Trey Anastasio Band 2-27-11 Riviera, Chicago, IL Sources Review

Trey wrapped up his midwest jaunt with a stop in Chicago, IL.  I waited nearly a week, but there are still only 2 sources available for this show.  I want to thank the tapers for recording this show and sharing it with the rest of us.

Source 1 (hereafter SKM184 source)
Source: Neumann skm184>sd702>wav24/48
Location: OTS>DIN>9ft
Transfer: cf>goldwave(dither resample 16/441)>cd wave>flac level 8

16 bit source

Source 2 (hereafter SKM140 source)
Source: Neumann skm140 > Sound Devices Mixpre > Olympus LS-10(24/48)
Location: OTS/DIN/~10' High/4' ROC
Transfer: Olympus LS-10(24/48) > Audacity 1.3b(dither/resample to 16/44.1) > CDWave(Tracking) > FLAC(16/44.1/Level 8)

16 bit source
24 bit source

Neither of these sources is perfect, but I think one is definitely better than the other.

The SKM184 source has more crowd noise than the 140 source on the acoustic portions.  Like the 140's, the high-end just doesn't have a lot of sparkle on the acoustic.  When the full band joins Trey on acoustic numbers, the bass is just buried in the mix.  This continues on the full band electric portions, giving a real hollowness to the overall sound.

The SKM140 source has a bit more low-end on the acoustic portions than the 184 source, but like the 184's, just doesn't have the sparkle I really like on the acoustic.  The crowd noise isn't as pronounced as on the 184's.  The bass isn't well defined at the lowest frequencies, nor is it particularly bumping, but it is definitely more pronounced than on the 184 source.  For this reason, the 140's will be on my hard drive.

Happy Listening!

Trey Anastasio Band 2-26-11 LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH Sources Review

Trey continued his jaunt through the midwest last Saturday night.  I'm sorry for the delay in getting this review up, I was hoping to have more than two sources to choose from, but as my Mom always says, beggars can't be choosers.  So this review will cover those two and if more come online, I'll do a quick rundown of those after tour is over.  Thanks, as always, to the tapers who get the shows out to the public so quickly.  Sometimes it's easy to forget how good we have it these days.

Source 1 (hereafter MK41 source)
Source: Schoeps Mk41>Nbox>Sony M10>wav(24/48)>wav(16/44/1)>flac
Location: FOB/LOC/DINA at 10 ft
Transfer: Gain adjusted and fades added in Soundforge 9, Dithered and Resampled in Wavelab 5

16 bit source

Source 2 (hereafter MBHO source)
Source: MBHO603a/KA200N > Fostex FR2-LE

16 bit source

From Trey's Twitter Feed

The MK41 source has excellent levels right from the beginning.  It doesn't have quite the high-end response of the MBHO source however.  The crowd noise is slightly lower on this source.  The bass isn't as loud as in the MBHO source, however the bass has much better definition down low.  At first the MBHO source was sounding better to my ears, until I listened to the first notes of Sand.  The MK41 source, while not entirely clear, had distinct notes during the bass intro, the MBHO did not.  As a result, I'm going with the MK41 source.

The MBHO source has very nice high-end, however there is a lot of crowd noise.  I had heard via YEMblog on twitter that this show might have the most obnoxious crowd of tour (so far), so this isn't exactly surprising.  However, there is definitely more crowd noise on this source rather than the MK41.  The bass is very well balanced, however there is a lack of definition on the lowest notes.

Happy Listening!