Free @ NYC 1972-05-06 (last show by original lineup)

 
LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME


https://pixeldrain.com/u/4HLS5HRP



FREE - NEW YORK, ACADEMY OF MUSIC 
MAY 6, 1972 
"Free Of Four's Farewell"
- Last show of original line-up - 
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DocDondy's Repair Re-Do, Unexpectable Upgrade, Sackcloth & Ashes Series Vol. 15 (of likely quite some, starting Jan. 2020)

**Contrast clause and general re-do info: Fresh 29 January 2020 transfer from analog cassette tape, now with optimised replay and under CORRECT digitising conditions (for detailed info see below)**

Aaarrrrggghh and PHUUUUQQQQQ (and every swear word you and your fave drill sarge may imagine)! Alert and bat-eared fellow Dimers luciferburns and fatoldpig thankfully made me aware that my latest upload, Wishbone Ash's 1974/10/31 Offenbach show strangely had all bass missing that my previous 2009 version did come with - my all-time fave show of theirs of all shows! However, since I had done a fresh transfer for this new torrent, had no CD-R in the lineage and tweaked the recording w/Audacity for best results it of course should rather have sounded at least a wee little better. 

I instantly checked that oddity and it turned out that my FRIGGING Olympus PCM recorder that I use for digitising my analog source cassettes had its low cut filter turned on - and that dreck eliminates all frequencies below 300 Hz! SH*TE! :-P  I really don't have the slightest idea if that was a default setting or if I erroneously applied it at one point in the past. As I rarely have the time to listen to shows on my home stereo and mostly only through earbuds or PC loudspeakers only, I didn't notice that CRAAAAAAP! 

Dear fellow Dimers, words just fail me! I am unspeakably sorry for that inexcusable super-blunder and can only ask anyone who has trusted me and my torrents, and invested their ratio on them to at least TRY and bear with me ...somehow. :-( 
I'll make up for all these subpar transfers bit by bit - big time scout's and Dimer's honour! 

For that, I've gone on my - presumably looooong - personal peninential pilgrimage and are working my way back through all of my latest analog cassette-transfer torrents and re-do them up to the point where I find the last correct transfer or, in the worst case, back to the first time I used that doggone new PCM recorder - which would be April 26, 2017, for Mountain's 1971-04-02 Philly show. Phew! Also, all my new makeup torrents will come with this clarifying contrast clause and of course with an audio sample so you can quality-compare each show with your previous respective download. I'll also ask the mods to delete the faulty torrents after I've uploaded the corrected corresponding one.

In order to at least get SOMETHING positive from this monster of a mess, I took the opportunity and sent my Sony WM 6DC walkman - which I've always used for replaying my analog tapes - for a thorough overhaul to an analog audio expert who also specialises in exactly this device. Aside from a general check and cleaning of all moving pieces, he
a) applied new drive belts 
b) reduced the hitherto inherent wow & flutter factor vastly to an absolute minimum of 0,08-0,1 %
c) adjusted the standard replay speed to + 0,05 % (tolerance would be +/- 0,3 %) and
d) balanced out a treble drop of 3-4 dB above 10 kHz on the left channel; hence channel deviations between 30 Hz and 16 kHz and from the reference frequency are now constantly below one dB. 

OK, quite some tech talk but according to that expert, these are all now obviously excellent figures that 
- can't always be generated, 
- are all way within the defined tolerance requirements for a WM-D6C and 
- are even superior to the data of new machines. 
And all that for a 30+ year old device! Therefore, my future analog-to-digital transfers will definitely come with my respective source cassette's full frequency spectrum at the best-possible replay and digitising conditions. Yippie-Ya-Yeah! Please see the picture in comment #1 for DocDondy's Dear Dated Digitising Devices setup.

Yours, 
DocDondy
...now off to the corner looking for my very own dunce cap. :-)
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Lineage: Traded (swapped) Maxell XL II 90 cassette > fresh 29 January 2020 transfer (replayed on just overhauled Sony WM-D6C walkman w/azimuth adjusted) to Sony PCM-M10 recorder at 44.1kH > wav > Audacity (for pitch-correcting by -4,8%, editing out gaps, auto-boosting levels etc.) > wav > FLAC (level 8) > Dimeadozen > Free Fanatix! 

Sound quality: 3 out of 6/vg+ 
Audio sample in comments.
Comes with full colour cover artwork (PDF files).

1. THE HUNTER 
2. FIRE AND WATER 
3. RIDE ON PONY 
4. BE MY FRIEND 
5. TRAVELLIN' MAN 
6. HOLD ON 
7. LITTLE BIT OF LOVE 
8. HEAVY LOAD 
9. MR. BIG 
10. ALL RIGHT NOW 
11. CROSSROADS 
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TOTAL TIME:  61:49 min. 

Before my first Dime upload from around 2011 or so, this show had of course been in circulation for ages but - as far as I observed - always with the WRONG SEQUENCE. Someone up the copy line obviously decided in his infinite wisdom to place the first three tracks on the 2nd side of his C 90 cassette, and the remainder of the show on the first. Sigh! Anyway, as Free's 1972/04/30 Tampa show reveals, they opened their sets on their US tour with the tracks on side two, so I corrected that; also, my cassette copy ran considerably fast (by almost 5%), so I also straightened that out with Audacity by comparing with the official "FREE LIVE" album. 

All we Free fanatics may consider ourselves extra-lucky to be able to hear this show, as - according to Dave Clayton's most highly recommended Free Book "Heavy Load" - this here is nothing but **THE ORIGINAL LINE-UP's VERY LAST SHOW EVER**! And my goodness, what a show this is! 

They (or Any Fraser, for that matter) really decided to "stop on top" as it were. Koss, who since the band's reform in January 1972 had aquired his well-known issues, is plain "ON" here, and Fraser is... my, just listen to "Mr. Big" - this is why this band has made me their addict. Koss wails outworldly, and Fraser does his "whale sounds"-bass solo (which he only did in 1972 in this number) that made him my all-time fave bass player, along with Felix Pappalardi of Mountain. That solo is perhaps the most melodic bass piece I know of. Free never tried to re-do this number again after Andy's departure, and though Rodgers has resurrected it for his solo repertoire, none of those versions come even close this here. Most bass players just do it way too fast whereas Free's power and sexyness came from their SLOWNESS, right? 

Though it is of course a sad occasion to hear this wonderful band's swan song, we at least get a proof of what they were really capable of. As said Dave Clayton of FAS once aptly put it: "On a normal night, Free were great, on a great night, they were monsters." 

Please do NOT sell this show or spread it in lossy formats - otherwise: trade, share, collect   and enjoy! Always looking forward to your comments and possibly even further info... 

Uploaded to Dimeadozen on 6 February 2020 by DocDondy for all fellow-Freenatix to enjoy. 

Free ahoy! 
Th:-)mas