Phase Linear and Pink Floyd

JustMike

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P.A. installations with electronic crossovers require 'some' knowledge though to avoid funny accidents...:

[...]
A new amplifier came out that blew the 80- to 100-watt amps out of the water: The Phase Linear amp was a whopping 700 watts. A fellow we knew wanted the best so he bought not one but two. He even put in a dedicated 220-volt line to power this monster. Rumor was when he powered it on, lights in the city dimmed.

The night he debuted his prize, the guests gathered around. He proudly turned the many knobs, switches and VU meters to listen to the sound. Cranking the amps past 70 percent, a slight sound omitted as the tweeters appeared to glow orange. Suddenly, there was a buzzing, crackling sound, followed by a thud. The tweeter centers fell forward onto the carpet. His wife yelled, “Get those off my carpet!â€

No one stepped forward to remove the molten-hot metal that, by then, had sunk deep into the thick shag and padding, stopping short of the hardwood floor.

On the bright side, there were now two near-perfect circulars to set cocktails, which had never been possible before in deep shag.
[...]

And what for '220VAC line'?

source: http://www.madisonparktimes.com/Con...ITING-THE-PARK-Music-to-our-ears/-3/364/29529

LMAO.....................:laughing5:

Thanks Przem , great read to start the day.
Cheers
 

P.L.F.

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Pink Floyd and Carver Holography

I assume we all have enjoyed the clarity and special effects pioneered by Pink Floyd. No that many people know however they were done through the Carver Sonic Hologram circuit. These 'Pink Moments' include the "egg fry" from Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast (AHM). It was like an egg cracks right in front of listeners. Then the earth shaking clocks in Pink Floyd's Time (DSOTM), with sound effects contribution of Alan Parsons and On the Run (also DSOTM), where the running steps can be heard angling from left-right. Later we might remember about the gut ruffle felt at the ''door closing'' on Wish You Were Here track. There were many other similar moments too.

[…]
Technically these effects were based on interaural crosstalk cancellation using the Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram Generator. The first 32 seconds of "On the Run" from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" was processed (analog copy). The idea of crosstalk cancellation is to make sure that either ear hears only sounds coming from the corresponding loudspeaker (this idea is similar to the one behind binaural recordings, but in that case, headphones ensure that there is no crosstalk). The resulting soundstage expansion is quite dramatic, even over cheap computer speakers. In this clip, you should hear a sound circling your head (in a counterclockwise direction for someone looking at the top of your head. You should also hear another sound panning from far right to far left. To achieve the full effect, your head and the two speakers should roughly form an equilateral triangle. Crosstalk cancellation used by Pink Floyd was another invention designed and marketed by Bob Carver, with famous Phase Linear 700 amps to start with.
[…]
 

ksrigg

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I remember seeing them at the Tampa Stadium a lifetime ago, and before the concert began, the sound of a jet flying over the stadium had me looking for a plane that was not there. That was probably around 1977. I had never been to any concert in a venue that large, and certainly had never heard a concert in four channels or more. The special sound was unreal. Does anyone remember that concert, or any from that time period...and know the details of the sound system...circa 1977-78??


It was the "ANIMALS' tour or "IN THE FLESH' TOUR AND I SAW THEM ON APRIL 24, 1977.Wikipedia is cool stuff..
 
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Northwinds

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Man, this thread is all over the place but I am really enjoying reading it and the links to other threads on other boards. I have a super clean CS800 sitting in the garage just waiting until I know more how to apply it into my system. I would love to see more info on the amp and what mods can be done to it bringing it near or even with our WOPL's
 

P.L.F.

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PL amps used in these famous recording studios until today...!

Pink Floyd has confirmed the release of its 15th studio album, ‘The Endless River,’ this coming October. The project, which finds David Gilmour and Nick Mason completing work on sessions with the late Rick Wright, will be co-produced by Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson.
[...]
Read More: Pink Floyd Confirm New Album: 10 Facts You Need to Know About ‘The Endless River’ | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-endless-river-facts/?trackback=tsmclip
[...]
The Endless River represents a return to the creative principles that informed the writing process that produced Pink Floyd classics like Echoes, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Animals.

In early 1993, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright set up their equipment in their own Britannia Row Studios in Islington (http://www.philsbook.com/britannia-row.html) and created more than hundred pieces of music by jamming together, interacting with each other's performances and recording the results.

They then honed the pieces at David's Astoria floating studio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astoria_(recording_studio)), played them live for 2 days at Olympic Studios in Barnes with an extended lineup (Guy Pratt on bass, Jon Carin on keyboards and Gary Wallis on percussion). After that, the core trio returned to Astoria, and worked further on the compositions, alongside co-producer Bob Ezrin, refining the structure, tempos and arrangements. The result, after lyrics and vocals were added, was the 12 million selling 'Division Bell' album.

At the time, there had been talk of a separate ambient album being created from the non-vocal tracks not subsequently issued on 'The Division Bell', but the idea was eventually dropped.

In 2014 David Gilmour and Nick Mason re-entered the studio and, starting with unreleased keyboard performances by Richard Wright, who sadly died in 2008, added further instrumentation to the tracks, as well as creating new material. The result is The Endless River, including 60% of recordings other than the 1993 sessions, but based upon them. The title is a further link, '... the endless river...' being part of the closing phrases of High Hopes, the final song of the previous Pink Floyd album.

David Gilmour describes the record as follows: "The Endless River has as its starting point the music that came from the 1993 Division Bell sessions. We listened to over 20 hours of the three of us playing together and selected the music we wanted to work on for the new album. Over the last year we've added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album. With Rick gone, and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire."

Stylistically, The Endless River includes all of the musical elements that characterize Pink Floyd: mellifluous keyboards, jazz-tinged drums, musique concrete, ethereal vocals, and distinctive, emotional lead guitar. As well as Pink Floyd's trademark backing vocals, there is one vocal track, with lyrics by author Polly Samson, who also contributed to The Division Bell.
 

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P.L.F.

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On purpose, not precisely in the right place (the correct thread), but on the other hand due to listening the ‘Endless River’ of Pink Floyd on my Phase Linear 700 Series II EU export version upgraded with White Oak Audio complete new sound solution by my - allow me to say - great Friend, Lee … therefore publishing here might be still justified…

Well, it took me almost one week of attentive listening before sharing my views on this album. Here it is then:

First of all I’m sort of completely puzzled. Because how, for God sake, I can give any mixed opinion being so loyal Pink Floyd fan and on top waiting for anything marked by the Band as of 1994 (Division Bell)? But indeed my opinion has some mixed feelings embedded… To me this record is not that bad to ‘insult’ Pink Floyd fans… and unfortunately not that ‘fantastic’ to be included among the best Band’s records done so far… Personally, it did not give me any emotional kick while listening to it, neither music-wise nor – of course – lyrics-wise, as there was only one song on the album… Technical layer, at least for my CD pressed in the UK, was far from the best Pink Floyd recordings. I believe it was AAD record, however with too much compression for me. However it is very nostalgic album and here precicely its value comes out...

So what are my personal observations? Hmmm…, I think this is 100% tribute album to Richard William Wright (Rick). In every Pink Floyd song I was kind of obsessed to identify Rick’s contribution to any of the just listened records. At a certain moment, together with Gilmour, they individually released solo albums in 1978. From that époque there is one record, which could become a sort of reference while thinking about Rick’s own characteristic, so much creative music - and one of my favorite too… I’m talking about ‘Wet dream’…

For ‘Endless River’ despite too many direct resemblances to ‘Wish You Were Here’, especially at the beginning of the album, to me the Band exactly was trying to say ‘thank you’ to Rick and they have adopted ‘musical-only’ way to do it. Almost like Rick did it in his phenomenal & just mentioned music of ‘Wet dream’…

So in my opinion - here it is just another ‘brick’ for Pink Floyd’s magical music heritage, must have album for all their fans. But I’m sure we all keep on waiting for the true farewell album squeezing tons of tears while playing that Pink Floyd future album… Hope dies last, we all know…

Last but not least, have you noticed where the music was recorded? It was Britannia Row and Astoria studios – both are using Phase Linear 700B amps UNTIL TODAY - see my earlier posts here…
 
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Elite-ist

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I appreciate the effort you put into your posts, Przem. I have listened to "The Endless River" three times since purchasing it. This is an album that I like better the more I have listened to it - possibly because I am more attuned to hearing details I missed the first time around. As a tribute album it's wonderful and new people to the Pink Floyd band wagon are certainly going to think "What's the fuss all about?" The album certainly isn't going to hit the FM radio air waves, with the exception of the one song "Louder Than Words." But us fans know better and I believe the album has reached #1 spot in the Official albums Chart in the UK.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...yd-achieve-first-No.-1-album-in-19-years.html

Nando.
 

P.L.F.

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I appreciate the effort you put into your posts, Przem. I have listened to "The Endless River" three times since purchasing it. This is an album that I like better the more I have listened to it - possibly because I am more attuned to hearing details I missed the first time around. As a tribute album it's wonderful and new people to the Pink Floyd band wagon are certainly going to think "What's the fuss all about?" The album certainly isn't going to hit the FM radio air waves, with the exception of the one song "Louder Than Words." But us fans know better and I believe the album has reached #1 spot in the Official albums Chart in the UK.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...yd-achieve-first-No.-1-album-in-19-years.html

Nando.
Yes Nando, I agree. There is indeed something like 'opening a new door again' everytime you're listening to the album. I reckoned that too... But then one evening I played 'Wish You were Here' just afterwards, and the other day 'Wet dreams' just after... Cannot do anything about it - this newest album didn't talk to me as the 'theme-monolith' musical material recorded to pass exactly an 'a' message, except shared by me nostalgic gratitude to Rick Wright's phenomenal contribution to Floyd's heritage. Intentionally speaking, it is a lot and by all means could be enough for the record success. However in my subjective receiving I missed a bit the purpose, the story and a secret behind... All it talked to me was Rick's play saying 'good bye'... And that was absolutely well done...

Having said all this, I'll keep waiting for more, immediately touching album... Without Rick - difficult, but not impossible...

BTW, Polish new generation fans voted for 'Louder that Words' as no 1. hit played on the national FM radio too: http://lp3.polskieradio.pl/notowania/ ... :)
 
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Elite-ist

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Yes, a well-mastered recording on CD, Lee. I would have been interested in the vinyl renditions.

Nando.
 

P.L.F.

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Is it a well engineered album?
As I said, it's a double AA record, so analog source material and analog engineering (AAD CD coding: material recorded to analog multitrack and transfer of analog mix tapes; stereo mixes done on an analog recording device, i.e.: tape; final mastering done in digital mode). Knowing Pink Floyd sound signature so far - the engineering was for sure well done. While listening to my CD however I was (subjectively) missing brights in mid-frequency tones range. Could be that particular CD low production quality? Probably yes.. Anyway, again in my opinion, 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason' or 'The Division Bell' sounded simply better. And since the order somehow recommended by the Band was to listen first to 'The Division Bell' and right after 'The Endless River', the difference appears with these CD's swapping... I will go for vinyl though for sure... !

Unfortunately to zillions of fans David Gilmour gave recently an interview, where he firmly stated: 'This was Pink Floyd very last album'...
 
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P.L.F.

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Pink Floyd name genesis - should've added this post much earlier...

The name is derived from the given names of two blues musicians whose Piedmont blues records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM1_6CFt5Mg) and Floyd Council (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9SivL7ebg4).

[…] Things finally began to gel when Syd joined the group. He quickly took over creative control. He even came up with the name. It is widely believed that the band named themselves after two Georgia blues men, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The truth, however, lies just beyond that. The fact is that Syd had named his two cats "Pink" and "Floyd" after the aforementioned musicians. When Roger, Rick, and Nick started hanging out with Syd, it was all, "Pink, get off the sofa!" "Floyd, quit clawing the drapeseries!" After constantly hearing "Pink" and "Floyd," they finally came up with the idea of calling themselves, "The Pink Floyd." So the band was actually named after the cats, who were named after the bluesmen. Putting "The" at the beginning of the name made it sound more psychadelic and mysterious.

The name is distinctive in many ways. The two words, random names of largely unknown musicians, taken completely out of context, had an intriguing ring to it. "Pink" of course brings to mind the color. It is a distinctive color from the spectrum of psychadelic colors, and an odd one for a rock band to ally its identity. The other distinctive thing was that their name was not a pluralism. There were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues. The Pink Floyd was singular, as if it was an entity of its own rather than a collection of like things […]
 

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P.L.F.

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Endless River vinyl has arrived!

As promised, a few words after listening to the vinyl version of Endless River. Well, it was a journey back to best Pink Floyd times and emotions… Unbelievable difference in dynamic range, but not also. The sound imaging is better and mids are brighter. Real pleasure to listen the last album of my favorite ever Group. Their cliché while recording albums: “High fidelity, first class” has been reconfirmed fully. The warmth and smoothness of analogue sound coming off this great vinyl record is simply terrific.

Other reviews on Internet seem to confirm my perception – here is one from the ‘brain-damage’ site:

[…] So how does The Endless River really sound on vinyl? In a word - AWESOME.
The Endless River casts its wide hypnotic sound across the room, beguiling us with its highly textured presentation, warm flowing midrange, silky smooth highs and nimble resonant bass. It's all wide-open breathing space here folks, with no unnecessary compression or pushing the sound levels into red-zone distortion. When the precious few vocals are silky or coarse, you hear every syllable.
The stereo mix is impeccable; guitars dive and soar, snare drums rattle, clarinet and sax breathe, pianos resonate, and ambient sounds fly in from the periphery. The dimensional space surrounding each musical note is classic Floyd. Each side of the record is an intricate construct of musical conversation. The Floyd are masters of this art and make their craft seem effortless.

The Endless River unwinds in vivid detail, evoking images of rustic concert halls, leaving footprints in dusty stone amphitheatres, meditating in idyllic country meadows, floating downstream towards a sunset, watching caravans cross sunburnt landscapes, to racing at high velocity across time-lapsed asphalt jungles. Yet more than any other aspiration, The Endless River covets the emotions of persons whom have left our physical realm and celebrates their talent. This feat is even more astonishing when you consider how many different sessions the four producers: David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson had to source, and the variety of recording media used to capture the music. If not for Pro-Tools, The Endless River would not exist in its finely wrought form.
[…]”

And I was wrong saying about analog studio recording. It was mainly DAT technology material recorded in 1993 at 44.1 or 48 kHz sample rate and some most recent material recorded at 96 kHz or greater. For the album to be produced at 24bit/96 kHz (5.1 channel or FLAC versions), the lower rate material had to be upsampled. Still somehow for vinyl version the music seems to flow “with no unnecessary compression or pushing the sound levels into red-zone distortion levels”.

The tracks I like the most are no. 1-2 and then the whole suite from no. 11 to ‘Louder Than Words’ included.

I must confess to Nando that indeed today I found this album much more ‘talking to me’ compared to the first CD listening sessions… Pity it is the last PF album released…
 

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Elite-ist

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Przem: As much as I was impressed with the CD for sq, this would have been one album I would have liked to hear on vinyl. You just verified my assumption. I still like this one from Floyd.

Nando.
 

derek92994

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I own The Endless river vinyl and the only thing that frustrated me is that fact that the last track has "essing/sibilance" even on my very capable Audio Technica AT440MLa cartridge :angryfire:
 

P.L.F.

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Pink Floyd Phase Mk III's were quite heavy indeed... ;-)

[…]

Early in their career Pink Floyd secured the services of a man with the highly suitable name of P.A.Watts; it was Peter who helped the band to establish its reputation for professionalism and quality sound. Pink Floyd chose to spend a large proportion of their earnings on equipment, and demanded high standards of performance from both the gear and the road crew. Promoters were quick to recognize the advantages of renting from the band; several even went as far as including the legend “Sound by Pink Floyd” on their concert advertising, confident of the approval of fans and musicians alike.

[…]

With the main PA out of the way, the subwoofer stacks are assembled. The basic unit is an SS 1020R twin 15-inch cabinet containing Altec 421-8LF drivers, and is designed to supplement the bass between 20 and 80 Hz. With 12 of these units at disposal, Tim Charles was inclined to arrange them in an arc either side of the stage below the grids. However, the Fire Marshall had other ideas, and they were made up instead as straight walls three units wide and two high. Being this rather imposing facade stand the amplifier racks, which are of two types. Sub-woofers are driven by Altec 9440As, and everything else by Phase Linears. These have been modified by Britannia Row to better withstand the rigors of touring, and now bear the legend Pink Floyd Phase Mk III gear. Some of these amplifiers were once components of previous Pink Floyd concert-sound systems, and might have gone on the Japanese tour of ’72 for which a stretched DC-8 was chartered to transport band, crew and gear from England. On take-off all the passengers had to move and sit in the back of the plane to balance the PA and band gear loaded in front. Upon arrival to Tokyo the gear was treated as merely unusual baggage, with the result that by the time the band had cleared customs, horns, amps, and bins were gracefully spinning on the baggage carousels - much to the amazement of the local Skycaps…

[…]

source: Recording Engineer Producer, April 1981

P.S. to Dear Admin:
Would that be possible to move this thread to other directory, not requiring loging-in to read it?
 

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