Santana
4/28/90
Mott Gym
Cal Poly University
San Luis Obispo, CA

8th Row Center
(Recorded, Transferred, Mastered, FLAC’d, Tagged (xACT 2.53) & Front Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr) [Files Tagged, & Artwork Added 10/2024]

Aiwa CM-30 Stereo Cardioid >Sony WM-D6C (w/Dolby B) [TDK MA 110]
TDK MA-110 Master Transferred: Sony TC-D5M >Tascam DR-100mkII (24/48) w/Dolby B Engaged,
Right Channel Only transferred Through Y Cable To Duplicate Into Two Mono Tracks. WAV >Audacity (Split ‘Stereo’ Track To Mono, Added 30 Milliseconds Of Silence To The Beginning Of Left ‘Pseudo-Stereo’ Track to Approximate The Effect Of Stereo, [See Further Notes Below As To Why This Was Done], Track Splits, Minor Edits, Down Sample / Dither To 16 Bit 44.1k

xx. Spirits Dancing In The Flesh*
xx. Somewhere In Heaven*
xx. It’s A Jungle Out There*
xx. Soweto (Africa Libre)*
xx. Batuka/ No One To Depend On*
xx. Gypsy Woman*
xx. Mother Earth*

1. Blues For Salvador**
2. Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen
3. Oye Como Va
4. We Don’t Have To Wait
5. Savor (Percussion Solo)
6. Choose
7. She’s Not There
8. Soul Sacrifice
9. Europa
10. Keep On Running/Band Intros

Encore:

11. Somewhere In Heaven
12. Peace On Earth

*Not Recorded
**Only last 90 seconds recorded

54.41 – Edit point between side A and side B.

OldNeumanntapr Notes; [2015]
I remember this one well. It was only my second stealth show, the first being Miles Davis at Mott Gym at Cal Poly the week before. I had some minor problems, the first being that I accidentally left my pause button engaged for the first part of the show. When I was getting ready for what I thought would be the first flip, I happened to feel the pause button was still pressed in when I touched the deck. I was pissed, after having checked levels repeatedly. (They looked great, in the dark.)

Another problem was that the CM-30 that I had used had a low level rumble in the right channel. There was something amiss in the microphone’s electronics on that channel, and I later replaced it with another CM-30. As D6 owners will no doubt remember, the D6 recorders had a one-knob level control and had only one row of LEDs for the meter, which would show the highest channel. The recorders were not adjusted at the factory and usually had one channel higher or lower than the other. I eventually had mine calibrated by a tech, but in 1990 I had only had it about a year and a half so it was still unbalanced. Being that I was running metal tape, I wanted to push the levels a bit more than normal. Unfortunately, the left channel was too hot and suffered from some distortion. The right channel, recorded at a little lower level, was better, though the right channel was the bad channel on that particular Aiwa CM-30. (During the quiet parts you can hear the low level rumble in the mic, but fortunately at this show there were not that many quiet parts and we were up front in the 8th row. I wish I would have had better mics, but I hadn’t yet bought the Nakamichi CM-300s. That wouldn’t happen until summer of ’90.

So, I transferred the tape with my D5 to my Tascam DR-100mkII, engaging the Dolby B circuits on playback, and used a Y cable to duplicate the undistorted right channel into dual mono. Then I took it into Audacity and added 30 milliseconds of silence to the start of the left (psuedo-stereo) channel to approximate the sound of a stereo delay. It actually doesn’t sound half bad.

I can’t believe that the 25 anniversary of this show was last Tuesday. The night that Santana played was the night of the infamous Cal Poly / San Luis Obispo student riots, and was what caused Poly Royal, the university’s open house celebration, to be cancelled after 50 years. It was quite a shock to see all the police in riot gear swarming around the Cal Poly campus after the show. We were dumfounded, until we saw the news later. Stupid drunk college kids rioting over nothing.

This recording is most likely the only one from this show, though as always mileage may vary and you can never say never or only. Still, I’ve never seen another one. It actually doesn’t sound half bad. I was able to get rid of the distortion from the left channel and by adding the 30 milliseconds of delay (Thanks for the tip Dennis!) it sounds a lot better than a flat monaural recording would. Still, I can’t do anything about the missing first part of the show. At least I came away with something. (About a minute after the tape starts you can hear my friend Tim lean in and say, ‘Did you bring the weed in? I should have brought some in. Everyone’s smoking’ Too funny!)

I never traded this show before, because of the flaws, so it is uncirculated. I think it sounds a lot better now after doing the work in Audacity. I found out that BOTH of the posted set lists to this show (Setlists.com and Santana’s own website) were incorrect. With a little help from my friends I was able to identify the missing tracks. Of course, I have no way of accurately knowing if the first half of the show’s previously posted set list is correct, as my tape recorder was not running for that portion.

Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉
DO NOT Convert To MP3!