12-30-10 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY Source Review

I want to thank you all, again, for your patience as I work through these sources.  Again, Phish played a great show, and again we have some excellent sources to choose from.  However, as with the previous night, none of the sources have quite the bass response I really like, while all of the sources deliver excellent highs, and well defined mids.  I want to thank the tapers for getting these recordings out to the community so quickly.  They really do yeoman's work. 

Source 1 (hereafter MK41>CMC6 source)
Source: Schoeps MK41>KC5>CMC6>Sonosax SX-M2>Apogee Mini-me(aes out 24bit/96khz)>COAX>Edirol R-44
Location: DIN Right of center from Taper's section
Transfer: SDHC Card>usb>Macbook Pro>Wave Editor(tracking,fades,add gain(first minute of cities),resample(isotope)/dither(mbit+) to 16bit/44.1k)>XAct(FLAC 8,ffp,fix sbe)

16 bit source
24 bit source

Source 2 (hereafter Busman source)
Source: Busman Bsc1 (Hypers)>HYDRA silver Shorty XLR's>Fostex FR-2LE(Busman T-mod) @24/96
Location: OTS/Dina
Transfer: CF Card>Wavelab 6.0(Resample and Dithering>CD Wave(tacking>TLH(flac 16 level 8)

16 bit source

Source 3 (hereafter MK41v source)
Source: Schoeps mk41v's(DIN)>kc5>m222>nt222>744t
Location: OTS/Section 11, Row D
Transfer: 744t>CD Wave>Wavelab 5>Flac

16 bit source

Source 4 (hereafter Neuman source)
Source: Neumann TLM-170 (hypercards) -> Sound Devices 722 (@24/96)
Location: official tapers section. about 10 seats to the right of center
Transfer: FLAC File processing in SoundForge Audio Studio 10.0c (L/R channel time sync; volume normalization; resample to 44.1 with iZotope 64-Bit SRC set higher than "Highest Quality" setting w/anti-alias filter; 24->16 bit dither using iZotope MBIT+ Dither with Ultra noise shaping, High dither settings;) Tracked in CDWav.

16 bit source

Source 5 (hereafter MK41 source)
Source: Schoeps mk41> KC5> M222> NT222> EAA PSP-2> SD 744t (@24bit/96kHz)
Location: Section 10, Row C, Seat 8, 8' Stand, NOS
Transfer: SD 744t> Samplitude SE 9.1.1(dither/resample)> CDWave> flac(16/44.1)

16 bit source
24 bit source

Phish at the Garden.  It just kind of has a ring to it.  Being a midwesterner, I am glad that I have had a chance to see them 7 times at that hallowed hall.  So, I was really fired up to see that they were playing 3 nights there this year.  Unfortunately, I was unable to secure a ticket, and thus spent the New Year in New Orleans, which turned out to be excellent in its own way.  I know on this night, 12/30, I ended up sitting in with a cajun band on Bourbon Street, and that didn't suck at all.  Anyways, on to the review.

The MK41>CMC6 source is nice and clean sounding, but the bass is not particularly punchy, and there is a lot of crowd noise.  You can really hear the lack of bass on the Boogie On intro and during the heavy bomb of Tweezer Reprise. This source just doesn't stack up to the Neuman or the MK41v source in that regard.

The Busman source continues to suffer from a lack of bass response.  The highs are excellent, however.  This would probably sound great in headphones, but it just doesn't kick my subwoofer at all.

The MK41v source is the best sounding of the 5 sources available from this evening.  The bass just sounds the best.  The highs are just as good as on any of the other recordings, but it has more bass response.  This is especially clear on the Tweezer Reprise bomb (this is one of my go-to moments when checking sources) where it edges out the Neuman source.  There is a bit of crowd noise on this, but it actually seems to add to the ambience, rather than distracting.

The Neuman source sounds the second best to my ears.  The levels are quite nice, and the mids have great definition.  The bass is better than most of the other sources, but it just lacks that extra umph that you get from the MK41v.

As usual, from a quick perusal of the download numbers, the MK41 source has been the most popular download, but it just doesn't have the punch in the lowend that either the MK41v or the Neuman source has.  However, as usual, the highs are excellent. 



Happy Listening!