Not Fade Away | 1989-08-05 | Grateful Dead

2:25:52

Taper:

OldNeumanntapr

Transferrer:

OldNeumanntapr

SHNID:

gd1989-08-05.168759.nakCM300s.CP4.ont.flac1644

Source:

OTS; Nakamichi CM 300s w/CP 4 Shotgun Capsules >Sony WM-D6C [Sony Metal ES 90s]

Lineage:

Cassette Masters Transferred Via Denon DR-M12HR >Tascam DR100mkII (24bit/48kHz) WAV >Audacity (Balance Channel Levels, Amplify, Track Splits, Down Sample To 16bit/44.1kHz, Minor Edits [Tape Flips] & Fades) Fix SBEs >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.53

Taper Notes:

View NotesOldNeumanntapr Notes;
This was my second excursion to Cal Expo in Sacramento, the first being May 3rd and 4th 1986. I remember that it was hot as hell in Sacramento in August, and our old 1970 Datsun truck had never heard of air conditioning!

This was the very first show that I used my friend Gene's Nakamichi CM 300 shotguns in which to record. I didn't ask him. He volunteered them. I met Gene at the Saturday, June 13 1987 Ventura Fairgrounds Dead show when he patched a Marantz 420 into my Sony TC-153SD. We've been friends ever since. Later in 1989 he would purchase a grey-market Sony TCD-D10 DAT recorder, before the US Government was even letting them into the country. In his words, 'You can buy ANYTHING off a truck in New York City!"

The Nakamichi microphones were a definite step up from my old Superscope EC 7 cardioid condensers, but I still think I like the vocals better from the cardioids. (In later years I switched to running the Nakamichi CP 1 cardioid capsules on the CM 300s at venues like Shoreline where we were outdoors and didn't need the extreme side rejection of the 'guns.) The CP 4 shotgun capsules did really help to tame the reverberant sound from large indoor arenas but they could sound midrange heavy and kind of flat and lifeless. In 1990 at Cal Expo we would experiment with mixing one CM 300 with a CP-3 Pinpoint Omni capsule with two CM 300 shotguns and open up the sound a bit more. The three-mic mix worked well for cassette masters, where the analog tape hiss tended to help cover up the noise that the mixer induced, but when we switched to DAT in the 90s' it was really apparent that the mixer lowered the signal-to-noise ratio.

This was the night that I met my friend Jack, from Salt Lake City, when he patched his D6 into mine. Again, we have been friends ever since. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has developed long lasting friendships from meetings in the tapers section at Dead shows!

It was either the Saturday or Sunday '89 Cal Expo show that a person wandered into the tapers section while obviously way too high and freaked out and ran through to the other side. Whoever it was just barely missed stepping on my deck. I remember a couple of tapers who ran after the guy, through the right side. I would like to think that the person didn't mean to cause any harm and blundered in by mistake but one never knows. People would often try to walk through the tapers section at outdoor shows in the dark because they would see a big black open area and not realize the vast amounts of recording gear that was there in their way. One of the 'Taper Creeds' was that you ALWAYS helped out your neighbors by turning your flashlight on and pointing it at their gear when someone tried to saunter through the section. I have had drunks try and brace themself by grabbing my microphone stand to steady themselves and I would always cringe and try to get rid of them quickly and send them on their way.

The drum solo on the Saturday show was really short, and I have it in my notes that Billy walked off stage abruptly.

After the show on Saturday my ex wife Nikki and I stayed the night in the camper shell of our green 1970 Datsun truck while parked in the parking lot of a Denny's restaurant. We were poor and couldn't afford a motel room so I picked a Denny's parking lot because it was a 24 hour restaurant and figured that no one would notice a truck parked there all night. I do remember using the restroom at the Denny's and washing my face and accidentally leaving my eye glasses on the sink. Of course they were gone when I realized what I had done the next morning and I had to deal with my nearsightedness for the Sunday Dead show and also with the 300 mile drive back to San Luis Obispo County. (I had silver 'Art-Craft Circles' which were English glasses that were like the glasses that John Lennon wore. I had to order a new pair immediately.)