A Robert Collins Master Recording.
Artist / Title | Stevie Wonder / Merry Christmas Baby | |
Date | December 18, 1983 | |
Location: | Circle Star Theater, San Carlos, CA (USA) | |
Seats: | In the round, exact location unknown | |
Deck: | Nakamichi 350 | |
Mics: | Nakamichi CM-300 | |
Source: | A:C Master Tape; Stereo | |
Sample Rate | 44.1Khz, 16-bit (FLAC) | |
Rating: | A- (first 90 minutes) / B+ (last 90 minutes) | |
Length: | 187 Minutes | |
Root directory | Place all files in: "C:\Stevie Wonder, Circle Star Theater, 1983-12-18 (CD, 44Khz, 16-bit)" | |
Artwork: | Included as "SureThing" compatible artwork, and PDF artwork. | |
Project Files: | Cue Sheets:
Disc-1:
"Stevie Wonder, Circle Star Theater, 1983-12-18 (Disc 1,3).CUE" Outtakes: |
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Musicians: | Stevie Wonder Keyboard, Vocals, Harmonica Nathan Watts Bass Ricky Lawson Drums, Vocals ("The Human Mix") Lenny Castro Percussion Michael O'Neal Guitar Ben Bridges Guitar Ronnie Foster Keyboards, Sax Bobby Malach Sax Larry Gittens Trumpet Susie Green Vocals Alexandria Brown Vocals Shirley Brewer Vocals |
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Guest Artist: | Jon Gibson Vocals | |
Notes: | Before anybody
complains about the length of this description, I'll just say that I've waited 24 years before
releasing an unbelievable concert into the wild, and spent over 300
hours mastering it so you all could enjoy. I figure that gives me
the right to say as much as I want.
A friend called me up
months before this concert and told me Stevie was playing up in San
Francisco as a favor to Bill Graham. Stevie wasn't on tour, but he was
playing five or six nights, two shows a night. So I got tickets very
late, and was sitting near the back of the auditorium. I was seeing the
late show on the last night -- the very last performance. There are too many great things about this concert to describe -- everything from the sound quality -- to the song list -- but there are also serious problems. So instead of describing why it's so good, I'll spend the remainder of the time describing the problems I faced during the re-mastering and why it took 24 years to be released. |
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Levels & Equalization | The recording levels were different on L/R channels. This is relatively easy to fix if you know you shouldn't blindly boost the volume on the lower channel on analog recordings -- as it would cause other problems. Even worse, the equalization between L/R channels was different -- causing the channels to sound completely different than each other. Making matters even worse, the equalization seemed to change for every song too. Thanks to modern technology, software now exists to fix this type of problem. | |
Drop-outs | I've stared at sonogram images of this concert for over 300 hours during this restoration project. Due to it's age, there are probably hundreds of drop-outs in this recording -- but you'll only be able to hear a small handful of them. | |
Rowdy Audience |
During As, the audience around me began to unravel. At the end of the concert, many people around me were trying so hard to get out of their seats and rush down to the stage, that they were literally climbing over anybody in their way. I was in their way and was knocked down twice. The recording during this 2-minute 23-second section is not salvageable. Therefore, I deleted this section, and created an alternate musical transition -- one that most people won't even notice. Enclosed in this release are two alternate versions of "As." "As (Backfill Cut)" and "As (Original Cut)" are the two alternate versions. The backfill cut fills in the 2:23 minute section of my recording with an alternate, and lesser quality recording of the same concert. The original cut is my recording, as is, and you can hear me getting knocked around a few times. When burning a CD, there are three separate CUE sheets that correspond to each of the versions of "As." Use which ever version suits you best, and burn with the CUE sheet provided. | |
Stolen Master | The master tape of Volume-2 of this concert was stolen many years ago. The last 90 minutes of this show are taken from a 1st-Generation copy. I did my best to make this 1st-Generation copy sound as good as the original, but it still doesn't sound as good as the first 90 minutes. That's why the first 90 minutes is rated A- quality, and the last 90 minutes is rated B+ quality. Some of the songs on this section range from sounding 95% as good as the master, to only 75% as good. The varying quality presented a huge problem for me during the mastering process -- because my techniques literally had to change from song to song, and sometimes section to section within a song. | |
Tape Turns | This was a long concert,
and I didn't have the luxury of bringing more than two 90-minute tapes.
I had to conserve tape space. As a result, there are some bad tape turns
-- where a song is cut off. Here are the tape turn locations, and how I
fixed them (sort of).
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Audio quality | The first 90 minutes is as near perfect as it can get. However, the second 90 minutes (the "stolen master") is far less than perfect. I had to make many, MANY compromises while mastering the second half of the show. Above all I favored music quality. During quiet sections, sometimes it wasn't possible to remove all of the hiss; so these sections may sound noisier than the rest of the tape. During two "talking" sections, the signal level was so low, and the noise was so high, that I had to revert to MONO just you could hear what was being said. These sections are VERY short; and as soon as the music begins, the noise goes away and the recording is back to full stereo. | |
I Finally ran out of tape | This concert was 3+ hours long. The concert started around 10PM, and lasted until 2:30 AM. I didn't expect a 3+ hour concert, so I was unprepared. I ran out of tape during the very last song -- Happy Birthday -- about 30 second before the last note was played. | |
Special Thanks |
I owe the
following people thanks for their support and/or help with this project.
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Lineage: | AUD> Nakamichi 350 (Master
tape) ---> Playback on Nakamichi 550 / Nakamichi Dragon ---> Korg MR-1000 (capture at 96Khz, 24-bit) ---> Sound Forge (adjust levels, tear it into mono L,R channels) ---> iZotope RX spectrum editor to remove mic noise, squeeking chairs, etc. ---> Har-Bal (Harmonic Balancing Equalizer) ---> iZotope RX-Advanced (noise reduction, spectral editing) ---> Sound Forge (put it back together, adjust levels) ---> Adobe Audition 3.0 phase correction, spectral editing ---> iZotope Ozone 3 (stereo imaging) ---> iZotope RX-Advanced (downsample, dither) ---> CD Architect (CD Audio) ---> EAC ---> FLAC |
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Sound Samples: | Sample-1 (A-): Merry Christmas Baby Sample-2 (A-): Sample-3 (B+) |
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Song list: | Disc-1 Start End Length Name ------------ ------------ ------------ -------------------------- 00:00:00.000 00:05:09.477 00:05:09.477 See Love In Your Heart 00:05:52.682 00:15:29.759 00:09:37.077 Band Introductions 00:15:29.760 00:16:00.800 00:00:31.040 Tiger By The Tail 00:16:21.781 00:18:10.360 00:01:48.578 Jingle Bells 00:18:13.951 00:20:02.858 00:01:48.906 Merry Christmas Baby 00:20:02.858 00:23:34.229 00:03:31.370 Did I Hear You Say 'I Love You' 00:23:34.229 00:29:15.306 00:05:41.077 Superwoman 00:29:17.695 00:31:12.511 00:01:54.815 You And I 00:31:12.511 00:32:51.919 00:01:39.407 Too Shy To Say 00:32:51.920 00:37:28.015 00:04:36.095 Taboo To Love 00:37:28.015 00:40:00.594 00:02:32.578 Send One Your Love 00:40:00.594 00:43:01.695 00:03:01.101 Girl From Ipanema 00:43:01.695 00:44:09.775 00:01:08.079 Silent Night 00:44:09.775 00:45:21.263 00:01:11.487 I Can't Help It 00:45:21.263 00:49:27.919 00:04:06.655 Creepin 00:49:29.733 01:01:06.360 00:11:36.627 Ribbons In The Sky 01:01:26.349 01:05:10.533 00:03:44.184 Intro to 'Overjoyed' 01:05:10.533 01:09:22.650 00:04:12.117 Overjoyed Disc-2: Start End Length Name ------------ ------------ ------------ -------------------------- 00:00:00.000 00:08:45.714 00:08:45.714 Fingertips / Motown Story 00:08:45.714 00:10:05.407 00:01:19.693 Uptight 00:10:05.407 00:12:55.031 00:02:49.623 For Once In My Life 00:12:55.031 00:16:42.612 00:03:47.581 I'm Black And I'm Proud 00:16:42.612 00:18:24.699 00:01:42.086 My Cherie Amour 00:18:24.699 00:20:03.207 00:01:38.507 Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) 00:20:03.207 00:22:16.239 00:02:13.031 Higher Ground 00:22:16.239 00:25:43.593 00:03:27.353 You Haven't Done Nothin' 00:25:43.593 00:26:54.617 00:01:11.023 Livin' For The City 00:26:54.617 00:35:46.370 00:08:51.753 We Can Get It Straight 00:36:00.783 00:45:04.181 00:09:03.397 Go Home 00:45:04.181 01:06:31.887 00:21:27.706 The Human Mix 01:06:31.887 01:07:26.433 00:00:54.545 Go Home (Reprise) Disc-3: Start End Length Name ------------ ------------ ------------ -------------------------- 00:00:00.000 00:02:28.476 00:02:28.476 Sir Duke 00:02:28.476 00:05:39.316 00:03:10.839 I Wish 00:05:39.316 00:07:53.321 00:02:14.005 Isn't She Lovely 00:07:53.321 00:09:33.025 00:01:39.703 Sunshine Of My Life 00:09:33.025 00:13:54.590 00:04:21.565 Superstition 00:13:54.590 00:16:42.377 00:02:47.786 Campaign For Love 00:16:42.377 00:19:42.398 00:03:00.021 Introducing Jon Gibson 00:19:42.398 00:27:23.198 00:07:40.799 Ebony & Ivory 00:27:51.593 00:29:33.961 00:01:42.368 Audience Appreciation 00:29:33.961 00:35:08.159 00:05:34.197 As 00:35:08.159 00:37:04.895 00:01:56.735 Master Blaster Jamin' 00:37:28.447 00:47:48.911 00:10:20.464 Do I Do 00:48:10.669 00:50:44.639 00:02:33.969 Happy Birthday |
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MD5 Fingerprints: | Disc-1: 20743cc78bc5d0070c78af5fb9facb17 * 1.01 See Love In Your Heart.flac 0fa00be37d563ff350e42e4938fbc20a * 1.02 Band Introductions.flac e5cc59c8b36c60ed03a9dc72b3bc4adb * 1.03 Tiger By The Tail.flac bafa5005409de6c44f5e026468066193 * 1.04 Jingle Bells.flac 1f06182e4e1328b868a00c0593ab850d * 1.05 Merry Christmas Baby.flac 25d79865b4be82354242c9c583ec6d30 * 1.06 Did I Hear You Say 'I Love You'.flac c848596c921d0726c663f3fed0dcd41d * 1.07 Superwoman.flac ad07f00b298867fd0e417443dd8379ab * 1.08 You And I.flac 96d5c0415d5dcafadd41f80c63209535 * 1.09 Too Shy To Say.flac 3783313f8745277a98d52545d2a8b207 * 1.10 Taboo To Love.flac d5d2d12124b271e6370a331d9fb8d122 * 1.11 Send One Your Love.flac e74960cc80aa92aac8da281ae6fea424 * 1.12 Girl From Ipanema.flac bbbc5736929bf09a6a3010998b01a9f7 * 1.13 Silent Night.flac e4329b5ae21c024f33cab1af5253113f * 1.14 I Can't Help It.flac 184a36b73174d34e2a503eef846fa4bc * 1.15 Creepin.flac 23c849a5074465966baa0bed066eea20 * 1.16 Ribbons In The Sky.flac 5d5b2fc972ddc7c89ae139a6123d4bcb * 1.17 Intro to 'Overjoyed'.flac 7ab0af62dbe483ad574ea2df09aea694 * 1.18 Overjoyed.flac Disc-2: Disc-3: Outtakes: |