Notes from TheTooleMan, September 2004: This is my second and final remaster of this recording. In the first attempt I used the inferior bootleg "Live in Amsterdam," but this version is made from the far-superior low-generation recording seeded on EZ Torrent a week ago. Each track of this remaster has been examined with a fine-toothed comb. Static has been removed from several spots in the source recording, and a few gaps or drop-outs in the original tapes were eliminated. Tracks markers have been adjusted to better correspond with the beginning or ending of songs, some comments have been merged into single tracks and others separated from the music when they ran fairly long, hiss has been reduced, bass has been increased, levels for the comments have been increased, abrupt volume changes have been smoothed, and the overall recording's dynamics have been adjusted to give it more power and a wider stereo field. The pitch of the recording was sharp, and it has been brought down by 50 cents to normal pitch (that really is "E" Pete is playing when he tunes his guitar now). Some slight speed variations are still audible in the recording. The filler tracks from 1973 have been removed, and the split between CD 1 and CD 2 has been moved to make the two disks more equal in length and to bring the conclusion of disk one and the start of disk two a more drama. Original notes from the previous seeders are below. (I did not reverse the stereo channels, as noted by biffmeister.) My thanks to them and the others involved in getting this landmark recording to all of us.
Notes from biffmeister: At the end of 2001, I was a branch in a tree distributing this version of The Amsterdam 1969 show. To my ears, the stereo channels are reversed, Pete comes out of the left channel and John, the right. For my own listening I made a corrected version, but in the spirit of this group, I'm offering SHNs of the original disks I received as a branch. Here's the description from the original source of the seed. Quote:
My source in Amsterdam worked on a Who anniversary special, for the same radio station that broadcast the show in 1969. He suggested that the DJ use some of this show, so a technician produced the original masters. He took the chance to make a copy on their professional reel-to-reel equipment. Our CDR was transferred off his 1st generation reels. Although this show's been booted repeatedly this is the REAL source. It sounds amazing, like it was taped off the radio yesterday, perfect except for a little tape hiss in the very quiet bits. My source was upset that this show was recently booted from a copy of his tapes. Even though it contains the complete song list, he removed key bits of dialogue from every copy he made and was able to find the source of the boot. His "revenge" was to offer the COMPLETE show to anyone who wanted it and encouraged someone to do a tape tree to discourage money being spent on the bootleg. According to him, the recent boot "Amsterdam Journey" on the Hiwatt label is the one taken off his copy.
Lineage is 1st gen reel > CDR > CDR.
Artwork by Normnomo.