-
Stage Recording 8.7 - These kind of recordings are in a unique category – they are technically “audience” type recordings but the signal is sent straight to the recording deck or into a sub-mixer under the control of an engineer. A “professional audience recording” I suppose. So, you do not always have absolute control over the sound mix but this can be a good thing if you get lucky enough with ideal mic placement and ambience, and other things like that. In this case, well, it’s a fine recording limited perhaps by the mic and tape deck quality or ability to capture in high fidelity. It’s a great reference, a decent recording, and there’s plenty of interesting stuff here to make you want to find out what Zappa does next. -
Audience 8.8 - This tape takes a minute to find a sweet spot, but when it does, it’s quite enjoyable with exceptional detail in the highs – and a good “thwacking” kick drum that anchors the whole thing. A good ‘un! -
Soundboard 9.5 - Excellent in just about every way, including the performance itself. Great stuff! -
Soundboard 8.8 - The live mix settles in during the first song and sounds pretty good, and manages to capture some of the hall atmosphere too, which is nice. -
Soundboard 9.6 - A must for every Kinks collector! The band was REALLY cooking on this tour, here’s some proof. -
Audience 9.0 - Nicely done! A good solid punchy middle, with enough headroom to allow the guitars to soar high above the audience landing onto your ear drums in the best of ways. -
SDBRD 9.8 - Damn near perfect! -
Audience 8.6 - A very early tape featuring the bands original guitarist. For those who have not heard anything like this before, well, it does not sound like the Police as we know them, it’s still good, but different. To my ears, the guitarist does not have the polish we have come to expect from this band, but he’s got quite a lot of spit! -
T Rex Rare Rextacy Studio Demos of Professional studio quality 9.6 and live tracks 9.0 Clear, bright, and interesting…that is the key point when dealing with studio outtakes. These are well worth the listen! -
Studio quality 9.0 with some variation of quality throughout but not getting anywhere below a solid 8.8. -
Audience 9.1 - Taper was very close to the main PA but it does not distort and the sound goes directly to your brain, it does not stop for directions. HOT HOT HOT!! Get it. -
Studio 8.7 - A little sonic degradation to these professional studio demos (the bonus tracks are abbreviated probably due to legal reasons at the time they were recorded). Some of the tracks are better quality, but the worst are still very good, just maybe a little loss of clarity and fidelity but nothing major. You’ll enjoy this if you are a fan. -
Audience 8.6 - A strong recording that you know was done by people who were careful and prepared because right away you can hear them getting the recording levels set during the opening bars of the first song. They knew what they were doing! A lively gig, the band riding high and looking to prove that the hype was for real. Get this! -
Audience 7.1 - One for completists only, but even then, this version has been given a touch of boost (recording levels were low), EQ and hiss reduction (very very lightly) making it an upgrade to previous versions. Good set list, band sound good (Ozzy in a great mood). I think it’s not a total loss of a recording, because the one thing it does also have going for it, is that it is not a garbled muddy mess (that is a deal breaker for me). -
Pro Studio 9.5 - A brilliant sonic overhaul done for these historic tracks. For years circulated widely but now restored and remastered to proper speed .... collectors will be happy to have this set. -
Audience 8.6 - A serviceable recording, it stays sort of in the midrange spectrum but is pretty powerful anyway. I suspect this may be audio that was taken from a video source, but to my ears it sounds better than a typical home video camera audio capture.