Eyes Wide Open LP live 1982 (recording now online)

[Stranger]

Talking Heads
Live concert 1982
Eyes Wide Open LP

Audience recording

LP > CDR > CD Wave > TLH > FLAC

01 Psycho Killer
02 Cities
03 Big Blue Plymouth
04 Once in A Lifetime
05 Mind
06 My Big Hands (Fall Through The Cracks)
07 Big Business - I Zimbra
08 swamp
09 Take Your Time
10 Houses in Motion
11 What a Day That Was
12 Life During Wartime
13 Take Me To The River

This is a curious recording.

The knocks on the microphone are quite hollow and *only* at the end during "Take Me To The River" did any close audience noise - the clapping - become felt. Yet there is a mass audience sound. I guess the taper may have been towards the back of the auditorium - in which case their recording equipment did very well as the quality isn't bad at all considering that scenario.

This is average to above average quality for a bootleg (depending on your viewpoint)...it's fairly clear, just a little tinny.

There are quite a few '82 recordings out there, and this is no better than average, but the tracklist is good, so enjoy.

Any help / advice on the recording date / venue welcomed.

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/sho ... hp?t=97827

[Stranger]

I have now put a re-worked version of this on Zomb. So I guess 5-10 people in the world might take an interest.

No wonder Talking Heads didn't put out a live box set!

A shame really as some of their releases - and live recordings - create a feverish response, particularly on Dime (I've been banned from uploading there over a very silly matter).

Talking Heads
Live concert 1982
Eyes Wide Open LP

VERY GOOD QUALITY audience recording

Re-work of Eyes Wide Open LP

LP > CD-R > Click Repair > Audacity > CD Wave > TLH > FLAC

01 Psycho Killer
02 Cities
03 Big Blue Plymouth
04 Once in A Lifetime
05 Mind
06 My Big Hands (Fall Through The Cracks)
07 Big Business - I Zimbra
08 Swamp
09 Slink
10 Houses in Motion
11 What a Day That Was
12 Life During Wartime
13 Take Me To The River

This sounds pretty decent now!

I started off with a mono, very scratchy sounding LP, but underneath all that it's a strong recording.

I initially worried it was a copy of a TV broadcast or worse an audio copy of a bootleg - but research
indicates otherwise - particularly as clapping close to the mic can be heard during Take Me To The River.

It's not Werchter or Montreuz, nor Milan, nor San Bernadino (not Europe anyway but since a song was released from that on Chronology I had to check).

I have given this a little widened sound to open it up a bit, and dealt with some of the worst microphone
knocks during the recording. Some songs are slightly out of tune but overall it's another very good
performance and certainly those who like compiling favourite tracks from a given tour / year, like I do,
while find a few favourites here I reckon.

It also is a slightly more energetic and fevered performance than a couple of the more high quality recordings, while like I say being pretty clear anyway - if you are unsure, just download a track or two to 'audition' it, just like I would with any torrent I'm not 100% sure about.

I'm sure you will find something you'll like here - so enjoy.

Technical details :

The process I use in Audacity to widen the sound, usually consists of the following -

-9db decrease (as the mixing and combining needs space)
double up the tracks, add .01 sec delay to one of the channels, split channels and mix either side (balance achieved through trial and error)
Combine above doubled up track with untouched track with the latter at a higher level. The above mixing while giving a nice widening effect I am more than aware can sometimes sound artificial to some, and I have found combining it with the untouched file means a balance is achieved between the raw sound of the original and the mixed version. Studios used - and I'm sure still do - used to resort to all sorts of double tracking and compression effects and the bottom line is this method I found by trial and error sounds good to me and others. Those who do not approve or find it does not sound good to them - no-one is forcing you to download this.
Voila...I listen to live recordings in headphones for the most part, and many people listen in headphones / earphones these days.
This may sound better to many like that, and I am aware that through conventional speakers this sort of mix / re-work may or may not sound as good as an untouched version. It's very subjective, and very much down to individual preference.
Where I don't provide samples the downloader who is unsure about this can simply pick one or two tracks to ascertain how good this is, just as I do.

Re balancing and tuning of the sound carried out with mda_image and high and low pass filters in Audacity.


http://zombtracker.the-zomb.com/details.php?id=42512

[Youdo]

Thanks for that

I will have to dig out my original LP one day and compare the two.

[Stranger]

I put a torrent of the original LP on TTD.

[Trystero]

Any help / advice on the recording date / venue welcomed.

In an italian book about David Byrne & Talking Heads I read:

Eyes Wide Open
(Toad Records)
Registrato discretamente in mono, a Bologna, nell'estate 1982

Discretely recorded in mono, in Bologna, summer 1982.

I was there, the concert was open-air, in a kind of big courtyard of an abandoned factory near the highway, exactly in the centre of this google photo http://goo.gl/QsKK2
Very uncomfortable place, with bad audio if you were not near the stage,
The new "Parco Nord" site for the concerts is the semicircular arena in the upper right.

I tried to listen the first songs, to identify the language of the crowd, and in a moment or two it seems to hear italian words, but I cannot be sure.