SOUND GRADING

 

 10 = Perfect Stereo

   9 = FM Radio Broadcast

   8 = Excellent Audience

   7 = Very Good Audience

   6 = Good Audience

   5 = Fair Audience

   4 = Poor Audience

   3 = Un-listenable

 

LOOP CATEGORY

  © = Mono Creation Loop

  ® = Stereo Replay Loop

Total Time : 50 mins

Notes

 

An astounding official release from DGM Live ! available for download here

 

This show is the 2nd evening of a week long residency at this particular venue at 150 Mercer Street.

The proceeds from the residency went to help a local Soho theatre company.

 

Alex “Stormy” Mundy synchronized two separate reels to produce this wonderful recording.

One of the only  live recordings that includes the solo element direct from the source tape.

 

Tracks 1 to 4 are the portion where the loops were “created” on stage,

but they have been replayed in stereo in a fashion not heard before !

 

At first it was believed that it had been synced up artificially in a different manner,

but upon close analysis and some careful attention to possibilities of the signal path

we believe we know how this was accomplished by Fripp at the event.

 

Here is an attempt at a technical analysis ...

 

“Normally” when creating a “stereo version” of one of these “mono creation reels”,

the tape was played back through the Left Revox, recording the left channel onto the right channel.

This is described in detail here

 

However this is NOT the case at this show.

 

INROADS FRIPPERTRONICS DELAY SYSTEM - VARIATION 1

 

Fripp must have employed a signal splitter in addition to the normal “monophonic” loop creation technique

which would have taken the monophonic signal from the Right Revox Left Channel,

split it into two monophonic signals, one feeding back into the Left Channel of the Left Revox

as well as the Right Channel of the Left Revox.

This would have instantly created in real time the stereo loop we hear now.

 

At this point, Robert must have rewound the tape entirely onto the Left Revox

and used it as a conventional stereo playback Revox with two reels and played back the tape

through the PA and collected the tape on the right reel of the Left Revox.

 

The right Revox must have then be used to have recorded Fripp’s direct “solo guitar element”

in mono on a separate reel like a normal Revox recorder.

This is why Alex was only able to barely hear the sound of the backing loop

via the only connected “recording microphone” present … Fripp’s guitar pickups !

Nice job Stormy !

 

Other technical notations…

 

Loop I for some odd reason has about a minute missing of the right channel.

This is likely due to Fripp forgetting to engage the signal splitter for the first minute

or it somehow was subsequently erased by accident.

 

There is a very slight warble noticeable on the master tape of the backing loop,

(more pronounced on the right channel, but audible on both)

which is a result of imperfect tape tension between the two Revoxes.

A commonly encountered “hazard” to this analogue technology.

This would have been permanently “printed” onto the master tape and subsequently unavoidable.

 

There is also a very small amount of reverb was added to both the backing loops and the solo element

during the mastering.

 

Below is a graphic detail of this unique Frippertronics loop

for comparison against a “normal” Frippertronics stereo loop as seen here

First a far view 27 seconds and a close up view (6 seconds) showing NO left/right channel mini-delay

with the absolutely PERFECTLY synced 4-5 second delay.

Date : August 5, 1981

Venue : Inroads Multimedia Center

Location : New York City, New York, USA

Sound Grading : 10

TRACK LISTING

 

Loop I (5:00) ©

Loop II (9:50) ©

Loop III (4:44) ©

Loop IV (4:46) ©

Loop and Solo I (4:59) ®

Loop and Solo II (10:26) ®

Loop and Solo III (4:51) ®

Loop and Solo IV (4:59) ®

OTHER

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