The Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn: Remixed [Prof. Stoned 2022]
16bit/44.1kHz CD Quality FLAC
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01. Astronomy Dominé
02. Lucifer Sam
03. Matilda Mother
04. Flaming
05. Pow R. Toc H.
06. Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk
07. Interstellar Overdrive
08. The Gnome
09. Chapter 24
10. The Scarecrow
11. Bike
Bonus:
12. Arnold Layne
13. Candy and a Currant Bun
14. See Emily Play
15. Apples and Oranges
16. Paintbox
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Total time: 57m29s
Stereo Mixes & Mastering: Prof. Stoned (July 2022)
Thanks: Hallucalation
v1.0: 15-07-2022
v1.1: 25-02-2023 (phase problems on Lucifer Sam vocals repaired)
v1.2: 28-6-2023 (repaired drum transcients which deviated to left channel on Tr. 1; this is the last fix, I promise)
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Original credits:
Syd Barrett – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals
Roger Waters – bass guitar, slide whistle, percussion, gong (uncredited), vocals
Richard Wright – Farfisa Combo Compact organ, piano, tack piano, Hammond organ, harmonium, celesta, cello, Lowrey organ, vibraphone, Hohner Pianet, violin, percussion, vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
Syd Barrett – rear cover design
Peter Bown – engineering, mixing
Peter Jenner – intro vocalisations on tr. 01 (uncredited)
Vic Singh – front cover photography
Norman Smith – production, vocal and instrumental arrangements, drum roll on tr. 07
Joe Boyd - production tr. 12-13
John Woods - engineering, mixing on tr. 12-13
Jeff Jarrett - engineering on tr. 14?
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Tech. note:
Here's another wild experiment from yours truly; taking it even one or two steps further than the Beatles remixes.
This new remix integrates elements from both the original stereo and mono mixes. There are a few reasons for this. One is that the mono mix has elements or slight extensions that are absent from the stereo. Another one is that the extractions from the stereo were not always useable, mainly because of stereo panning movement during the music. This was a challenging project that took me two full weeks of hyper-focused labor to complete. The original 4-track session tapes were destroyed in 1967, save for Matilda Mother, so any chances of an official remix can be forgotten about. I'm confident this production at the very least adds something to the existing editions and at best -maybe- even improves on them.
I first started working on Interstellar Overdrive, just to see if I could make something out of it. I did this by syncing the stereo and mono mixes by hand and then extract either one separately in demix pro. Despite the fact that in theory this should not work, I ended up with an acceptable mix that mostly originates from the stereo but integrates organ and guitar from the mono. The ending of the song was another challenge, since I had to fold the stereo version to mono there (the part with the wild stereo effect), otherwise it would have been entirely unusable for extraction. In case you wondered; no, I did not wanna keep the spastic panning. So, what you hear here are drums and instruments from the stereo mix in the center and left respectively, and instruments from the mono on the right (unlike the rest of the song which thankfully has a more sophisticated stereo image).
After getting the thumbs up from a fellow Syd fan, I decided to pursue with the other tracks in the same way. But soon enough, new problems presented themselves and I found myself wondering what the hell I was trying to do, more than a few times. I decided I'd use whatever techniques or ideas I could think of to make it work somehow and then see if it was worthwhile. Nearly all mixes here are built around drums and instrumentation from the stereo version but for Tr 02-04 I had no choice but to use the mono mixes as the foundation. Not only did this offer less flexibility with stereo imaging but also lesser fidelity. The results are good, considering, but they may sound a little funky. Furthermore, tracks 12-14 only circulate as mono recordings and thus a more primitive stereo image had to be made for these: vocals, bass [center]; drums [left]; guitars, other [right].
Piper at the Gates is easily in my top 5 of all-time best records. I'm very pleased and proud with what this has turned into. The drums are no longer buried so much and the group sounds much better for it IMO. Purists should stay away. But fans with an open mind to current technology and a love for this album, might wanna give it a try. Enjoy!
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Sources: 1994 Remaster (stereo), 1987 Original CD (stereo, intro to tr. 01 used only) & 2007 40th anniversary edition (mono remaster and single tracks)
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I have used the following digital studio gear and monitoring in the making of this:
- DeMix Pro 3.0.1
- Cubase
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Quad-Core (incl. various extra plugins I purchased over the years)
- PMC IB2s & iLoud Micro monitors
- Adobe Audition
