next teaser up on facebook and twitter: Games for May poster!
In my previous post I detailed known Floyd quad mixes, but left out what must be a grail of sorts for Floyd fans: the Games For May concert. This was presented at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on May 12, 1967, and was the first live performance in which Pink Floyd used surround sound. It probably is the first time ANY band used a form of surround sound, and was among the earlier presentations of surround sound in any venue, predated by Fantasia and other experimental installations.
Here is a description of the event:
http://www.wired.com/2009/05/dayintech_0512/
Now the likelihood that this was RECORDED in surround is staggeringly low, as state of the art recording at the time was four tracks maximum, and this was on large machines in expensive studios. It seems improbable that a then-giant four track recorder would have been dragged to the gig. From the description it also sounds like the Azimuth Coordinator, their custom built mixer, was designed more to feed a PA system.
The concert is known to have been recorded (in stereo, I presume), with at least one interview I have read over the years referring to the tape being in possession of a friend or associate of the band.
As reported in the above article, "the Azimuth Coordinator was stolen after the show." However another one was built and used at live gigs, possibly as early as 1969, but certainly by 1970 when the Floyd were playing Cymbaline with a 'footsteps sequence' where the recorded steps wandered around the hall and the audience. The possibility that one of these later day concerts was recorded in surround is tantalizing, and if such a recording does exist, it would be amazing if it were included in this box set.
If I am not mistaken, most if not all Pink Floyd concerts were performed in surround sound beginning in 1970. If none of these shows were ever captured in that format as presented, it would be a remarkable lack of foresight on the part of the band.
One final note: I am not positive of the years and setups, but Roger Waters has described his conception of quad mixing for live sound, and in the absence of a direct source for this I will paraphrase. 'The human tends to listen to whether the sound is to the left, behind, or to the right of him. Therefore when (Pink Floyd) mix surround sound live they have speakers to the left, to the rear, and to the right of the crowd, as well as a stereo pair of PA speakers bordering the stage.' This configuration is borne out for the 1977 Animals tour, as seen in the back of the sheet music book for the Animals album on Page 85. There is a rack of three equalizers labeled in turn: Quad 2 Right, Quad 3 Rear, Quad 4 Left.
I bring this up for obvious reasons. If they do attempt to release a live surround mix "as recorded," the speaker configuration would differ from our now standard 5.1 layout. It would be curious to see if they attempted to remix to fit the 5.1 format, or possibly to encode in 7.1 and then sum the furthest rear speakers to a mono signal.
The more likely scenario is that my discussion is moot, but I am hoping that something from all of their years of pioneering surround play will be included. The prospect is exciting!