The Velvet Forum

I'll put a link below to a transfer of Bill Allerton's copy of the soundboard recording from the Gymnasium, 30th April 1967. Please let me know what you think.....

Velvet Underground 1967-04-30 New York soundboard BA copy

The Gymnasium
New York
1967-04-30

01: Booker T 6.51
02: I'm Not A Young Man Anymore 6.30
03: I Guess I'm Falling In Love 4.06
04: I'm Waiting For The Man 5.19
05: Run Run Run 6.39
06: The Gift 14.05
07: Venus In Furs/Sister Ray 18.40

"Venus In Furs" is cut short after ~28 seconds and merges into "Sister Ray".
There are longish silences and periods of tuning up between some songs - these were obviously trimmed off for the official release but I have left them as they are on the cassette.
Also, on this copy of the tape, "Sister Ray" seems to run slightly faster and is ~1 minute shorter than on the official release. I think that this copy actually sounds better - the official release seems to drag a bit to my ears. Your mileage may vary.....


lineage: TDK D90 cassette from the collection of Bill Allerton - Pioneer CT-S670D player - wav - flac

wav transfer October 2025 by lurid_uk

RIP Lou, Sterling and Bill

the audio: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/jc61gdzc ... ev4f8&dl=0

It's quite incredible that a recording like this exists and a poorer one was officially released. The same thing happened with the Matrix Tapes, inexplicable. That said, the quality is significantly better, the sound is deeper, and Cale's keyboards stand out more on IWFTM and Sister Ray. It's a shame about Venus. Is there an official release planned or a bootleg?

Thanks for sharing this, very much appreciated by us all.

It does raise the question of the correct order of songs - the official release has The Gift last, whereas this has Sister Ray. Wonder which is correct?

Fantastic to hear this - many thanks for posting Gordon.

I'd say it definitely has a better bottom end than the released version. There's also a fair bit of mains hum / rumble, so I wonder if Universal just rolled off the low end to get rid of that, losing some of the bass in the process?

It also runs quite a lot faster than the released version. Does anyone have a view as to which is more correct? I'm not sure myself.

Booker T - I always get confused about this one. Is the only place a complete version (with full intro) is available still John's Paris S'Eveille EP? There's obviously a few seconds missing from the start here that are on the released version.

There's some fairly wild guitar sounds from Lou in a few places - I guess this was the peak of his period of electronically modifying his Gretsch with repeaters and suchlike.

Sounds like there's a problem with John's viola that resulted in Venus being aborted - you can hear him playing off-mic in the pause after The Gift, and then it's barely audible once the song starts up.

All interesting stuff!

It doesn't sound better at all compared to Universal release (because this is a cassette and Universal used Cale's master) but it's more complete and has missing bit of Venus and Furs. The tape needs heavy speed correction, it's runs too fast.

Good Day guys!

I was playing this recording along to my guitar and immediately noticed that all the songs run faster the usual and they are all 1 semitone up!
Just for everybody to understand, I'm Waiting For The Man should be in D and in this versione is in D#, Run Run Run too, Guess I'm Falling In Love Should Be in C but it's in C#. And yes my guitar is in tune ahahha, but all the songs perfectly fit 1 semitone up the usual, so this versions are all faster to be 1 semitone up (on Run Run Run it's great because it seems tighter and heavier lol ahahahah). Was this tape always faster when you scanned it? In case could someone maybe create a version with the correct tuning and slower speed? The versions on the Album Box Set are at the correct pitch and speed just for reference.
If this speed correction could be applied this could be (at least for me) the best version of this concert!

The general consensus seems to be that the tape runs too fast - I don't have any sort of musical ear so I'm not going to disagree.

I transferred it just as it came off the cassette and I'm 99% sure that my tape player is operating correctly (it was serviced and calibrated within the last year). The other item on the cassette was the "conversation" that I shared in a different post - it was clearly running fast and the copy that I shared had been slowed down by 4%.

Is anyone out there confident enough to do a speed/pitch correction? I could have a go at it if necessary.

What is a semitone in % terms? I assume it would be a speed AND pitch correction?

MrJake wrote: ↑28 Oct 2025 13:04 Good Day guys!

I was playing this recording along to my guitar and immediately noticed that all the songs run faster the usual and they are all 1 semitone up!
Just for everybody to understand, I'm Waiting For The Man should be in D and in this versione is in D#, Run Run Run too, Guess I'm Falling In Love Should Be in C but it's in C#. And yes my guitar is in tune ahahha, but all the songs perfectly fit 1 semitone up the usual, so this versions are all faster to be 1 semitone up (on Run Run Run it's great because it seems tighter and heavier lol ahahahah). Was this tape always faster when you scanned it? In case could someone maybe create a version with the correct tuning and slower speed? The versions on the Album Box Set are at the correct pitch and speed just for reference.
If this speed correction could be applied this could be (at least for me) the best version of this concert!

Yes it would be speed and pitch correction (slow down and bring the pitch down).
Unfortunatly I don't know in terms of % how much a semitone is, so I can't really help with that, I just gave my opinion from a musician point of view for anyone who can do this kind of work/correction on this tape/files, feel free to contact me if anyone needs some help to check if the songs will be in the correct pitch

ok - the link below is to a version of the recording with each song speed/pitch corrected by -1.0 semitone. What do you think?

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/eia7lgzd ... lzp27&dl=0

MrJake wrote: ↑28 Oct 2025 13:04 Good Day guys!

I was playing this recording along to my guitar and immediately noticed that all the songs run faster the usual and they are all 1 semitone up!
Just for everybody to understand, I'm Waiting For The Man should be in D and in this versione is in D#, Run Run Run too, Guess I'm Falling In Love Should Be in C but it's in C#. And yes my guitar is in tune ahahha, but all the songs perfectly fit 1 semitone up the usual, so this versions are all faster to be 1 semitone up (on Run Run Run it's great because it seems tighter and heavier lol ahahahah). Was this tape always faster when you scanned it? In case could someone maybe create a version with the correct tuning and slower speed? The versions on the Album Box Set are at the correct pitch and speed just for reference.
If this speed correction could be applied this could be (at least for me) the best version of this concert!

I've gave a listen to it and now it sounds correct pitch and speed wise, I compare it to the Album version and it's in the same pitch and speed, I don't have a guitar now with me so I can't try with it too, i'll try tomorrow after work in case

Thanks a lot for your effort and time for this!!