Not too many of the vault tapes have gone through the Plangent Process; for one thing it's a bit pricey. Almost none of the Road Trips or Picks, for example. Starting in June 1976 at the comeback shows in Portland Dan Healy showed himself as the tapers' best friend. The second night (June 4) Rex and his group confiscated my taping stuff during the first set. As the set ended I went up to the soundboard area and told Dan about it. He then escorted me backstage into the band's own taping room where they had put my stuff; he got it and took me back out into the soundboard area to set up there for set 2. In Fall '79 he had his coke dealer Andre bring his Technics 1500 reel deck into the SBD area to record audience tapes for pretty much the whole tour and the New Year's run, and of course by Oct '84 he had convinced the band to start the Taper's Section.
Although it's been awhile since I looked at them, Michael Getz and John Dwork's Tapers' Compendium series has a lot of good information in them as well. I think most or all of them have been scanned online somewhere.
It sounds like you were the first official taper @rbbert! I ran across Betty saying that for at least some amount of time she recorded from a room backstage and that surprised me, but it sounds like a similar set up to what you saw. Later she wanted to see more what was happening on stage so went out front. It might have been in an audio interview, this was one I listened to recently. Listen to Our Interview with Legendary Music Producer/Engineer: Betty Cantor-Jackson | Media One Audio » Of note Betty says she has the master tape for 5/8/77, and she plans to send it to the Library of Congress to replace the dub copy they currently they have.
A bit off topic but Chris Robinson brotherhood named a live album after Betty(obviously a nod to her legendary Dead boards). She did the recordings. Anyone heard it?
I have not heard it but will seek that out especially after putting so much time into hearing her work finding '77 and '78 differences, which I cannot un-hear now! It's cool though. I did read this pretty good article on the first album, I understand there is a second now. She is a fan of 24/96, and it sounds like she is using the same approach as ever. "She doesn’t use pan effects. She mixes each instrument hard left or hard right, and varies “the amount” of each sound, each element. And that’s what creates the space. She wants to put the listener either right in front of the stage or right inside the band. Everybody, she says, wants to be in the band." Golden Ears: Chris Robinson Brotherhood Meet Their Match »
She recorded 5 shows in Dec 2012. They are all available for download here Chris Robinson Brotherhood - 12/11/12 CRB Ravens Reels, San Francisco, CA » The sound quality across the 5 shows is inconsistent; I have no idea why.
This site is mostly about the music but there are some essays about taping as well Grateful Dead Guide »
Yes, that is of note. I was unaware of where the masters were. As good as the digital copies we all have are, the powers that be need to work something out. I'm not the only one that wants a proper, official release on vinyl.
Sorry, I lost a few words there. I meant to ask if you could recommend any night in particular but you've already answered that
I had posted this on another Dead forum recently, but I don’t think there were as many tapers or tape experts as we have here, so not many questions got answered. Let me take this opportunity to first thank everyone for their very cool contributions to the thread so far and for making this a great place to talk Grateful Dead music; and so in that spirit I am going to continue with a deep dive into Ultra-Matrix mixes, ultimately to get to an answer of exactly how they were made. As I was gathering information to learn more about Healy’s Ultra-Matrix mixes, there seemed to be some varying opinions about exactly how they were made. I am going to dispense with what they are exactly, as most everyone here knows that already; anyone else can start with this basic definition here. Skeleton Key » Now try if you can to not jump to early conclusions, but instead make it through as far as you can first; I am going to set up what I believe to be some fallacies in order to go through the various camps regarding these— I know experts here will be able to poke or fill-in holes as needed as they likely know the answer already. My main question arose when I would come across two camps of how Ultra-Matrix tapes were made; first, I think it is widely known that Healy recorded the FOH Sbd feed through a delay to a Sony PCM-F1 for A/D then to the video heads of a Beta HIFI recorder; at the same time recorded an AUD feed from FOB mics [anyone know that setup or have pics?] and that analog feed got sent the audio heads of that Beta HIFI machine [does anyone know the model he used?]. So now Healy has a PCM FOH sbd recording, and an analog AUD tape recording timed up because the FOH sbd feed was delayed to match the AUD feed to the tape. Many people say he would then mix the two 2-track recordings to a cassette tape, sometime after the show, and viola we have an Ultra-Matrix tape. Next came the question of all the master cassettes of these Ultra-Matrix shows, did Healy do that many of them in the hotel room after the show or sometime after the tour and get them out there? Does every Ultra-Matrix tape come from a mix off of the Beta HIFI machine? I believe there are shows you can get/hear separately the PCM FOH Sbd, the AUD feed, as well as the Ultra-Matrix master cassette— I don’t know any off the top of my head, but I am sure some here know— but that does not really answer the question of just how the cassette master was made. So continuing on I notice some comments Charlie Miller made in an etree post trying to explain things to someone, placed here slightly out of order: “I didn't label the board tapes as matrix since the Healy UltraMatrix was what was used for board tapes from Spring 87 through 12/31/90. So if you see a sbd tape from that era (plus a few Dec 86 shows), then it's a matrix made by Healy.” “actually it is a matrix. 12/15 was a straight sbd 12/16 is a matrix 12/17 is a matrix 12/27 is straight sbd 12/28 I forget, but I think matrix 12/30 is a matrix 12/31 is a matrix, but diff mix than fm Joani Walker was patched out of the UltraMatrix box that Healy gave her a patch too. These are the sources that have been in circulation since Dec 86. I would think that your tapes are the same source, just not masters.” “Healy's tape would be the same source as he and Joani were patched out of the same feed. I guess you could compare tape flips.” bt.etree.org | Community Tracker - Details for torrent "gd1986-12-16.matrix.flac16" » By the way @US Blues had was very helpful in describing Joani’s role. http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/grateful-thread-what-have-you-been-listening-to-part-7.430862/page-429#post-13774597 So what is an Ultra-Matrix Box? Immediately I am thinking, custom gear probably made by Don Pearson at Ultra Sound with input from Healy that is doing the delaying and perhaps the mixing all in one cool looking box with a stealie sticker on the front—I have got to find a picture of that thing! Well I am finding more and more that the answers to these types of questions are far simpler than I originally imagined. This is my current theory/thinking on the ultra-matrix cassette masters. I have zero FOH experience so I can be easily corrected on the theory or the nomenclature. I don’t think there was any special Ultra-Matrix “box”, this could be accomplished with a matrix section of the FOH console. In fact it is likely why it got named matrix mix. The console they were using around that time was a Gamble EX56, that console was supposedly made with electronics also used on the Space Shuttle, and like any combination of a serious FOH console, it would take almost Space Shuttle understanding to explain, so I am not even going to try [ to see what I mean, this is what the EX56 can do Listing - GAMBLE EX56 CONSOLE - Detail - CONSOLE/RECORDING - SoundBroker.com » ] Here is a pic of Healy and Pearson in ’88 and perhaps those are the AUD feed mics to the left of Healy. [In the last few years they were using 6 Gamble consoles, 2 FOH, 3 Monitor, 1 Drummers.] Untitled Document » For simplicity, suffice it to say it might be something on the order of, a patch of the main FOH mix gets sent to one of the matrix sections of the console; the AUD mic feed gets sent to an input of that matrix section (or to the main console first, but is not mixed for FOH, instead gets sent straight to the “recording” matrix section. That recording matrix section acts as the mixer for the 2 track recording, and its output gets sent to a cassette recorder. So any changes to the FOH mix gets translated to the tape as we hear on those ultra-matrix tapes. This is a great explanation of the power a matrix section of a console provides FOH online | Take The Blue Pill: Understanding the Matrix »... As far as the issue of delaying the FOH feed to match the timing of the AUD feed, as one of the FOH feeds is sent to our recording matrix section, it gets run through a delay, and that delay is adjusted so that the FOH feed will match up with the AUD feed [there is mention in an ’89 article that this was a FOH delay unit used TC 2290 | TC Electronic » , possibly one was used for the ultra-matrix mix, Google Groups » ; Pearson used a TC 1280 to fix Two From The Vault] I am guessing they had a general delay time formula for that to get them in the ball park, then used delay location analysis, probably a B&K 2032 F.F.T. analyzer, to match up the common signal characteristics. [It should be noted that Don Pearson was working in the delay measurement field as early as ‘78 and was a major creator of Meyer’s SIM and had “intimate involvement” with the maker of Smaart software in this field. Smaart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia » So you have delayed the FOH feed, used the matrix section to mix the FOH feed and AUD feed to their appropriate levels, and the output of that matrix mix is getting sent to a recorder. I think the “box” that was called the “ultra-matrix box” was really just the XLR patch box, so one XLR cable gets turned into 2 or 4 or 6 or however many pairs of female XLR connections [insert your own joke here]. Regarding the Beta HIFI 4 tracks total of FOH Sbd PCM and AUD, I think a different patch of the delayed FOH feed and the AUD feed, not going to the recording matrix [or likely as a send from the matrix section in their unmixed forms], could have also been sent to the Beta HIFI recorder [again FOH feed to PCM-F1 A/D to video tracks, AUD analog to HI-FI audio tracks] for mixing after the fact or for having a pure FOH feed for archival purposes. Sony PCM-F1 on thevintageknob.org » So do we know for a fact if there are differences in how ultra-matrix cassettes were made; either a) from mixing the Beta HIFI tracks after the show or b) from a patch off of the recording matrix of the FOH console real-time, or c) was there actually an Ultra-Matrix box doing the mixing and providing patches? If there are different processes for making these Ultra-Matrix cassettes, has anyone ever named them differently for distinction? Finally, what are your favorite Ultra Matrix mixes, certainly we can answer that? Appendix Note that the PCM to Beta seems to be an issue and perhaps why we have not had much released from them. On this topic Lemieux notes in a few different places: “These 1985 audio clips are from the Beta PCM digital masters, which often have quite severe drop-out issues, as evidenced by the drop-out in Samson and Delilah (the Iko Iko that preceded Samson and Delilah was plagued with drop-outs and was unusable here” "These Cal Expo 1989 recordings were drawn from the VHS PCM digital masters, as the crew switched from recording to Beta PCM to VHS PCM in 1989. So far, these VHS PCMs have proven to be more robust and reliable than their Beta counterparts." Don Pearson did some of these as well. My next listening plans include the 5 tracks he did on Postcards From The Hanging, and 3-26,27-87 as I think those are supposed to be good Ultra-Matrix.
I have vinyl versions of both CRB - Betty's Blends Vol 1 (4 X LP Taken from the December 2012 GAMH run) and Betty's Blends Vol 2 (2 X LP Best of the West) and also the downloads referenced above. I agree that the SQ across the downloads from the 5 night run varies. But for some reason the 4xLP Betty's Blends Vol 1 taken from the same sources sounds consistently amazing! If anyone is a fan of the CRB I suggest seeking them out ASAP. *** Thank you to EVERYONE for this thread. This is a dead fanatics fever dream if ever one existed. I'm furiously making notes and ammendments to previous shows to contain as much of this info as I can. I can't get enough of this tech talk.
Probably not. The cassettes were lost long ago (complicated unpleasant story) but I do still have a good 1st gen reel copy (with no good easy way to make a digital copy at present). bmoregnr's theory about the Ultra-Matrix may be correct. What is known is that by '88 the Dead were recording to a large bank of Onkyo cassette decks (10, 12, 14 of them?) as well as to DAT and PCM/VCR, and the Ultra-Matrix feed went directly into this bank. It could have been either a separate component ("box") or part of the mixing console, although it was commonly referred to as the "box" by the recording crew and archivists (which to me doesn't mean it was necessarily a separate component). At one time (for DP 21 at least) the Dead were using my old Beta HiFi deck (which I had given to Dick) to play their Beta PCM's.
Now that you say that I remember seeing that cassette deck stack. You always forget that everyone wanted tapes! Including people in the scene. Did you ever get your Beta HiFi back?!
No, I had no more use for it after I used it to play tapes from Bob Menke that were on Beta; that was the only reason I bought it.
Thanks, maybe one day it can see the light of day. And thanks for sharing your knowledge of GD recording and the UltraMatrix.
According to some conversation I read pretty recently, Healey's audience mics were first a pair of AKG 414EB then AKG c424b or AKG c422b configured into the M/S recording (one mic was figure eight and the other was omni. The omni mic was flipped out of phase).
Thanks very much for that, as you definitely reminded me that I did run across a few mentions of the M-S technique and that I needed to learn about it. That type of mic arrangement does look like the one in the picture above of the ’88 show Gamble console. So here is what I have learned and I hope it is correct. This seems a good explanation of the Mid-Side mic recording technique: Mid-Side (MS) Mic Recording Basics - Blog - Universal Audio » If you need a refresher on mic patterns as I did: Microphone Polar Patterns: A Beginner's Introduction »
If you are a listener of Audience tapes, there are a handful of shows circulating from a deck patched out of Healey's mics from the early to mid 1980s using this M/S feed. I don't recall which shows off the top of my head (I'm pretty sure Anchorage is one of them) but I'll see if I can dig them up.
