Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.
This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.
Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA
The Mockingbird Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Phish fans in 1996 to generate charitable proceeds from the Phish community.
And since we're entirely volunteer – with no office, salaries, or paid staff – administrative costs are less than 2% of revenues! So far, we've distributed over $2 million to support music education for children – hundreds of grants in all 50 states, with more on the way.
Part of the cleanup process involves getting rid of "hum" which equipment can cause on a recording at certain frequencies. Usually this hum occurs at multiples of either 50 or 60 Hz (the frequency of electricity in Europe and the USA, respectively.) I was in the process of cleaning up the "Slave To The Traffic Light" track, and I could hear some band banter at the beginning, but couldn't quite make out what was being said due to a rogue hum which was occurring at exactly 117.92 Hz (a very arbitrary frequency.) Thus, I ran an algorithm to remove the offending hum.
What sort of chatter did I unveil? Ironically, it was Mike complaining to Paul about a random "low frequency feedback" which he couldn't seem to get rid of. It seems that in removing the hum, I retroactively fixed the exact issue that Mike was bitching about to Paul, in-turn making the whole recording sound significantly better. Apparently, Nectar's had noisy equipment that night! I had a good, solid laugh when I realized that the hum had been masking Mike's banter... about the hum.
Here is a link to the cleaned-up Slave with the chatter at the beginning: https://www.dropbox.com/s/de6o5sosy3fzjpt/I%2005%20Slave%20to%20the%20Traffic%20Light.wav?dl=0