Sunday, June 28, 2009

R.I.P. Michael Jackson



I am very saddened by the death of Michael Jackson. My prayers are for the children and family he left behind.

Yes, Michael was a strange man, and possibly an un-convicted criminal, but he was also a product of exploitation from his youth, and I feel that he always was seeking to recover the childhood that was robbed from him.

I will always miss the performer that was Michael Jackson. He was one of a kind and a boundlessly blessed performer. After his performance of Billie Jean at Mowtown 25 in 1983, he recieved a call from Fred Astaire complimenting his dance moves. That's like Babe Ruth calling you and saying "that was some home run you hit" or Bruce Lee complimenting your fighting skills.

I saw Michael Jackson in concert twice, back to back nights at Giants Stadium on the Jacksons "Victory" tour. It was an unforgettable experience. His renditions of "She's Out Of My Life", the Jackson 5 songs of his youth (and mine) and the songs off his "Thriller" album were absolutely amazing.

The first night, my cousin and I left the stadium right after the last number in an attempt to beat the traffic out of the stadium. On our way to the car we passed a fenced in area that contained a helicopter. The helicopter rose and left the area within seconds of us being there and as it rose we could see a figure dressed in sequins in the passenger seat. My cousin said "it's him!" and we both waved excitedley. We were the only people around. A second later we could see one gloved hand waving back at us. It is a memory I will always treasure. The L-rd be with you Michael. I hope you have found peace.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - "Simple Truth" - The Shark Tank - San Jose, CA - May 20, 1995 "TISDU" FLAC & mp3



Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - "Simple Truth" - The Shark Tank - San Jose, CA - May 20, 1995 "TISDU"
Kiss the Stone Records - KTS 450/451
Superb Soundboard Recording probably from Pre-FM Broadcast.

This show was recorded by Westwood One and parts of it has been aired from time to time. I have the silvers from one of the broadcasts and only a few songs were aired at that time. This is the same quality, albeit mono, therefore I am led to believe this is from the master recording of this show. For some reason it was converted to mono (why the hell do the bootleggers do this?). I ripped it and did the Tisdu process on it, and it sounds much better than the original mono on the silvers, in my opinion.

This is a fresh rip of this 2-cd set by me. I Love this set and have the silvers so I thought I would rip it for those that don't have it.
Lineage: Silver CDs > Wav (CDex) > Tisdu using Audacity > Traders Little Helper/FLAC Level 8 > Front cover and details tagged to FLAC files using Mp3tag v2.42

I scanned all the artwork at 300 pixels per inch. The scans came out very good. Includes the whole fold-out insert, scans of the actual CD's and both sides of the tray insert. I haven't seen all this art anywhere else, not even the Zeppelin art website so I hope people enjoy having it.
m3u playlist files created as well.

OK. For more details on Tisdu, check this: http://www.geocities.com/michaelmcgennan/sound.html

Tisdu is basically simulated stereo. The interesting thing is that different things are heard in each ear even tho it is just "enhanced" Mono. What I did on this particular release is as follows: Ripped to wav, had both disc as full files and inserted .05 seconds of silence on the begining of the right channel, then upped the whole volume to 110% of the original (to give it a little more punch, there was no clipping), then reduced the left channel to 80% of that (see the Tisdu page above for the reason for that, I assure you the right side doesn't sound louder on the final product). Then I seperated each track from the whole and encoded to FLAC Level 8. I also split the Hurdy Gurdy Solo from Nobody's Fault but Mine and split Four Sticks from In The Evening. My preference. It's my party and I was doing this for me first, and that's the way I like it (uh-huh, uh-huh), so feel free to NOT like it if you want :-)

FFP, ST5 and MD5 files included with the FLAC version.

Track listing:

Disc 1:

Intro
Thank You
Bring It On Home
Ramble On
Shake My Tree
Intro 2
Lullaby
No Quarter
Gallows Pole
Hurdy Gurdy Solo
Nobody's Fault But Mine
Hey Hey What Can I Do?
The Song Remains The Same

Disc 2:

Intro
Since I've Been Loving You
Friends
Calling To You (Dazed & Confused - Break On Through)
Four Sticks
In The Evening
Black Dog
Kashmir

Hope you enjoy!

-RMac©

New Download links here