Is this lossy?

[Tate]

Since I'm stumped, I'll ask the experts here. The lineage to this is apparently master tape --> CDR --> CDR --> FLAC (seeder said he can't quite remember).

There is activity over 16K, so I didn't think it was lossy. But then with a close-up, looks lossy because of those blocks. This show is from 1975, so it's no MD recording ;)

What do you guys think?

[Tate]

I uploaded a small WAV clip:
http://rapidshare.de/files/1597348/WAV.wav.html

[ffooky]

I'm very interested in the consensus on this as I've seen quite a few very similar analyses, usually from equally old if not older shows...the staggered drop off in the frequency analysis and blocky yet irregular look to the spectral.

[Five]

no question in my mind, that's lossy.

[jcrab66]

that looks very nasty.....

[ssamadhi97]

This show is from 1975, so it's no MD recording ;)
From the looks of it, it went through an MD generation nonetheless - without a doubt.

[Tate]

Thanks guys for the help!

From the looks of it, it went through an MD generation nonetheless - without a doubt.

I never considered that. Guess that explains it. People shouldn't do that to their bootlegs, it's as bad as converting to MP3. Only when a show has been recorded with a MD device it's OK..

[Five]

I've seen this "rampart" pattern on a couple shows seeded on EZT before, I wonder if they could possibly be coming from the same culprit? I spent some time today playing around with lossy encoders trying to figure out what exactly this is to no avail. ssamadhi97 has the best theory so far.

[ffooky]

Back on STG there was a bloke seeding a slew of Peter Laughner/RFTT recordings and they all had the same fa/sa characteristics as this one.