Grateful Dead
11-2-85
Richmond Coliseum
Richmond, VA
(Sick Bits Vol.1)

Source: Matrix:

SBD - > ? > DAT > CD > EAC > WAV > CoolEdit2000 (retracking) > SHN
AUD - Connor (FOB) Mics: Beyer Dynamic M88's > Sony TCD5M(CM)
AUD - Oade (Tapers? Section) Mics: Schoeps (2 x CMC441, 1 x CMC42)
	> Sony PCM-F1 > Sony Portable BetaMax
 

complete text files for each of the 3 sources appended at end

Transfer/Editing:
All sources were snh files downloaded from LMA and converted to
WAV > Vegas 5 > WAV > FLAC

Matrixed by Chris Chappell
ScarFire@liquidcity.com
12/23/04

Set 1:
d1t01 - //Bertha >
d1t02 - Greatest Story Ever Told
d1t03 - Dupree's Diamond Blues
d1t04 - C.C. Rider
d1t05 - Althea
d1t06 - Brother Esau
d1t07 - Candyman
d1t08 - Let It Grow

Set 2:
d1t09 - Tuning
d1t10 - Iko Iko
d2t01 - Estimated Prophet >
d2t02 - Uncle John's Band >
d2t03 - China Doll >
d2t04 - Drums >
d2t05 - Space >
d2t06 - Morning Dew >
d2t07 - Throwing Stones >
d2t08 - Turn On Your Lovelight

Encore:
d2t09 - It's All Over Now Baby Blue

Total Times:
Disc 1 - 1:06:37:67
Disc 2 - 1:17:48:72

General Notes:

Often overshadowed by the novelty of the night before, this was always 
a favorite show of those I attended because of the great performances 
by all band members.  Highlights include a psychadelic ending on Iko 
(w/Phil on vocals too), a moving China Doll out of a very innovative 
modal jam post UJB, and a thunderous Dew out of Space.

Given the multiple sources available on the Llama, I decided to put the 
effort into editing a matrix since I was never completely happy with 
the SBD. The result is a worthwile listen, especially given that none
of the existing sources are complete.

Music Notes:

Everyone seemed to get a late start, thus the first few bars of Bertha
are missing, the SBD being the only source for the first 4 seconds. 
Also, some of the tuning between Greatest Story and Dupree's is missing
from all 3 sources, right before Bobby invokes the crowd's assisstance
in getting people to stop lighting off fireworks. This timeline is most 
likely missing about 10 seconds of dead air and a few fireworks, due to 
everyone pausing their decks. The encore contains virtually no tuning, 
but other than that the whole show is intact.

Tracking Notes:

The entire show fits on 2 discs with Iko at the end of disc 1. The
transition between the 2 discs can be put together seemlessly.
Sector boundaries on the original matrixed wavs are all OK and 
confirmed by shntool without having to use the fix utility.
(see shntool output of flac files below)

Editing Notes:

- Pitch
All 3 sources were pitched differently, the SBD being the sharpest, 
and the Oade AUD being the flatest.  Since the FOB AUD was also the 
most intact, I used this as my master timeline and pitch reference to
which the other two sources were synched.  The SBD had to be pitched
down on average about -.20 (20 cents) while the OADE AUD was pitched
up on average about +.12 (12 cents) - 1.00 being 100 cents which is a
semitone.  Thus the SBD was about a fifth of a semitone sharp. It
is possible that the Oade Brothers' source is closest in pitch to
A=440, but since I used this source sporadically, it was easier to 
pitch everything to Charlie Connor's FOB AUD.  My guess is that A=440
lies somewhere between the 2 AUD sources.  Antares auto-tuner would
reveal the truth, but I care not to know, whatever sounds good is best.

- Speed Fluctuation
Remember that all 3 field recording devices employed the reel (even
the Sony BetaMax) which resulted in speed fluctuation and thus pitch
variations.  The most noticeable is the SBD source because the cassette
deck used to record it is powered by the same juice as the whole Front
Of House, and combined with ELF from Phil the volts going to the deck
definately varied - not to mention pausing, which takes a while for the
reels and the motor to settle on a constant speed.  The SBD speed flux
could also be attributed to multiple generations from late 80's tape 
decks. Since the AUDs were running off of battery power, much less 
speed fluctuation exists.

- Synch
Even after pitch correcting the other two sources to the FOB AUD, 
because of the speed fluctuation within a given source, multiple edits
were performed to keep the sources synched.  Because the FOB was my
master pitch and time ref, the SBD was synched to the FOB (too many
edits to list).

- Sonic Quality/Matrix ratio
The SBD suffers from many issues, the main one being that it is extremely
compressed which not only kills the dynamic response, but introduces
hiss and some serious peak-shaving.  The FOB AUD is nice and balanced,
while the Oade AUD has some low end added in post by Doug due to the 
bass roll-off used on the Schoep mics (see txt below).  As a result, I
employed no EQ nor Compression finding the blend between the SBD and
the FOB AUD to be quite full.  T