Weedwacker67 at Dime explained that the Nak deck that Millard used had a "test" button that could be unwillingly switched on during recording. That ruined several taping (Zep 1977-06-23) and this one too appearently...
From Dime :
"One significant piece of info that I can pass on to you that most people don't know is that Millard was likely having issues with the Nak on this night. This is why there are so many cuts and drops on the recording. Originally I had always thought that the drops and beeping noise in SIBLY were marks. But, a few years ago I did a little research and found out that the Nakamichi 550 has a 400hz "test tone" switch on the back of the deck: [
www.angelfire.com]
Pushing that switch will cut-off your recording and insert the test tone. This is used so that you can match what you recorded on the Nak against the test tone on another deck. (Hence the phrase "Tones on Tail" - a studio note to let other engineers know that the test tone is on the tail of the reel of tape). It is this test tone switch on the Nak 550 which I believe caused all of the drops on the 6/23/77 recording. Go to this site: [
www.testsounds.com] and listen to the sample for the 400hz test-tone. Now compare that one to the test tone that you can hear during "Since I've Been Loving You". The two tones match.
This error correlates with something that I had learned from a friend of Mike's who I went back and forth with a few years ago via email. When I brought up the errors on 6/23/77 to him, he said that he didn't attend that show with Mike, but that he believed that that show must've been one of the ones that Mike had told him about, where he ruined a recording by standing his deck up in the bag that he had it hidden in, and inadvertently activated the test-tone button. This happened to him a few times, so Mike later came up with a homemade plastic cover which he attached to the back of the deck so that it wouldn't happen anymore."
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-09-02 19:53 by dcba.