Hard To Handle | 1969-12-11 | Grateful Dead

View NotesCopies from the soundboard reels of these shows have circulated since the '70s, sometimes mislabled "Kaleidoscope Theater, LA," often with dates and sequences mixed up, usually in badly degraded sound quality.  This set assembles complete copies of the 11th and the 12th in the best quality circulating.  Except for the middle portion of the 11th, sound is excellent throughout; this inferior segment is listenable while leaving definite room for improvement if an upgrade shows up; we haven't been able to find one & don't want to delay further.

Many people gave help on the way to creating this set of CDs.  Dave Greenberg did the final masters.  Jack Warner was instrumental in providing the difficult composite for the 2nd disc of 12/11/69, which was first mastered by Scott Clugston.  RB, KW, JN and HB also provided important assistance.  Jim Powell instigated the project and writes these notes. SHN conversion by Jay Gerland.

Transferrer: Paul Bottiglio, Jack Warner, JCotsman

3:18:31

SBD

Rating:

7.33 / 7 ratings

Transferrer:

Paul Bottiglio, Jack Warner, JCotsman

SHNID:

gd69-12-11.sbd-aud.cotsman.8998.sbeok.shnf

Source:

Soundboard and Audience Composite

Lineage:

See notes

Taper Notes:

View NotesA very good mono audience recording supplies the first ~75 minutes of this show, up until the final verse of Dark Star.  The recording was stopped in between most songs, and only the first few notes of a few songs are clipped.  A somewhat degraded SBD supplies the rest of the show.  There are several small portions of this SBD that have level/channel problems.

Sound Forge was used for editing: slight pitch correction for both sources, smoothing cuts, patching dropouts, normalizing, and removal of many pops that were present on the SBD portion, presumably from a PCM  transfer.   

---d/o @ 0:55 in Me & My Uncle patched with SBD
---d/o @ 3:36 in Dark Star patched with SBD
---splice @ 5:20 of The Eleven
---splice in Good Lovin' @ 5:45 during drum solo
---channel fluctuations at end of Good Lovin'
---channel problems for first 2:39 of Easy Wind
---right channel fluctuates at end of drums, just before O1 intro
---splice @ 5:30 of The Other One

I believe the SBD was mastered on cassette, though most lineages seem to be listed as a reel master.   The frequent mix problems, varying pitch/speed, and lack of trademark reel-to-reel zip-outs during cuts strongly support this being a cassette master.

Taper: Rion Brady

gd1969-12-11.140676.partial.fob.sbeok.flac1644

Source:

Partial Set 1 source: aud>mac>wav>flac; fob recording by Rion Brady

Taper Notes:

View NotesThis is the same source that was used for shnid 8998, but that was from a higher gen.  It has been cleaned up to remove most of the pops, clicks, etc.  The tape was paused between most tracks, crossfades have been applied to smooth the transitions.  Levels have been adjusted to center the sound.

* This is what Rion emailed to Deadlists:

"Dear Mr. Marshall:

I came across your web site while looking for old GD performances.  I am the person who taped the Dead at Thelma's on 12/10 and 11., l969.

I attended the first show on each night and taped them with cheapest possible Sony cassette recorder that I had carried with me in Vietnam, from which I had returned about six weeks earlier.  I can still remember how exciting it was to listen to the tape on the way home, and probably several times a day in the weeks thereafter.

Thelma's was a real small place, which is why the tape turned out as good as it did.  At some point, I dubbed both cassettes onto a reel, which is where most of the copies came from.  Amazingly, I still have the original cassette with Dark Star, but managed to lose the others.  I would be glad to expound on this at greater length if you wish.  You may respond to this email or I can be reached during the day at ......

Rion Brady"

Taper: Rion Brady

Adam Egert and Derek McCabe and MOTB

SHNID:

gd1969-12-11.fob.brady.motb.91152.sbeok.flac16

Source:

1 x Sony Microphone => Sony Portable Cassette Recorder [Monophonic] >> MAC

Lineage:

MAC >> Nakamichi DR-1 => Grace Design Lunatec V3 [Pre-Only] => Korg MR-1000 >> DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo] >> Korg MR-1000 => Korg AudioGate >> WAV [24/96]

Taper Notes:

View NotesMastering Notes
-- This is a synthesized stereo version of original monaural source, produced using Mid-Side stereo processing techniques. The mastered mono version of this show is available as MOTB 0063 (shnid=91109).
-- Software - Bias Peak / Ozone / Nomad Factory EQs / Audiofile Engineering Sample Manager
-- Crossfaded the tape stop/start interruptions present in between every song break.
-- d2t04 - Patched cut off at 19:59 of "Dark Star" with about 33 seconds of gd69-12-11.sbd.gerland.10987.sbeok.shnf (shnid=10987).

Notes
-- The tape was stopped in between every song break.
-- d1t03 - Lead in to "Cold Rain And Snow" fades in on opening notes.
-- d1t07 - Lead in to "It Hurts Me Too" fades in on opening notes.
-- d1t08 - Lead in to "China Cat Sunflower" fades in on opening notes.
-- Big thanks and good karma to Norm Bowen and Andy Foust for helping to secure Rion's master cassette, so this live music and its history could be shared.
-- More big thanks and more good karma to John Hance who fixed and re-shelled Rion's cassette in order to facilitate its audio sound preservation.

Taper: Rion Brady

Adam Egert and Derek McCabe and MOTB

SHNID:

gd1969-12-11.fob.brady.motb.91109.sbeok.flac16

Source:

1 x Sony Microphone => Sony Portable Cassette Recorder [Monophonic] >> MAC

Lineage:

MAC >> Nakamichi DR-1 => Grace Design Lunatec V3 [Pre-Only] => Korg MR-1000 >> DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo] >> Korg MR-1000 => Korg AudioGate >> WAV [24/96] > (see notes)

Taper Notes:

View NotesMastering Notes
-- Software - Bias Peak / Ozone / Nomad Factory EQs / Audiofile Engineering Sample Manager
-- d2t04 - Patched cut off at 19:59 of "Dark Star" with about 33 seconds of gd69-12-11.sbd.gerland.10987.sbeok.shnf (shnid=10987).
-- There is also a synthesized stereo version of this MOTB source, produced using Mid-Side stereo processing techniques.

Notes
-- The tape was stopped in between every song break.
-- d1t03 - Lead in to "Cold Rain And Snow" cuts in abruptly as tape was started right at the opening notes.
-- d1t07 - Lead in to "It Hurts Me Too" cuts in abruptly as tape was started right at the opening notes.
-- d1t08 - Lead in to "China Cat Sunflower" cuts in abruptly as tape was started right at the opening notes.