| Pink Floyd - Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA, USA (JEMS) (24-96) |
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| Pink Floyd Seattle Center Coliseum Seattle, WA April 10, 1975 JEMS Full Track Mono Master 2496 Edition Contrast Clause: New torrent is a fresh transfer with new mastering of the same source recording found on http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=664859 Recorded By Stan Gutoski Recording Gear: Sony ECM-22P Microphone > Tandberg Model 11 Portable Reel to Reel JEMS 2019 Transfer: Maxell UD 35-7 Master Reels > Otari MX-5050 w/full track mono head stack > Sound Devices USBPre 2 capture (24/96) > Unfilter, iZotope RX and Ozone > Audacity > TLH > FLAC 01 Raving and Drooling 02 You Gotta Be Crazy 03 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) 04 Have A Cigar 05 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) 06 Speak to Me 07 Breathe 08 On the Run 09 Time 10 Breathe (reprise) 11 The Great Gig in the Sky 12 Money 13 Us and Them 14 Any Colour You Like 15 Brain Damage 16 Eclipse 17 Echoes Known Faults: -None One year ago this weekend, JEMS lost a second founding member, Stan Gutoski, the beloved S in JEMS. The loss came less than four years after the death of Jared Houser, our imitable J. Two down. Two still standing. Stan was one of the kindest and humblest people I ever met. He took me on as an apprentice in the mid-'80s and taught me everything I know about taping. He also gave me access to his archive, and the act of doing so was in effect the beginning of JEMS, as we began to treat our collective recordings as a single entity. I wrote extensively about Stan's passing around this time last year when we released the first of Mike Millard's actual master tapes, Pink Floyd LA '75, after making the fateful connection to Jim R and through him Rob S. Stan and Millard were acquaintances and well aware of each other's work even before they met face to face on two occasions when Stan was taking a family vacation to Disneyland. The pair got together in Orange County where they talked taping and did some dubbing of each other's master tapes. Stan later told me that he felt a kinship with Mike that went beyond music. They both lost their fathers around the same time and they talked about that loss during one of their meetings. I still vividly recall seeing a box of Millard-labeled tapes that arrived at Stan's house in the mid-'80s and how intrigued I was by their design, the quality of the recordings and the incredible story Stan told me about how Millard got his gear into venues using a wheelchair. That box going missing for almost 30 years became the impetus for my journey to learn more about Mike and track down his tapes. Six years ago, the re-discovery of the misplaced box launched and named our Lost and Found series and led to the Millard releases we've been carrying on ever since. It would be easy to say Stan was the Mike Millard of the Seattle area, but perhaps Mike Millard was the Stan Gutoski of Southern California. Stan started taping a year before Mike did and both made a key decision to buy what they believed to be the best tape recorder available to do the job right. For Mike, that was the Nakamichi 550 in 1975. For Stan in 1972, it was a Tandberg Model 11 portable, full-track mono reel to reel. Both decks were capable of very high quality recording, especially for the era, and were a step above the gear that was being used by many early tapers. Mike and Stan shared a sense of mission and purpose when it came to taping and preserving shows, which helps explain their prolific output. While both were fans of many artists, there was an element of duty to their efforts that went beyond just being a fan, recognizing that it was culturally significant to document live performances. They also enjoyed the thrill of getting away with it, which itself can be intoxicating and addicting. I met Stan when I was just out of high school. I owned some bootleg LPs and had tried my hand at taping a couple of shows with limited success. Friends of my parents made the intro and Stan and I became fast friends despite our 20 year age difference. Just a few weeks later, Stan and I were sitting in the back row of the Paramount Theatre in Seattle in his preferred taping seats in row JJ, planting our microphone in the curtain sash and recording R.E.M. on the Fables of the Reconstruction tour. Stan showed me how to set levels, read meters, flip a tape without looking, pretty much everything you need to know to successfully capture concerts. After that came Van Morrison, Simple Minds and eventually dozens of other concerts. I would often hang out in Stan's basement looking through his tapes and picking out something to play on one of his beloved Revox reel to reels, one of which he loaned to me. In 1986, Stan and I had the good fortune to uncover a large batch of previously uncirculated songs from Dylan's Basement Tapes sessions. When 'Sign on the Cross' came on that borrowed Revox and the fidelity was clear (unlike all previous bootlegs), I remember Stan getting tears in his eyes and saying something like, 'Wow. I can't believe we found it.' I also remember spending several hours in Stan's car staking out a home in Seattle that belonged to the parents of a guy who supposedly video taped one of Dylan's 1974 Seattle concerts. The taper/filmer lived in Hawaii and was said to be home only once a year for the holidays to see his family. Stan thought we could just wait outside their house and intercept him. Needless to say never did, but whiling away the hours with Stan was always enjoyable. He loved to tell jokes, eat at the best drive-ins and diners, and regale me with taping and trading stories. I don't think I ever saw Stan get mad. He had a deep sweetness and always exuded a kind of 'just happy to be here' vibe. Because he worked at the post office, Stan had to get up in the wee hours of the morning, but that never stopped him from taping a show in Seattle or for that matter Vancouver. Hell, he even showed me his secret parking spot near the Paramount which I used successfully for years. Through Stan, I met other tapers (Mr. Gaddy, Mr. Lee, Mr. Severson and Mr. Bratton) and my interest in live taping and collecting grew into a lifelong passion. Without Stan, there is no JEMS. It also bears repeating that Stan's primary recorder, the Tandberg, is an audacious piece of gear for a stealth taper. If you don’t know about the Tandberg, it was a remarkable piece of gear in its day, not only capable of recording at 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 IPS, but in full-track mono. I won’t do the math, but compared to a cassette, the surface area of tape capturing the music is orders of magnitude higher, which is why so many of Stan’s Tandberg masters from the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen are considered by some audience-recording classics. The Tandberg required 10(!) D-cel batteries to operate, is roughly the size of a compact typewriter and weighs around ten pounds. Imagine sneaking that into a show and your respect for what Stan accomplished only grows. Today, with the help of my friend Exit Club and others, I am thrilled to share a short film that will give you an even better sense of Stan as a person and a taper. Because Jared's cancer was so advanced and we knew his time was short, we made a point of filming an interview with him about his taping history, the footage of which turned in to this tribute video which we have shared before: Jared video: https://vimeo.com/190021070/14a4b5b7ca During that process, we also shot an interview with Stan. It wasn't as extensive as what we did with Jared, because we thought we had future opportunities to film him again. Alas, we never did schedule a follow-up. But what we did shoot with Stan captures his spirit, good-natured humor and humility. To mark the one year anniversary of Stan's passing, we present to you Committee Of One, a video tribute to the late, great Stan Gutoski, one of the pioneers of our hobby and a first ballot inductee into the Tapers Hall of Fame whenever it gets built. Stan video: https://vimeo.com/503750464/493aa4f757 I wrote about Stan's passing in the Millard Pink Floyd master post from early 2020. You can read the full story there, but this part about his final days is worth re-sharing in this context: Stan was admitted to the hospital in December [2019] because of a spinal infection that severely limited his mobility. I spoke to him at the time, sharing various JEMS updates which always lifted his spirits, even as he sounded weak. He was eventually released, but his condition didn’t improve after he left the hospital. In mid-January [2020], I got updates from his son that didn’t sound promising. Ken told me Stan was back in the hospital battling pneumonia, and it was clear his health was rapidly deteriorating. I began to consider how soon I could fly up to see him. A few days later, I asked if there was an opportunity to call Stan in the hospital, and his son said perhaps he could put me on speaker phone for a minute if his dad was up to it. Sensing that might not happen, I followed up with a text: “Please tell Stan I love him dearly and that we found Mike Millard’s master tapes a few weeks ago.” Ken replied, “Wow. The tapers' ‘Ark of the Covenant.’ That’s amazing. I’ll tell him.” Early the next day his son texted, “Good morning. My dad passed away a few minutes ago.” It was the stomach punch I knew was coming, but not this fast. Way too fast. I started crying. His son then texted: “My brother and I and my youngest son stayed with him until 6:30 am. He never went to sleep. He kept fighting it. He was impressed about the 280 shows [Millard recorded]. He kept making me repeat the number. He wanted to know what years and what cities/venues. I guess he can just ask Millard now in person. [They are] hanging with Jared watching Tom Petty and George Harrison play.” If ever there was a moment of happiness and sadness at the same time, reading that text was it. While I’m not religious, the thought of Mike Millard, Stan Gutoski and our late, great friend Jared Houser all hanging together in heaven is something I am only too happy to believe. #### Stan's original Tandberg deck is still functioning, but after years of making transfers from it, I noticed that our Model 11 introduced a lot of noise in playback. Not surprising considering the age of the unit (closing in on 50 years old), but an issue just the same. In recent years, I used software to help address the noise the Tandberg introduced, but I wanted a better solution. The obvious answer would be to transfer the tapes from a different reel to reel deck, but because the Tandberg recorded in relatively obscure full track mono, transfers done on any standard deck, be it 1/4 or 1/2-track, would not capture the full fidelity of the master tapes. As luck would have it, I was taking another reel to reel deck in for repair at the one place in Southern California that still specializes in them and has for decades, Adrian Proaudio Services in Canoga Park. I was talking to Adrian about the Tandberg issue and my primary reel to reel, which is an Otari MX-5050. He said, “Why don’t you get a full-track mono head stack for the Otari?” Before I even had a moment to ponder why I had never thought of that, Adrian pulled out a brand-new, dead-stock, full-track mono head unit which I could plug and play into my Otari. Needless to say I bought it on the spot. The Otari full-track mono playback was a revelation. The noisiness I had come to expect from any Tandberg playback was gone. The fidelity was everything I had always hoped we could extract from Stan’s master recordings. In December 2019, JEMS released the first of these new Otari transfers of Tandberg masters, an upgrade to Stan's famous and well-traveled George Harrison Seattle '74 recording. To celebrate Stan's work on this, the one year anniversary of his death, we present a second Otari transfer: Pink Floyd, Seattle Center Coliseum, April 10, 1975. I chose this Pink Floyd Seattle show specifically because of all the recordings Stan made of major artists on the Tandberg, this one never sounded as good as I thought it should and could. Stan was not sitting as close to the stage as usual and as such the recording has always sounded more distant, muddy and low-fi than his best work. The new transfer provided a stronger, less hissy base to work from, but the recording still needed help. PURIST ALERT: AGGRESSIVE MASTERING SERVED HERE. I did the original transfer of Stan's Pink Floyd master reels in 2019 and I've been tinkering with ways to improve the sound in mastering ever since. Recent advancements in software offer new tools to aid lower-fi recordings and after much trial and error, I landed on a version of the Floyd Seattle recording that to my ears sounds better, clearer and more musical than all circulating versions without adding obvious artifacts or artificiality. Of course everything is a tradeoff. Your mileage may vary. On the basis of listenability, I think this edition moves Stan's Seattle capture from a recording you would slog through for historical purposes to one you can actually appreciate and dare I say, enjoy. Samples provided. JEMS is not against the release of flat masters in the right circumstances. But in this case, the unpolished gem is simply too dull. Because we control the shop window, I'm putting up the polished one to honor Stan and hopefully give Floyd collectors an upgrade in the process. ## For the audio this week, special thanks to Goody for pitch perspective and to mjk5510 for his post-production mastery and support. To my remaining brother in JEMS, MS, I love you. Thanks for keeping the flag flying with me. And that also goes for skipkid68 and mjk5510 who have been part of Team JEMS for years. Jim R and Rob S, that goes for you as well. Also on the team is Exit Club, who shot, directed and produced the interview with Stan. Without his talent and the support of his partners, it wouldn't be worth sharing. Our pal CRC was there that day and handled the interview questioning. Thanks to him as well. He's part of this overall story, too. Much love to Stan's family, his wife Jan (who you will learn in the video had unexpected bragging rights over her husband) and his sons Ken and Jeff. Also shoutouts to AMorg, the Jacobs, my dad, YK, PK, Scott S, Brother KM, Johan and others who were there in the mid-'80s when this obsession began or later as it continued. May Stan rest in peace. And may all of you come to know just a little of the great man I was fortunate enough to call my friend for 35 years. BK for JEMS |