Scribbs, who is that in the avatar? It's killing me because I feel like I recognize her yet maybe I do not.
Loser - 12/1/79 - Pretty smokin' but not up there with some of the all-time versions. What are some of the all-time versions? Good question son! I have a hard time making such lists but the kind folks around here are usually quite helpful.
Listened to set 1 of 10/31/85 today. Yowzers that's a fun first set. Everyone is having a great time, the setlist is great and unique. One of those shows that must have been an absolute blast to be at. Don't know if I'll get to set 2 tonight, but set 1 was really enjoyable.
I should listen to this because I can't say I've ever heard an '85 show that blew me away. That said, I've only listened to a few from that year. So are they ever going to work out a thing where they can make cassette masters sound really good? I depend heavily on official releases for my Dead listening, and maybe this is why there's a space in the 80s I'm simply not familiar with.
The Charlie Miller of 10/31 sounds really good within the limitations of "yes, this is still a cassette." But it sounds much better and fuller than DiP 32 for example. My mid-80s go-tos are the Seamons matrixes. They sound really good for the most part and the blending of SBD and AUD is a big help between 79 and the late 80s.
Yeah, DiP 32 is not a good one in at least a couple ways. That's one of the few I've found ho-hum, and I rushed to buy it when it was released, as I did all of them. Or maybe I skipped that one, and then picked it up a couple years later in a cool record store in Rochester, NY that has since gone out of business. I digress, but I think back then, like 2004, you could buy the DiPs online, but they would also release them in record stores at the same time. So I may have bought it right away. My memory serves me well I think because I just googled the DiP 32 release date at it's July 20, 2004, and I lived in Rochester for only a year and a half, 2004-2005. I know you meant John Mayer, right? I would have blown that off but I know @CrispyRob got Mayer's first name wrong here, and I think on purpose, 'cuz he's not that into him. (Correct me if I'm wrong C.R.) I have a post here where I accuse CR of just that, although it's tongue in cheek. Anyway, I think Mayer is good, but I think my point is that T.H. is just as good, or better. Like, what I was thinking when I was watching him is that Phil could take this guy on the road and rival Dead & Co., but then I guess Phil would also need another household name, as that is part of Mayer's appeal--he was already a known name.
Phil took a then-unknown Jackie Greene on tour without any other big name in his quintet, and those Tours were a great success. And the music even better.
It's really pretty complicated. First, there were hundreds if thousands of HDCD's released, by many artists on many labels. The vast majority were just mastered on the Pacific Microsonics DAW and didn't use any HDCD features except the transient filters, which are important only for the analog to digital conversion and don't require any special playback accommodations. When Peak Extend is used, it can compress peaks up to 6 dB, which peaks are restored with decoding but not if played back on a non-HDCD player. This is where problems arise, because the more those peaks are compressed in the encoding process, the worse the CD will sound if it is not decoded. Some of the original HDCD's by Reference Recordings used the whole 6 dB's, and distorted noticeably if played back without decoding. The Grateful Dead, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell HDCD's originally used up to 3 dB of compression and expansion, but Jeffrey Norman later scaled back to 1.5 - 2 dB to avoid objectionable distortion if played back on a non-HDCD player. The thing is, HDCD was designed as just a stopgap measure until true hi-res in the form of DVD-A and SACD became available. Now we also have hi-res downloads as DVD-A and SACD have faded (but not disappeared; there are new ones released all the time), and true hi-res sounds clearly better than decoded HDCD (not surprising since that is the source for lossy HDCD). So there are any number of reasons for Jeff Norman not to use HDCD features, and pretty much no reasons to use them.
I don't know, because for most of the high end or cutting edge digital designers that is considered undesirable. I think MQA, for all its flaws (too numerous to list or discuss here), has stimulated DAC designers to try to do what they can to overcome deficiencies in the ADC's used in recording studios, so that home playback is actually closer to the studio (or live) sound, which is unlikely to occur unless the original data is modified before and after the digital to analog conversion.
I can’t argue with that. It’s better if the discs don’t sound their best only to a minority of people. I do think that the organisation should stop marketing these as HDCDs because it implies that there is a benefit in decoding them. It’s misleading.
I was late to Phil & Friends, but I saw a few Jackie Greene shows. I was never crazy about him. That's the thing with this post-GD stuff, opinions can vary wildly from player to player, year-to-year, because Jerry left this massive chasm that's never going to be filled.
IIRC the HDCD encoding was all over the map with regard to the Europe '72 box set. Some actually had it, some didn't. It was messing with my OCD.
So, @Archtop, DaP 24 sound issues aside, what did you think of Phil's bass solo at the end of Truckin' into The Other One? I liked it. He signals TOO and then devolves into random almost, and then, boom >TOO.
No. Record Theater, maybe? I can't remember the name, but that might be it. Definitely not House of Guitars. I walked by that place a few times, but I don't think I ever went in, which is weird I guess. Liking this Dave's 24 The Other One.
Just curious. Those places are my haunts, along with Bop Shop, Hi Fi Lounge (used to be CD Exchange), Lakeshore (closed) The Roc still has many places to procure tunes. CD Exchange used to have a nice collection of DP's and live stuff back in the day. The HOG is always a must. They still open at midnight for new releases and have music crap everywhere!
This week's Tapers Section is solid. Check it if you have not already. Fall 69, 71, 72! November 13 - November 19, 2017 | Grateful Dead
You should listen to 6/16/85 and then the entire run from 6/24 through 7/1, especially the last two at Merriweather Post. Love those shows, perhaps a bit biased because they were early staples of my tape collections. Soundboards were widely available pretty quickly after those shows. (The other two Greek shows have their moments as well, but I'm partial to the second set of 6/16/85 - I listened to that Scarlet-Fire so many times, back before the Cornell soundboard made it out of the storage locker, that was my go to version).