Fw: Re: HW: 1999 Party

[John Majka]

At 10:05 PM 12/12/97 -0600, you wrote:
>>>WOW!  This is a really great CD!  I am  bit suprised that Nik is almost
>>>mixed out. You could not hear him at all in Brainbox pollution and in It's
>>>so Easy he should have been much louder.  Did anyone notice Lemmy went
>into
>>>the bass line for Down thru the night at about 5:30 into Brainstorm.  Boy,
>>>Nik is practially gone on Brainstorm.  Was he really that bad that night
>or
>>>did Dave purposely mix him out?
>>>R. Scott Heller PhD
>>
>>Thereby confirming once again the poopy mix!  Nik is virtually inaudible,
>>the synths are mixed very low, Dave's guitar is mixed pretty low.  It's all
>>vocals and bass!  Ugh!  How much better this album could have been with a
>>good mix job!
>>
>
>
>It has been twenty plus years, but from the perspective of one who was at
>the show, the party disc's mix seems pretty accurate to the actual
>performance. Lemmy's bass was a pretty strong component of the 1974
>concerts, the 1999 show and the band's September US tour (including the
>infamous hammond indiana bust show).
>
>>>From what I know of hearsay from that era, UA hired locals to record the
>show. A dub of the MAN part of the show surfaced at a local college radio
>station that winter. I'm not an audio pro but  I'm sure present day Dave and
>company only had so much to work with from the original tapes.
>
>Whatever the state of the mix-down, 1999 is a great document of that age of
>Hawkwind.

I agree completely!  It is a great relic to have from that era, and I am
certainly grateful to have it.  I had speculated that the reason for the
"bad mix" may be due to a lack of 24 tracks.  Maybe the show was recorded
live to 2-track, not leaving much room for mixing, as was fairly common in
the early seventies.  Speaking of 2-track recording.... did you know that
every Can studio album was recorded to 2-track?  Amazing....
John Majka
flossbac at wcic.org