Pink Floyd @ Montreaux, Switzerland 1971-09-18

 

LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME

this is so amazing


https://pixeldrain.com/u/W3QUU9yt


Pink Floyd
Festival de Musique Classique
Pavillon de Montreux, Montreux, Switzerland
18 September 1971

*** ALTERNATE SOURCE / CONTRAST CLAUSE ***
This torrent is NOT a duplicate of the existing Montreux 1971-09-18
torrents on DIME. All previously shared versions of this date derive
from the stereo AUDIENCE recording (Recorder 1, Sennheiser MD-421 >
Uher 4200 reel) or from the MONO FM broadcast air-check (Recorder 2-1).

This torrent presents a different source: a STEREO PRE-FM MASTER of
the Radio Suisse Romande broadcast (Recorder 2-2). It is the same
ambient-microphone broadcast feed as Recorder 2-1, but captured in
stereo and taken from the pre-broadcast master rather than from an
off-air tape. Instrument separation is clearly discrete (guitar left,
drums and bass centre, keyboards right, with placement shifting
between songs), confirming this is not simulated stereo.

Source:   Radio Suisse Romande FM broadcast, stereo pre-FM master
          (ambient microphones mixed at the desk, not a line feed)
Lineage:  Stereo pre-FM master reel > digital transfer > mastering by
          Graf Zeppelin > silver press CD (Sigma 350) > this transfer
Notes:    Recorder 1 (stereo AUD) and Recorder 2-1 (mono FM) were used
          only to patch inter-song gaps and a few seconds of MC. The
          pre-FM master itself contains the complete performance.
          This version runs over three minutes longer than any
          previously circulating source of this date.

Set list:

Disc 1 (64:02)
01. Echoes                                          24:01
02. Careful With That Axe, Eugene                   12:26
03. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun       14:25
04. Cymbaline                                       13:10

Disc 2 (54:46)
01. MC                                               0:43
02. Atom Heart Mother                               33:17
03. A Saucerful Of Secrets                          20:47

Total running time: 1:58:48

Note: "Atom Heart Mother" is performed with choir and brass section.

Line-up:
David Gilmour - guitar, vocals
Roger Waters - bass, vocals
Richard Wright - keyboards, vocals
Nick Mason - drums

Format:   FLAC (16bit / 44.1kHz / stereo)
Checksums: see the .ffp file included in this torrent

Please seed as long as you can. Thanks to the original taper,
the transferrer and everyone who kept this recording circulating.


================================================================
LABEL INFORMATION
(English translation of the original Japanese release notes)
================================================================

PINK FLOYD - MONTREUX 1971 STEREO PRE-FM MASTER (2CD) [Sigma 350]
Festival de Musique Classique, Pavillon de Montreux,
Montreux, Switzerland - 18 September 1971

UPGRADE

This is remarkable. The legendary FM source that has carried down
the celebrated "Atom Heart Mother with choir and brass" has turned
up in a stereo version. A major upgrade master, mastered by
Graf Zeppelin.

What is preserved here is the Montreux concert of 18 September
1971, in a stereo FM broadcast source documenting the entire
event. One might ask: "An FM broadcast - so, a soundboard?" The
matter is not that simple. To explain the situation, it is best to
begin by sorting out the sources that survive from this date.

  RECORDER 1 (audience recording: stereo)
  - A stereo audience recording unearthed in the 2000s.
  - Recorded with a Sennheiser MD-421 microphone and a Uher 4200
    reel deck. Our earlier release "Montreux 1971 Revisited"
    (Sigma 317) is the longest and finest edition of this
    recording.

  RECORDER 2-1 (FM broadcast source: mono)
  - The broadcast by the Swiss station Radio Suisse Romande.
  - Captured with ambient microphones rather than a line feed.
    Until now, air-checks recorded on three reels were known.

  RECORDER 2-2 (FM broadcast source: stereo)  <-- THIS ONE
  - The same ambient-microphone broadcast source as Recorder 2-1,
    but a pre-FM master that had been recorded in stereo.
  - Not merely stereo: an overwhelming upgrade in clarity as well.

This broadcast was recorded not from a line feed but with ambient
microphones, in the manner of a classical concert. Physically,
therefore, it is a room recording in the same sense as an audience
tape; yet the separation obtained from multiple microphones, and
the zero-distance immediacy of microphones placed on stage, are
soundboard-like. Until now only air-checks of this broadcast were
known. What has been unearthed this time is the pre-broadcast
master - and, unlike the mono material known previously, a
completely different stereo master.

A NEWLY UNEARTHED STEREO FM MASTER
The sound is overwhelming. First, the width that only true stereo
provides. It is plainly not simulated stereo: the three-
dimensional image, with the rhythm section at the centre flanked
by guitar (left) and keyboards (right), is something that could
not be experienced before. Recorder 1 was also in stereo, but this
is a spatial spectacle of an entirely different order from a
single-microphone audience tape.

Nor is it merely wide - the image shifts with the music. On some
songs the keyboards sit centre; on others the guitar spreads
left and right. There is no detailed documentation, but the fact
that balance and placement change suggests the microphone feeds
were being mixed at a desk. This is another reason we have not
declared the source flatly "audience" or "soundboard".

And because the subject of this release is Pink Floyd in 1971,
that sense of stereo is especially welcome. The Floyd of this
period were progressing rock by reforming the three-dimensional
acoustics of the venue itself. This release renders the band's own
sense of stereo accurately, so that what they were aiming at, and
the sound world they were trying to construct, can be felt
directly.

TRUE MASTER SOUND, BECAUSE IT IS PRE-FM
Equal to that stereo image - or rather, even more striking - is
the freshness that comes of being pre-broadcast. Where one has
always had to worry about the dubbing generation of air-check
tapes, here there is not merely no trace of dubbing but no trace
of transmission at all. Master sound in the literal sense is on a
different plane from the old comparisons of better and worse.

The sound is indeed of a clarity and naturalness not previously
experienced. The resolution of each individual note is in another
class; the faintest sound effects are cleanly preserved; long
notes extending into empty space suffer no distortion right to the
moment they vanish. It is delicate enough that one can feel the
bodies of the instruments resonating, and so natural that the
concert space itself seems to return.

A COMPLETE EDITION, OVER THREE MINUTES LONGER THAN ANY PREVIOUS
This astonishing new master is at the same time the longest and
finest edition to date. Fine-grained mastering by Graf Zeppelin
has been applied down to the smallest detail, but more powerful
still is the length. Recorder 1 and Recorder 2-1 were also drawn
upon in order to restore every surviving moment, and the result
exceeds the previous longest edition by more than three minutes.

There is no cause for concern about inconsistency. The new master
itself contains the complete performance, and there were plenty of
passages here that could not be heard on any previous recording.
On top of all that, the only material supplied from other sources
consists of gaps between songs and a few seconds of MC - passages
in which a difference in sound quality would hardly arise in the
first place - and careful mastering has removed any sense of
discontinuity.

Montreux 1971 has been loved for the fact that one can hear "Atom
Heart Mother with choir and brass". With this pre-FM master it has
become more than that. On sound quality alone it stands as a great
representative work of 1971, on a level with "The Complete BBC
Archives Vol. 2 1971-1974" (Sigma 328) and "M-502 Definitive
Edition" (Sigma 246).

"Montreux 1971 Revisited" remains hard to part with for its sense
of the real audience experience, but existing releases derived
from the mono FM source (Recorder 2-1) may now be retired. This is
the greatest upgrade of recent years.

ADDITIONAL NOTES
Familiar though the 1971 Montreux concert is to Floyd collectors,
the Recorder 2 mono FM source has now become stereo - an
astonishing upgrade. Two sources exist for this concert (see the
list below). Sigma 317, released at around the same time, was
based mainly on Recorder 1 (stereo audience).

This release takes the Recorder 2 FM source as its basis, but
unlike the mono FM source heard until now, it is a superbly
detailed, very high fidelity recording that fully justifies the
"stereo pre-FM" billing.

Instrument separation is very good. The basic placement is guitar
left, drums and bass roughly centre, keyboards right; but on some
songs the keyboards sit centre and the guitar spreads left and
right, and the sense of presence and immediacy is outstanding.
This quality unquestionably places the release among the top three
Floyd titles of 1971.

SUBSTANTIALLY UPDATED CONTENT
Some missing inter-song passages have been filled from Recorder 2
(mono FM) and Recorder 1 (stereo), but a considerable number of
inter-song passages and end-of-show applause appear here for the
first time, and the total running time exceeds previous releases
by more than three minutes.

SOURCE SUMMARY
  Rec 1   - stereo audience
  Rec 2-1 - mono FM (ambient-microphone room recording; effectively
            an audience recording used as the broadcast source)
  Rec 2-2 - stereo pre-FM (ambient-microphone room recording,
            pre-broadcast master)  <-- the main source here

PRINCIPAL PREVIOUS RELEASES AND THEIR SOURCES
(note that Recorder 2 appeared first, historically)
  Live In Montreux 1971 (2CD) [TSP-CD-071-2]  Rec2 mono   1990
  Labyrinths Of Coral Caves (2CD) [Sigma 18]  Rec2 mono   2000s
  Echoes In Montreux (2CD) [Sigma 53]         Rec1 stereo 2000s
  Montreux 1971 (2CD) [Sigma 113]             Rec2 mono   2014
  Definitive Montreux 1971 (4CD) [Sigma 144]  Rec1 stereo
                                              & Rec2 mono 2015
  Montreux 1971 Revisited (2CD) [Sigma 317]   Rec1 stereo,
                                              longest edition, 2023
                                              (currently the best
                                              for Rec1)
  and now
  Montreux 1971 Stereo Pre-FM Master (2CD) [Sigma 350]
                                              Rec2 stereo pre-FM
                                              (first stereo FM)

Original release: pressed 2CD, issued with a numbered sticker.
Remastered by Graf Zeppelin.

DETAILED CONTENTS AND PATCH POINTS

Disc 1 (64:04)
1. Echoes
     0:00-0:07 (MC section) from Rec1
     23:29-23:40 from FM mono
2. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
     11:57-12:12 from FM mono
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
     16 seconds of post-performance inter-song material,
     appearing for the first time
4. Cymbaline
     over 40 seconds of post-performance inter-song material,
     appearing for the first time

Disc 2 (54:48)
1. MC
     several seconds of opening MC, appearing for the first time
2. Atom Heart Mother
     over 90 seconds of post-performance inter-song material,
     appearing for the first time
3. A Saucerful Of Secrets
     40 seconds of post-performance applause, appearing for the
     first time