Billy found some old cassettes

[mirrorboxer]

http://twitter.com/Billy/status/55750821392031744

ooh… archive material!

[last_rose_of_summer]

cool!

[Arthur]

Not cool, unless he starts releasing it

[marigold]

yeah, he needs to release that stuff, we need to hear it!

[Cool As Ice Cream]

they’ve been working on this for years. and in the beginning we were getting updates on it. this is no news.

as for the releases: i think we’ll need some more patience. i have programmed my patience on \"years\" instead of \"months\".

[Arthur]

Yeah, same here. They should walk-the-talk, only then I’m getting excited.

The only thing I see as a positive thing here is that we know now Billy has a stunning amount of over 700 cassettes. We can only guess how numerous the rarities are on them… Most of them cassettes will contain recordings of live shows I’m sure, though. Promising anyway, for a future release, but I fully agree with Bram.

[Cool As Ice Cream]

i’m surprised they only sorted through 700 tapes.
i thought they started recording every show professionally since ’94/’95, so i was expecting the number of tapes, including demos etc., to be a bit higher.
but maybe i didn’t estimate the number of smashing pumpkins shows from ’95 until 2000 correctly, and 700 is indeed the number of tapes containing all the live recordings (including plenty of pre-mcis shows) plus whatever else is in the archives.

[Arthur]

Just wondering… those professionally recorded live shows, are they all on cassettes? And not handed over to Billy in a digital way like DAT tapes or CD-Rs? My wild guess would be that cassettes were only used for the first 5-8 years (demo tapes, few commercial tapes, live tapes, and occasionally for rehearsal tapes and tapes for the fan community in later years also). Or were most/all live shows up to the last show in 2000 also recorded (only) on cassettes? Hard to believe… But I’m no real insider in that world, so I wouldn’t know, actually.

[Cool As Ice Cream]

arthur, i am thinking the same way regarding the use of compact cassettes and dats.
the professionally recorded shows are all on dat. at least, that’s what i’ve been told.

but i was just assuming that with \"cassettes\" billy meant both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape

[Sven]

i’m surprised they only sorted through 700 tapes.
i thought they started recording every show professionally since ’94/’95, so i was expecting the number of tapes, including demos etc., to be a bit higher.
but maybe i didn’t estimate the number of smashing pumpkins shows from ’95 until 2000 correctly, and 700 is indeed the number of tapes containing all the live recordings (including plenty of pre-mcis shows) plus whatever else is in the archives.[/quote:3pvty5zo]

tapes right?
from 1996 (MCIS tour) all was recorded ADAT.

so, this must be pre-MCIS and i guess some of the SD-tour was even ADAT.

i know TSP used tapes for studio demos and all. and for really early live recordings.

[Sven]

Just wondering… those professionally recorded live shows, are they all on cassettes? And not handed over to Billy in a digital way like DAT tapes or CD-Rs? My wild guess would be that cassettes were only used for the first 5-8 years (demo tapes, few commercial tapes, live tapes, and occasionally for rehearsal tapes and tapes for the fan community in later years also). Or were most/all live shows up to the last show in 2000 also recorded (only) on cassettes? Hard to believe… But I’m no real insider in that world, so I wouldn’t know, actually.[/quote:1d1p0efa]

check…

from Melkweg 95 i know for sure it was all ADAT multichannel recording for all shows. it’s a massive, really MASSIVE amount of hard discs somewhere in a vault…!!

i believe the SD-tour might have some selected shows on ADAT too. maybe for reference on tape.

prior it’s all tape.

in studio recordings such as jams are all on tape until around Adore when Bjorn comes along.
he burned the recordings to CDR for BC.

with Flood and Moulder he used to drive around in his car following the MCIS recording sessions and listen to cassettes.

[Cool As Ice Cream]

yeah, but don’t you think it’s possible that billy referred to these ADATs as \"cassettes\" too? they’re also cassettes.
or do you think they checked 700 cassette tapes, like the ones you and i used to play in the 80s (and way into the 90s)? on top of the massive amount of DATs, ADATs and whatnot? and if so, why only check the compact cassettes to check what’s in the vault, and not the DATs, ADATs and other formats?

[Cool As Ice Cream]

Just finished sorting thru over 700 cassette tapes in the SP/BC archives. Whoa. Found lots of interesting stuff I didn’t know we had.[/quote:37o2wqhu]
he does say \"cassette tapes\". i’d also think he means the \"normal\" cassettes. but it could mean both, in my opinion.

[marigold]

Some more of Billy’s tweets regarding this:

Just found the first live performance of ‘Starla’, in stereo. Previously I had thought we had it only on one channel.[/quote:1bb24g63]

Just found a version of ‘sweet home alabama’ on the Siamese Dream session tapes!!![/quote:1bb24g63]

A did you know fact: at one point our album Pisces Iscariot was instead to be called ‘Neptulius’!![/quote:1bb24g63]

[Sven]

yeah, but don’t you think it’s possible that billy referred to these ADATs as "cassettes" too? they’re also cassettes.
or do you think they checked 700 cassette tapes, like the ones you and i used to play in the 80s (and way into the 90s)? on top of the massive amount of DATs, ADATs and whatnot? and if so, why only check the compact cassettes to check what’s in the vault, and not the DATs, ADATs and other formats?[/quote:28tnyv2i]

i don’t think so.

ADAT is full hard disk multichannel recording… they might have transferred some to CD(R), but i guess not to tape… it needs mixing too as it’s the clean SBD multichannel pre-fader mix.

i guess he does have a massive amount of jams, rehearsels, shows, demos etc on cassette.

the DATs and especially the ADAT’s in the vault are a massive amount of data to go through. start with the decaying analogue first i guess.. ???

[Sven]

Some more of Billy’s tweets regarding this:

Just found the first live performance of ‘Starla’, in stereo. Previously I had thought we had it only on one channel.[/quote:z1xn09ex]

Just found a version of ‘sweet home alabama’ on the Siamese Dream session tapes!!![/quote:z1xn09ex]

A did you know fact: at one point our album Pisces Iscariot was instead to be called ‘Neptulius’!![/quote:z1xn09ex][/quote:z1xn09ex]

NICE ))

and now- release it BC )))

[Cool As Ice Cream]

ADAT is full hard disk multichannel recording… they might have transferred some to CD(R), but i guess not to tape… it needs mixing too as it’s the clean SBD multichannel pre-fader mix.[/quote:w8gw0z2m]
you’re probably right. but wikipedia says there is such a thing as ADAT tapes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAT

Alesis Digital Audio Tape or ADAT is a tape format used for simultaneously recording eight tracks of digital audio at once, onto Super VHS magnetic tape – a format similar to that used by consumer VCRs.[/quote:w8gw0z2m]

[Sven]

ADAT is full hard disk multichannel recording… they might have transferred some to CD(R), but i guess not to tape… it needs mixing too as it’s the clean SBD multichannel pre-fader mix.[/quote:3k0yv70f]
you’re probably right. but wikipedia says there is such a thing as ADAT tapes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAT

Alesis Digital Audio Tape or ADAT is a tape format used for simultaneously recording eight tracks of digital audio at once, onto Super VHS magnetic tape – a format similar to that used by consumer VCRs.[/quote:3k0yv70f][/quote:3k0yv70f]

yep, correct, but TSP used the HD-version… (at least on the MCIS tour and onwards)

[mirrorboxer]

ADAT is full hard disk multichannel recording… they might have transferred some to CD(R), but i guess not to tape… it needs mixing too as it’s the clean SBD multichannel pre-fader mix.[/quote:15tofh1z]
you’re probably right. but wikipedia says there is such a thing as ADAT tapes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAT

Alesis Digital Audio Tape or ADAT is a tape format used for simultaneously recording eight tracks of digital audio at once, onto Super VHS magnetic tape – a format similar to that used by consumer VCRs.[/quote:15tofh1z][/quote:15tofh1z]

Initially I didn’t really care about the details of this discussion, but I’m glad that this part came up. I was looking at a photo that Pearl Jam included with their collection called "Lost Dogs" that pictures what looks like old VHS cassette cases. I just assumed that it was video but thought it was odd to include that photo for an audio package. Now it all comes full circle, and for that I am just a little bit smarter. I had never heard of ADAT, but I am really pretty impressed with the technology for what it was. Then again, I am not very fluent in recording techniques, I am easily impressed

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