Jerry Garcia Band
02-20-1980
Fine Arts Center (University of Massachusetts)
Amherst, MA

Source: mixed auds;
early: MAC > Cx > standalone CDR > WAV > FLAC;
late: MAC (2x Sony ECM 23f > Nakamichi 550) > C1 (Maxell type I), playback on Sony TC-KE400S (no NR) > audiophile 2496 analog in > Soundforge 7 (recorded as 24 bit / 48 KHz WAV) > Wavelab (processing & 16 bit rendering - see below) > CDWave 1.9 (tracking) > FLAC.
Taper: Originally listed as "unknown from Pittsburgh". Dennis Carter clarified "The mystery taper was probably from Boston & may have been Steve Rolfe. The set 2 above is what came from the cassette Chris transferred. Set 1 is from the less clear, older source that Chris had previously worked on. The two were combined because sadly, there was no set 1 from the upgraded source. 2nd set is a nice upgrade over set 1."
First generation cassette source for Set II kindly provided by Dennis Carter.
Transfer and processing by Chris Ladner.

Disc 1 - Early Show
01  How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
02  Catfish John
03  That's What Love Will Make You Do
04  Simple Twist Of Fate
05  //They Love Each Other
06  That's All Right, Mama
07  Deal

Disc 2 - Late show
01  Sugaree
02  Sitting In Limbo
03  Tore Up Over You
04  //Russian Lullaby
05  Harder They Come
06  Midnight Moonlight

Comments:
- Beginning of They Love Each Other and most of Russian Lullaby are cut.
- There is pretty significant distortion at times on the first set source, especially during Deal.
- The first set is markely inferior to the second set and I would rate the sound quality as a C-.
- The second set sounds very good and is the reason to get this show with classic renditions of "Sugaree" and "Sitting In Limbo".

The previous version of this source suffers from multiple analog generations and poor quality digital transfer.  Dennis' cassette is  a first gen off the mystery taper's master and had much less hiss than the previous source without the phase/tape degradation on a source I previously encoded but never really circulated because i thought it sucked.  The pitch issues with the other source are not apparent on the new source either.

Processing/Mastering
The following steps were done in mastering the cassette transfer to 16 bit/44.1 KHz WAV:

1.  Original 24 bit WAV file was normalized to 87% RMS using Wavelab 5.
2.  A 3 second section of the WAV file containing tape noise preceding the onset of musical content was "learned" using Waves X-Noise Plugin and selectively removed at a threshold of 0 dB and 63% removal.  Examination of the removed content by visuasl waveform examination and listening showed smooth monotonous hiss without any fluctuation.  There was no apparent coloring of the sound using these settings on 24 bit files with a definite reduction in perceived tape hiss.
3.  Very minimal bass augmentation using Waves Renaissance Bass Plugin - frequency 90 HZ at a level of -16.7 dB.
4.  Waves L3 Multimaximizer Plugin with flat EQ response and threshold of -2 dB/ceiling at -0.02 dB.
5.  Mastering was done using the plugins in the above order with direct rendering to 16 bit/44.1 KHz using type I dither with ultra shaping.
6.  File tracked using CDWave 1.9 and saved as 16 bit FLAC.

I attempted to restore the first set using some of the above plugin steps, however the results were disappointing and so I just left it as is.  It is barely listenable by my personal standards.

Big thanks again to Dennis Carter for sharing his well-preserved cassette.
Anyone with a decent copy of the first set on cassette (or any other low gen/master cassettes of solo jerry they would like to see digitized/restored, please drop me a line.
