, and then exploded with a wonderful crescendo. Executed perfectly in my opinion. And it stayed hot throughout. "Fire On The Mountain" comes in after a "Mardi Gras style "shout"! Sung in "rap" fashion? What gives? (I must admit I laughed when I listened to it "as a whole" when I was doing the final audition before burning the CD-R master. My initial reaction when I first heard it: "This is blasphemy!!!"... but then I really got into the groove. I'll be the first to openly admit there's two types of music I refused to work on when doing my free-lance audio engineering in many studios: HEAVY METAL and RAP MUSIC. I just can't stand "metal", as it's just "noise" to me most of the time. RAP, well it's not a style that appeals to me at all. With the addition of some new and alternative lyrics, this version of "FOTM" ranks up there with some of my favorite GD versions. Unusual, funny, but done VERY well. Plus, to make sure that things were even more interesting, the most of the last one-third is played in an alternating 7 and 8 beats/measure time signature. Very reminiscent of "The Seven"! Man, that's tough to play, but they pulled this rabbit out of the hat without a hitch. Weir's acoustic work on "Jack-A-Roe" saved it from being yet another (yawn) version. The other "saving grace" is when Hornsby does his piano solo... everyone stops playing except for a very quiet percussion backdrop. Nice touch. And, "Minglewood"... again, nothing out of the ordinary. But that happened many times when the Dead played it. I consider this version okay... nothing to write home about. "Down The Road Again", which rounds out Set I, was/is a delight to listen to. I love songs which are both very lyrical with the instrumentation, as well as lyrics that gives one pause for though. Reminds me very much of "The Days Between". Both the lyrics and the band's playing always set that song apart from the crowd. Tells a rich story. And so does "Down The Road Again". Disc 2 / Set II: Opens up with Bruce doing a "Jam & Medley" for a few minutes, then goes into "White-Wheeled Limousine". Complete with both new and alternate lyrics, this extended version, that added a nice touch to one of Bruce's "staple" songs. The band puts a "teaser" jam at what you think is the end of "WWL", making the listener believe that they're going to segue into another song. But it's a prelude to a "WWL reprise". Aw, shucks! But that's what "teasers" are meant to do, right? Bird Song"... EXCELLENT! Bob and Bruce perform a wonderful duet. And Bruce covers his blown lyric in a sly manner! This song was probably very rehearsed, but I myself thought it was given a very good treatment. "Samson & Delilah" gets the house a-rockin'! Listen closely to the end, and you will hear Weir's riffs of "Throwing Stones" every now and then, and even a few measures of the guitar opening for "I Fought The Law" thrown in. "Drums" was worth the wait. The MIDI in there I wasn't that fond of, but I think a lot of you will like it. This ends Disc 2. Disc 3 opens up with what has to be the biggest "riff rip-off's" ever... you'd swear you're going to hear them play "The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys", as that unmistakable piano and sax melody is definetly there. And it's "toyed with" a few more times during the song as well. But, it's Bobby doing a very well played/sung "Banyan Tree". I've never hear this song before. Quite surreal when you listen to the lyrics, again almost like "The Days Between". I liked the song from the start when editing out the few errors. Except for the "Low Spark" teases here and there (which disappointed me that it wasn't played), I loved the song 100%. It was a very nice follow-up song of "Drums". Kind of jazzy and mellow, easy on the ears, and yet you think it's may "explode" at any time. It doesn't, but that even adds a little nicer touch. There's a slight jam, and then comes the "Playin' Reprise", which I expected a little later on (I had no set list to go by when I was editing the show). "Wharf Rat" was given a nice rendition, but w/o Jerry doing the vocals, the song just isn't the same. Again, it's a "personal" feeling. "Throwing Stones", one of Weir's usual Set II "loud and proud" songs was good. Not outstanding, sounding very much like your 1994-95 era Dead "TS". No problems with this song for me! I was a little disappointed with the 12 minute "NFA" for some reason. I can't put my finger on it. Granted, it ROCKS, everyone's in the act, the mix is good, things are flowing, but there's just something that's "not there". Maybe I'll figure it out one of these days. I wasn't disappointed in how it was performed, far from it. ENCORE: I think "Ripple", with Phil singing, was the perfect closer for the night. I just seemed to fit for this show. Well played, a little emotional, nice way to end a very good show. BONUS SONG!!! Roy Rogers and Dale Evens doing "Happy Trails To You". Played over the PA when the crowd was leaving the venue. Too bad the master I had didn't have more of the song on it. I don't know if it was edited out early on, or if the original recording ended after nearly a minute and a half. Just a real nice touch at the end. PERSONAL RATINGS: (on a 1 to 10 scale with 10 being excellent) Audio Mix: 9.2 (some of the channels would vary slightly during songs) Audio Quality: 7.5 prior to editing/processing, 9.4 post-processing. Energy Level: 9.0 Song Selection: For the time period, nothing out of the ordinary. Surprises: Happy Trails and Banyan Tree App\Http\Controllers\Api\FileDownloadController::download(): Return value must be of type string, none returned