| Identifier | 8543878 |
| Created At | Tue May 23 2023 23:54:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) |
| Media Type | FLAC |
| Media Count | 1 |
| Show Rating | A+ |
| Sound Rating | A+ |
| Note | Tape Baking, Or How I Learned To Violate My Wife's New Oven
To me, it's a wonder that some shows are able to be heard at all, by anybody. There is so much stuff floating around DaD to pick from, that the truly difficult shows get lost in the shuffle. Case in point: Between getting high every, single, freaking day in 1976 and trying to graduate NYU with two broken arms (and, if by that fact alone you know who I really am - we both are in trouble!), I also had time to tape the Bicentennial concert given by Gentle Giant at the Calderone Theatre in Hempstead, New York. It was broadcast at a time where there were no commercial interruptions as a courtesy to the listener (fancy that nowadays!), by WLIR FM. It was taped directly off the air, live as it happened. The recording was possibly accomplished partially in absentia by use of a remote turn-on on one of several reel-to-reel decks I have owned over the years. You should know that this is by far my favorite Gentle Giant show, and one of their best performances. The recording was accomplished by using Ampex Professional 456 tape on a 10,5 inch reel. At that time, it was the standard for mastering. It produces a warm, virtually noiseless recording with allowance for heavy saturation without the heavy treble distortion. The problem is that Ampex tape doesn't store well. The oxide tends to flake off. By early 1977, they had switched the format and the tape stored better, but still not perfectly. During the years, the tape had become more and more difficult to play. The reels would just stop suddenly, or wouldn't rewind. When the tape was played about a week ago, it was nearly destroyed. There was nothing but a heavy squeal and garble. I had read of people being able to bring these tapes back to life, if only for a play or two, by baking them in an oven. After doing a little research, I discovered there was a whole slew of articles on the subject. It seems the Grateful Dead had done it, CSNY had done it, and there were many different suggestions as to how to accomplish the feat. One suggestion had to do with making a cardboard box with wooden dowels suspended over a fan with heat supplied by light bulbs. Another was to use a food dehydrator, with a specific recommendation as to which model and how to prepare it. It seemed that the problem was the low, constant temperature required, and the long baking times (from five to 48 hours, depending upon whose solution you were looking at). My wife had just replaced her stove oven with a new, state-of-the-art model. The lowest temperature of all the different recommendations was 120 degrees F, or 55 degrees C, and a corresponding bake time of 24-48 hours. After some discussion about the baking process and the metal reel possibly causing oven damage, we decided to try it. The oven was set to dehydrate, and the temperature was manually lowered from 180 to 120 degrees. The tape was baked for two consecutive 12 hour shifts as the oven would not time longer than that. As per directions, the tape was allowed to cool to room temperature. Upon removal from the oven, it was noted that the tape itself had developed a sheen which wasn't there before. There was absolutely no smell during the baking process, and the oven had no damage at all to the shelf which it was placed on. With baited breath, the reel was threaded onto a freshly-cleaned AKAI reel machine, which was fed directly into the computer with Sound Forge running on record. It worked! The tape ran perfectly all the way through on both sides. The sound quality wasn't totally perfect anymore, but only in the beginning. At least I could preserve it to be able to hear it again. The wav file was processed, and two audio cds were generated. I am so happy. Please let me know what you think of the entire process. Two officially released tracks had to be removed. Here is the setlist. A * indicates the track is on an official release and had to be taken out. |
| Source Info | Live FM Broadcast ->Reel Tape ->29 years storage->Oven Baking ->Recording direct into Sound Forge ->Track splitup ->FLAC level 6 sectors aligned and verified FLAC Frontend |
| Traded From | yeeshkul.com |
| Trades Allowed |
Performance
| Gentle Giant 1976-07-04 Calderone Theater, Hempstead, NY | |
|---|---|
| Set 1 | Just The Same Proclamation > Valedictory On Reflection The Runaway > Experience So Sincere Excerpts From Octopus Give It Back Timing Free Hand |
| Set 2 | |
| Set 3 | |
| Comment | |