F.A.Q.

Who?
Retired sound engineer who loves music from the 60's & early 70's.

What?
My aim is to make rare stuff publicly available again with the best possible sound quality.

How To Download?
Download guide: here

Donations?
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Saturday, October 22, 2016

The Who - The Fall 1969 Soundboard Tapes Vol. 1-5 [A Prof. Stoned Comp]


Highlights (430 MB)
Info
pass: profstoned
----------------------------
Volumes 1-5 (1.7 GB)
Info
pass: profstoned
----------------------------
'Secret' bonus:
Amsterdam (875 MB)
Info
pass: profstoned

118 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I found this here after the problems over at Dime so am getting the full set via your blog. I left the first comment on your first upload of vol. 2, you are indeed a star for all your work on this project.Thank you very much. More power to your spliff hand sir!

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  2. Thank you Prof. Very pleased to find it here after the hassle over at Dime. They're more concerned about rules, of which they have way too many, than the actual music and the people who share it. They've become more and more user unfriendly over the years. You're a star in my book.

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  3. Simply GREAT!!! Many thanks Prof. I appreciate these gems you've made!

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  4. Add me to the list of those giving thanks. I downloaded the sampler and it sounds wonderful and am looking forward to hearing the complete set (downloading now)!

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  5. So glad you put this here, I was following your posts on Dime - Thanks so much for your time, effort, & dedication! -John

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  6. Thanks for this! Love your work.
    What is Dime?

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  7. Lonnie: http://www.dimeadozen.org/
    Music sharing site utilizing torrents.
    -John

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  8. About the My Generation Medley on the Acetates source: it's the same performance as the last part of the Live Disc of the Tommy Deluxe release, without the part they flew in from Swansea '76 that is. Whether that means it's from Ottawa I don't know but it's worth mentioning as I didn't find it mentioned in your otherwise very informative notes.

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  9. You're right! Never bothered to listen to the tacked-on Swansea tracks. Sadly still incomplete though.

    I strongly doubt it's from Ottawa though. If they had the last part of that show, they would not have needed to include the Swansea tracks.

    However, there is a clean copy of at least one of the two acetates in the Who archives and that's very likely where this bit comes from.

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  10. Many thanks again...this remastered set are sounding amazing.

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  11. The people at DIME gave me a huge hassle about an "undated" but unreleased Zappa tape, and then less than a month later somebody posted the same tape with no problems at all. So they don't even know when to implement their stupid rules and when not to.

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  12. Dear Professor: You're great. I'm a big fan since Demonoid. Your "Are You Experienced?" mono rip is the best version of that album. Many Thanks for everything and a request: John Lennon's Imagine.

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  13. An outstanding archive, Prof. Have a Nobel Prize!

    tambler

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  14. Yowza! Reading the info file...lots of work here. Thank you very much.

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  15. Thanks a lot, can't wait to hear these.....

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  16. many many thanks Prof.

    may gods bless you all ways
    & days

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  17. Can't wait to dig into this!! Thank you.

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  18. Thanks for this. What the hell happened at Dime? First they banned the sampler, why? Then the next two uploads vanished. Many thanks. It's appreciated.

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  19. In short:

    Five uploads were banned; the sampler (no 'teasers' allowed), Vol. 2 (folder name wrong), and then Vol. 1-3 (no .txt file with actual info). Rules were broken, no exceptions for anyone, and all that jazz.

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  20. Was able to get this from Dime before it was removed. Many thanks! Sounds amazing

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  21. I stopped posting at DIME for two reasons. A) It's not worth dealing with breaking one of their stupid rules and B) It's not worth dealing with the rude comments in the comments section because something isn't to somebody's liking.

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  22. Thanks Professor. From one "not necessarily stoned, but beautiful" person to all those "with hearts and ears" Thank you for all the music you have offered through the years.

    dr blues

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  23. Thanks for sharing this, Prof! I don't torrent, so I'm glad you have an alternate site to make your stuff available.

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  24. Thank You,Prof.You Should Be Our Next Pres.Yu'r a Great Man.

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  25. Thank you very much for all the hard work.

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  26. Thx indeed for these tunes and all your hard work, much apprecited!

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  27. Thank you for your 2016 remastering and the expansion to five volumes. I downloaded the initial three on Dime many years ago and have enjoyed listening to them.

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  28. Many Thanx. Always like what YOU do.Mille Grazie.

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  29. Thank you for this, and for all your excellent work. This stuff is amazing!

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  30. Grabbing it now, thank you Professor!

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  31. Hi. Thanks for the tunes. It looks like the filecloud links are broken. Thank you.

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  32. Thank you, Thank you. Sounds fantastic!

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  33. Thanks. Excellent work.

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  34. Man, thank you so much for this! You are doing great work, I really appreciate it!

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  35. Thanks for the upgrade.
    Also thanks for keeping my name in the thanks section in the info file. Seems hard to believe it was 10 years ago I sent you some file!
    Tim(who)

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  36. Regarding this:

    "The setup was very simple: Pridden used the mono P.A. mix (heard within the center of the stereo panorama) and supplemented it with two strategically placed mics on the stage which picked up the guitar, bass and drums in stereo."

    Is there any documentation of this? Photos? It seems very unlikely the stereo spread heard on the recordings would come from such a setup. While not extreme, there's a decent stereo spread on the drums, which would mean those mics would have to be relatively close to them. Yet doing that likely wouldn't yield the resulting separation between the bass and guitar.

    The drums, bass, and guitar all sound like they were recorded fairly closely.

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  37. May I add my many thanks for your hard work and dedication to great pure sound and historic significance. Also to your attention to detail and completeness. We are enjoying this set very much.
    THANK YOU PROFESSER.
    man and wife on an island

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  38. Yay, finally someone who has read my notes!!

    Pete's book goes fairly into detail about this. And on the announcement on the Ottawa show on the Tommy Super Edition, he mentions two microphones on stage.

    Also, listen to Tr. 1 on disc 2. At one point early in the song, the stage mic on the right is muted for about 30 secs (or it malfunctions). The P.A. signal in the center stays, and that is all that we hear in the right channel for a while until the mic signal comes back. You can hear both the drums and guitar have disapeared.

    I don't think the drums are closely miked; the balance favors the cymbals too much for that. Although I have to admit, I find it remarkable how Pridden achieved this balance with two mics on stage, but I guess it can be done.

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  39. I'm listening to Heaven & Hell from the Capitol Theatre now. Two points:

    1) There's still a fair amount of drum sound in the right channel when the guitar vanishes.

    2) The exact hardware configuration is unclear, but it seems just as likely that a group sent to the right channel had a problem as a particular microphone.

    I take Pete's comments with a grain of salt. He suggests 2 microphones were used, but we know that there was at least a feed from the vocal mics as well. His comments on stage could have been an over-generalization for the sake of the crowd, incorrect due to a lack of understanding, or simply a joke.

    I keep coming back to the stereo spread of the drums and the separation between the bass and guitar. I definitely don't think the drums were blanketed in mics, but it does seem as if there were at least a couple dedicated on the drums, as well as some on the bass and guitar amps. Possibly a couple picking up the audience and ambience as well.

    Listen to the drum fill in Fortune Teller (Capitol) at about 0:25. The floor tom is to the extreme left. I have a hard time believing either:

    1) The two mics were basically on the drum kit, but also pointed so they could pick up the amps fairly discretely.

    2) The two mics were some distance away from both the amps and drums, yet the resulting stereo separation was achieved.

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  40. > 1) There's still a fair amount of drum sound in the right channel when the guitar vanishes.

    That is bleed through that comes from the vocal mics from the P.A. It's mostly cymbals.

    > I take Pete's comments with a grain of salt. He suggests 2 microphones were used, but we know that there was at least a feed from the vocal mics as well.

    Pete mentions the P.A. feed in his book, so no mystery there. I used to not believe it either but the more I listened and immersed myself into this, the less sense it makes that Pridden went though the trouble to have a complicated recording setup (that needed adjusting for every single show) without decent monitoring, and while he actually had another job to do as well.

    Listen to Philadelphia; the guitar is continuously too soft on the right channel (= on stage). More than during any other show, Pridden frequently puts the guitar on the P.A. (and it sounds really distorted on there, but not on the right channel).

    The only thing truly stereo on all recordings are the bass and guitar, which are separated hard left/right. The drumsound varies but is always just somewhat between the two instruments, without the definition that a closed mic mix would give.

    If what you say is true (more mics were used to achieve the stereo balance), I really don't hear any adjusting of that in the first numbers of each set. I have however noticed adjusting of the P.A. signal as opposed to the stereo feed (Fillmore is a good example, and so is Acetates, where the vocals get turned down during I can't explain).

    Anyway, thanks for posting your thoughts.

    I'm guessing, the stereo mics *may* have been behind the amps, pointing to Keith. This could explain why the floor tom is fairly near sounding on one channel.

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  41. "The only thing truly stereo on all recordings are the bass and guitar, which are separated hard left/right. The drumsound varies but is always just somewhat between the two instruments, without the definition that a closed mic mix would give."

    I disagree. That Fortune Teller I mentioned has a quite clear stereo spread, both with the cymbals and the drums. And John's bass in particular is very clear; neither sounds like it was recorded from several feet away.

    As far as Pete's comments go, while I love his music, he isn't someone I would want to rely on for correct technical information, especially this long after the fact.

    I can't claim to know the exact setup used, but it certainly doesn't sound like 2 mics+PA feed to me. Heck, you even indicated (and I can hear) that the guitar was sometimes fed into the PA feed. So there was obviously a mic *on* the guitar amp for that. It certainly sounds to me like that mic was routed right, and then was sometimes coming into the mix again via PA feed.

    BTW, a minor nitpick, but you indexed Sparks incorrectly ;) It starts at 1:16 for SUNY, 1:46 for Fillmore East, etc.

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  42. FWIW, Entwistle also mentioned it as "2 mic setup" in an old interview.

    Clearly, both the guitar and bass were close miked for the P.A., as you can hear both on a few occasions clearly coming through the center as well.

    One thing I will give you, the guitar and bass do sound very up close and direct on all recordings. But the drums are weird sounding, not at all in "mixed" stereo. All recordings have in common that the skins are coming out most clearly on the left channel with the bass, and it's mostly cymbals on the right with the guitar.

    Yes, a slight deviation to the center of one of the toms exists on FT (Capitol) and other recordings too but I would not call that a stereo image from close miking...

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  43. As for Sparks, had no idea it really started there!

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  44. Sparks - Yeah, it, Underture, and Rael all share the same theme. Where "Sparks" starts on some CDs, notably the 1996 Tommy remix, is actually still part of Amazing Journey. Pete's demos for Amazing Journey and Sparks, which are 2 completely different recordings, confirm this. I think Astley screwed up in 1996 and lots of people ran with it, including myself for many years. Interestingly, if memory serves, at least some of the original 2CD Polydor Tommy sets have the correct indexing.

    As for the drums, I pretty much hear the kit being picked up with a pair of mics, not super close, but also not several feet away. Roughly what one could call "stereo overheads", although the exact position of them isn't clear, and perhaps even changed over time.

    I wish I could say "this is what they did", but I can't. I'm relatively certain there's more to it than 2 mics+mono PA feed though.

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  45. Yes! The 1996 Tommy remix is exactly what made me believe I had the correct starting point. It's still my preferred digital version, shame about the clicks though.

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  46. Here's Amazing Journey:

    Amazing Journey (Demo)

    The "dream" portion starts at 3:37. For some reason, the SDE splits the demo into two tracks. This is the second one:

    Dream One (Demo)

    And here's Sparks:

    Sparks (Demo)

    I've done my own fixes to some of those demos...

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  47. Great stuff. No drummer would come up with those fills.

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  48. I've been too busy to listen, but I wanted to say "Thanks!"

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  49. Frank Zappa's "Just Another Band From LA" was recorded with a mono PA feed and two mics on the stage, if you want to hear another (well done) example of this technique and compare.

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  50. Listening now, that sounds pretty decent, but the stereo image seems more diffuse, more what I'd expect.

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  51. This is an amazing share. Thanks so much.

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  52. Incredible work here, thanks so much!

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  53. I have always prized the 1-3 soundboard series you did years ago. Great to have an update. Congratulations on completing it all.
    Best regards
    AA

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  54. Great collection! Thanks for posting.

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  55. Dear Prof Stoned,
    This is an amazing blog. Excellent recordings, this is the way all blogs should offer music. Quality and passion through and through. Thank you for all of your hard work and for making this for free. This is a blog for music lovers and your effort does not go unnoticed.
    -Kurt W

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  56. Just saw this, always loved the various boots and really nice to have the Prof touch to these both organizationally and sound wise. Thanks.

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  57. I can't thank you enough for the time and effort put into polishing and curating these gems. The release of multiple boot titles with some similar material was frustrating, as were the problems with the running speed. It was like this great treasure was just out of reach... but you made it into a wonderful listening experience.-Bob L

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  58. Would love to hear your work on the Who Is This? album incidentally. - Bob L

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  59. Thanks for revisiting the project profstoned.

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  60. Just discovered this. Thank you so much!

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  61. Prof -- I believe I already have this in some earlier incarnation... but grabbing it again in case it's been upgraded.

    Your Who/Amsterdam '69 SBD is my all-time favorite Who show. I've shared it with many friends and watched happily as their minds explode :) Thanks so much for bringing that music into my life!!!

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  62. Professor, you are a godsend. I have been on a major Who kick and didn't know about these! Thank you very much

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  63. Oh man, this is embarrassing...if someone could help--I've downloaded the rar files from both sets that are available but when i unrar them i get 44 errors...anyone else have this problem? thanks!

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  64. Thanks very much for this, Prof. A question though... on your previous iteration, the Fillmore show had "Christmas" right after "Eyesight to the Blind", but on this version it's not there. What happened to that track?

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  65. It was only the first 10 secs or so...

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  66. Thanks so much for '69 Who. A real treasure!

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  67. Thanks for this great upload Prof! Your work is always impeccable. I didn't have the original volumes but sure do like the Highlights disc.

    - Joaquin Antique

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  68. Love the Live Who posts!
    I have the Tommy Reel at 7.5, sounds great too!
    Do you ever get into any reel to reel recordings?

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  69. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  70. Thank you for sharing your work with us! It is an outstanding job and sounds great! i have been following your work since 2010 I believe when I first encountered your work on Simon & Garfunkel. It only gets better . Thanks again for all that you share with us, much appreciated!

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  71. HOLY CRAP!!

    I've had your three volume set for YONKS and now there's an EXPANDED set??

    Pardon me whilst I pass out from sheer bliss...saying "thanks" is hardly adequate, but...THANK YOU PROF. STONED!!

    I always try to catch up here in order of posting, but damn THIS one just went to top of list, so I can play while I d/l these other GEMS...

    I feel like I should go buy a lottery ticket...but why? I've already won by a mile! :D

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  72. Wow... You Sir, are a fucking legend. Thank you.
    Sweeters, London

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  73. Thank you so much for these. I've only just discovered them, but have been praying for several years that you changed your mind over completing Volumes 4 and 5 :)

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  74. FYI regarding the recordings, from Pete in 1970:

    "On our last tour of the States we recorded every night on a stereo machine taking feeds from the guitars and the drum kit and the P.A. onto a rough stereo picture (the road manager was doing the balance), with the theory that in 80 performances, or whatever it was we had, we must get a good show. We go over there, we do like 80 fucking good shows, you know, some shows incredible shows. We come back, some of the tapes are bad, some of them are good, some of them sound all right. Suddenly someone realizes there are 240 hours of tape to be listened to. You know, now who's going to do this? So I said, well, fuck that, I'm not gonna sit through and listen, you'd get brainwashed, let's face it! So we just fucking scrapped the lot, and to reduce the risk of pirating we put the lot on a bonfire and just watched it all go and we said, right, let's get an eight track."

    https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tea-with-townshend-a-post-tommy-chat-on-rock-n-roll-recording-the-man-who-died-every-day-19700514

    Note in particular "feeds from the guitars and the drum kit".

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  75. Hello Prof. Thanks for these. However the F/Factory part 2 comes up as unavailable (despite the D/L button being available). Is there any possibility of a re-up please? The File Cloud has gone also.

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  76. Sorry to contradict you prof. I've now tried two browsers (chrome & safari). The D/L button appears but pressing this leads to a page that says D/L not available. I've contacted F/F helpline & left a message. Part one worked fine so I have the first two albums.

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  77. That's great. Thanks so much Prof.

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  78. Hello Prof. I just received a reply from Andy Wong at F/F saying that the error such as it was, has been resolved. It implies that the problem was at their end (just saying). Thanks again.

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  79. Just stumbled across this blog. I already have a couple of these, but this entire batch is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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  80. Many thanks for this. I managed to get part 1, but part two is showing as an error.

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  81. This is absolutely incredible. One of the best Who volumes of any kind. Love it. Thank you for your work.

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  82. Who junkie here since I was a teenage in the 1980's. Funny I thought I would never hear any unofficial Who stuff then and relied on the official Live at Leeds album - yes vinyl album - to satisfy my live jones. I love this. Thank you!

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  83. Thank you for sharing this. Amazing work.

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  84. Thanks for these ...and the 'secret' bonus as well!

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  85. Hello Prof. Stoned

    I have reviewed on my blog your magnificent work on The Fall 1969 soundboard covers. In the text I have put a link to your blog. It is written in Catalan, my language. I hope you like it. Thank you so much.

    https://milcancons.blogspot.com/

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  86. Hello,Prof. Stoned,

    I've discovered your blog trhough my friend Bifurca, and I'mv very impressed of your hard and enjoying work over the restoration for these musical masterpieces or very selected records. In the case The Who and the The Fall 1969, with wonderful results. Thank You and Congratulations!

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  87. Wow, this is great. (I grabbed the highlights.) The great lost North American Live at Leeds album. ;-) Thank you, Prof Stoned. I have some other things you've done in the past, so I thank you for the highlights disc here, and just in general, the meticulous care you take with how you do everything you work on. This is a real gift. :-D

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  88. One more comment. At first, I thought it might be a hair bright, with all of Keith's swishy cymbals. But I let er rip with no eq. This is amazing sounding. It's *not* too bright at all, and in fact, it's very well balanced in terms of eq; detailed but not too bright, but warm all at the same time. ... So that means it's quite crankible. Oh man, this is just plain delicious sounding. Thanks again!

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  89. This is an absolute must-have for fans of The Who, and/or for fans of hi-octane, maximum R'n'B. Essential

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  90. thanks for these ! they sound great !

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  91. Funny. I left a comment in July about the Highlights disc, because I thought all 5 volumes would be too much. Even in spite of me recently telling a buddy: you can never have enough live Who. :-) Anyway, I just recently finally listened to disc 2 of the 2013 Tommy DE CD, which is live Tommy (sort of) at the Capitol Theater. I thought that was a great version of Tommy! So then I wanted the rest of that show, bam, here. :-D While I was looking for boots for that date, and then dates before and after, I came across mention of the Amsterdam show. Bam, here (which somehow I had completely missed in July). Getting great versions of shows by the Who live, that I can listen to for the 1st time? That's (ahem) Christmas for me. Thanks again, Prof. Stoned, for all your hard work, and great ears, and technical skill, in making these even more enjoyable.

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  92. Grabbed the Highlights. Awesome. Thank you very, very much for taking a lot of time to share. We totally appreciate it.

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  93. From Rolling Stone interview w/ Pete 1970:

    On our last tour of the States we recorded every night on a stereo machine taking feeds from the guitars and the drum kit and the P.A. onto a rough stereo picture (the road manager was doing the balance), with the theory that in 80 performances, or whatever it was we had, we must get a good show. We go over there, we do like 80 fucking good shows, you know, some shows incredible shows. We come back, some of the tapes are bad, some of them good, some of them sound all right. Suddenly someone realizes there are 240 hours of tape to be listened to. You know, now who’s going to do this? So I said, well, fuck that, I’m not gonna sit through and listen, you’d get brainwashed, let’s face it! So we just fucking scrapped the lot, and to reduce the risk of pirating we put the lot on a bonfire and just watched it all go and we said, right, let’s get an eight track.

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  94. Awesome Prof. The Who were the first concert I ever went to back in 1971. My life was forever changed. Thank you for all your efforts

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  95. Thank you very much!
    Great work on these!

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  96. Thank you very much!

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  97. Thank you very much. Quality is fantastic!

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  98. Just found your site and listened to the Who's Highlights set … awesome, fantastic sound. Thanks so much for your work and making it available.

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  99. thank-you, never been here before
    Sharon

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  100. Great band, Fantastic sound! Thank you, Profstoned.

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  101. What can I say that hasn't already been said? Another truly remarkable sonic achievement. I wish my words could more fully express my gratitude to you, sir.

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