Pink Floyd - Grolsch's Baked Pepperland Reel (24-96)
 
Album info
 
Recording Date  : 16-10-1970
     
Length  : 132:23
Format  : FLAC
Track List
 
01 Astronomy Domine (1st Attempt) 03:13
02 Astronomy Domine (2nd Attempt) 03:58
03 Astronomy Domine (3rd Attempt) 09:03
04 Astronomy Domine (4th Attempt) 06:07
05 Tune Up 00:27
06 Fat Old Sun 12:09
07 Tune Up 00:46
08 Cymbaline 11:09
09 Tune Up 01:53
10 Atom Heart Mother 20:19
11 Tune Up 01:13
12 The Embryo 11:01
13 Green is the Colour 04:48
14 Careful With That Axe, Eugene 10:54
15 Tune Up 01:14
16 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 12:06
17 Tune Up 01:26
18 A Saucerful Of Secrets 20:37

Notes
Recorded at the Pepperland Auditorium, San Rafael, CA, USA. Excellent audience recording.
Note: this contains both 16bit and 24bit versions.
Note 2: I'm not sure if this, or the other 'Pepperland' recordings are mislabeled. According to various sources Pink Floyd played both the 16th and 17th.


From the info file:

Pink Floyd
Grolsch's Baked Pepperland Reel
1970-10-16
Pepperland Auditorium, San Rafael, CA, USA

This one is dedicated to Rolf (grolsch), who sadly passed away on 2012-12-17.
May he rest in peace.

Lineage:
1st gen 1/4“ RtR Tape > Revox A77 RtR Deck > Tascam US-200 > Adobe Audition@32/96 > Conversion to 24/96 > 50 Hz dehumming in iZotope RX 2 Advanced > Gentle EQ-ing using Voxengo HarmoniEQ > Cutting into tracks in Samplitude X >
a) FLAC Level 8 in TLH
b) SRC to 16/44.1 in Samplitude X using POW-R3 Dithering > FLAC Level 8 in TLH

Tape researched, finally found and transferred by grolsch
Baked by grolsch and smegma0
Dehummed, EQed and cut by creamcheese
This version was approved by grolsch on 2012-11-24 before his unexpected passing on 2012-12-17.
This is the version he planned to release.
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This is what grolsch himself wrote about this reel on 2011-07-23 on the Y! Forum:

„welllllllllllllllllllllllll
the show was originally recorded on cassette by jay d. with the help of ron c. and ron s. when the 'boys' got back home, they instantly made one copy to open reel and re-used the cassettes for next day's jethro tull show @ berkeley. jay d. and ron s. never traded this item. so all copies around came from mr. c's copy of the reel copy.

unfortunately his reel started to fall into pieces in the early 90's. mr. jay's 1st reel copy somehow re-appeared but would no longer play back at all. with the invaluable help of mr. michael k., the reel was baked last month (the morning after mr. waters show in düsseldorf) and transfered from Revox A77 into Tascam US-200 to a 96/32 file.“
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A personal note from Mike (smegma0), who baked the tape with Rolf:

Rolf was extremely nervous about baking the Scotch 406(?) tape – I had to convince him that I knew what I was doing. I’d done many 7” and 10.5” Ampex reels in the past to no ill effect. He waited two years longer to do this than we intended, until I was able to finally make it to Dortmund (I originally planned to go in 2009 but had to abort the trip there, unfortunately).

The issue is that the binder used was incorrectly made so it absorbs moisture. This is a problem with all Scotch/Ampex 406/407/456/457 reels. This moisture interferes with the adhesive so during playback you get lots of sticky gunk (yes, that is the technical term for it) collecting on the playbach head and it impacts playback quality and even speed. So you have to fix it. Bake at 53C to 55C in a well-controlled oven (Rolf had bought an oven specifically for this purpose) for 3-4 hours to drive the moisture out without damaging the plastic backing, let cool down to room temp, and voila – the tape plays back with no problems for a month or so.
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This is Ron C.'s original commentary, which Rolf sent me in a mail:

„As to Pepperland in San Rafael formerly The Bermuda Palms formerly Litchfield's: I know I went there about 6 or 7 times. Saw Hot Tuna/Beefheart, Zappa, Floyd, Youngbloods, Steve Miller/Sons of Champlin, Taj Mahal, Quicksilver. Pepperland was 2 large rooms joined together with a a partial wall separating both rooms this was was opened up and I believe later removed. room had very low ceiling less than 10 feet creating excellent sound. very poor ventilation lots of pot smoke and cigarette smoke. no air conditioning no HVAC very cold in winter too hot rest of the time.

Went with J.D. Recorder: Sony TC-126 with Powered Single Point Stereo Microphone Either Sony Red or Green Cassette tapes. We sat 10-12 rows back left of center. Master Cassettes were re-used never kept due to unreliability of cassette transport mechanism. As far as I know and remember only copies were made onto Scotch 7' Reel. 1 for Jay and one for me. I made you copies off my Reels which are now un-playable un-bake able any longer missing most of the left channel. Can't remember if I made Mr. Genetti a copy or lent him the Reel or made him a DAT
but you, Genetti ,Ron Sanchez and Dave White who would have gotten copies off the reel. some cassettes were later made as back ups which were either Hitachi pre-Maxell days or Sony.“
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A personal note from Walter (WRomanus):
Attached here are some pics I took the last time I saw Rolf.
That evening we were 5 seasoned floydians together, a gathering of knowledge, collections and passion.
On the photos you can see him talking to Ron C., probably about Pepperland!
Those having had the fortune to know Rolf will recognize some of his typical gestures and of course the omnipresent cigarette he held with his yellow fingers.
My admiration for this gentle, nice and passionate guy will never die.
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creamcheese, smegma0 and WRomanus
2012-12-20