Oasis - Little by Little | Original DAT Production Tapes (11 Tapes) | RARE

Main Details

Please note: The item is currently under active negotiations with OmegaAuctions, Christie’s and Hansons Auctioneers auction houses and this eBay listing may be removed at any point in time.

Please note: This item is being sold on behalf of a family member.

Up for sale are 11 “Oasis - Little By Little” production DAT tapes, including an extra empty jewel case, that were allegedly involved in the production of the song and music video “Little by Little”. All the tapes have been played through, verified on a DAT deck and digital copies made onto an SD card which is supplied with this sale. This is an opportunity to acquire a unique piece of history that details an important technical aspect to the production of the “Oasis’s Little by Little” song and music video, which also provide an insight into the sheer complexity and man power required to achieve the final product.

All of the tapes and contents up for listing are well documented in the pictures. Waveforms of the digitized audio are also provided (generated by audiowaveform developed by the BBC), alongside with a video containing short audio snippets of each tape. 2 of the tapes (tapes 6 and 9) have a minor tape drop out (once for each tape), but they don’t have much of an impact on the contents, as the same contents for tape 6 can be retrieved from tape 5, and tape 9’s content can be retrieved from tape 10. This means a full recording of the dropped out content is still achievable.

One of the tapes (tape 1) suffered a tape split during fast forwarding when examining the tape. The split occurred towards the end of the tape which contains no audio content as all of the audio content is only towards the beginning of the tape. The tape has been spliced carefully with relevant equipment, and the process of repair can be seen on the splicing photograph in this listing. The tape was then tested for optimal playback, including going over the splice itself. Please be careful and wary of the age of the tapes, making sure that the tapes are wound at slower speeds if possible. Tape 8’s jewel case has a minor chip to one of the corners, which is shown on the image.

Tape 1 contains a unique recording of the radio mix that isn’t publicly (as of my knowledge) available in high fidelity (uncompressed 44.1khz) with far less compression and bigger dynamic range compared to the publicly available release. I cover these details further in this listing. Some of the tapes (strictly related to the full version release) are provided in 48 kHz (TV standard), but I cannot confirm if these recordings have been upsampled from 44.1 kHz. Majority of the tapes that are not Stereo Masters, have a timecode signal on the right channel. I go into more detail regarding this further in the description. Exact details of each tape, including the technical specifications are also listed in the table below.

To the best of my knowledge, the Oasis production tapes originally came bundled with a DAT recording deck (Tascam DA-30 MKII) that was acquired from a recording studio by my extended family a decade or so ago. The Tascam DA-30 MKII deck is a high end pro DAT deck, which includes balanced XLR inputs/outputs and also AES/EBU digital input/output, which is a prominent standard used by the TV industry, which co-aligns with the purpose of the Oasis DAT tapes.

This listing is for 11 tapes with 12 jewel casings, Peli 1300 case and SD card which contains the transferred digital files from the DAT tapes and relevant metadata. NOTICE: The discussed Tascam DA-30 MKII is not included in this sale, and was only referenced to provide relevant context to the tapes. The tapes will be provided inside of a repurposed Pelican case (Peli 1300) which will be adequately packaged for shipping. A piece of tape was used to mask an irrelevant company logo that is etched into the repurposed foam. Additional cuts to the foam were handmade to better fit the tapes snuggly.

I am open to negotiations and offers. Any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Item will be securely packaged and shipped via ParcelForce’s fully insured express24 service. For shipping outside of the UK, please contact me for further information and quotation.

Warning: No rights or licenses are being sold or provided with these tapes. The tapes are still subject to copyright held by the original copyright holders. To keep the audio demo in the video transparent, no normalization has been applied to the video and may be loud at times.

Detailed and technical Information

What is Normal Speed Playback, VariSpeed Playback, and SMPTE Linear Time Code?

Throughout the photographs and documentation of the tapes, the terms “Normal Speed Playback” and “VariSpeed Playback” are used. The tapes produced by FAB Sound studio were supposedly used for the editing of the “Little by Little” music video. The music video contained certain camera shots that were filmed in slow motion for which the editors required tapes of the song to be recorded at an adjusted rate, so that the tapes were able to synchronize with the editing equipment. This is what the VariSpeedPlayback (variable speed) was for, and it provided a version of the tape that was set at the same frame rate as the slow motion camera. In this case the camera shot was 1.5 times faster than real time footage, so the tape was adjusted to 37.5 fps (as seen on the annotated tapes in the pictures). The song will be sped up when played in realtime, but when slowed down to 25 fps, the song will appear to be played back as normal. The 37.5 fps value is calculated by multiplying 25 fps (realtime frame rate) by 1.5. “Normal Speed Playback” signified that the tape was to be run at the nominal framerate of 25 fps. All of the tapes that were used for editing, came with an accompanied SMPTE Linear Time Code track (timecode data encoded in the form of audio) which allowed editing equipment to lock and synchronize, allowing synchronized audio and video when editing.

Detailed contents of tapes

Tapes 1 and 2 (Normal and Radio Edit versions) appear to be the main stereo master DAT tapes that were used to produce the remaining tapes. Tape 2 appears to have been produced at Metropolis Mastering studio. Tapes 3 and 4 are copies of 1 and 2, but with an added tone at the beginning of the tape and the main track peaks adjusted to -6 dB (as shown on the info card inside of the tape case. The remainder of the tapes were produced at FAB Sound studio by engineer Rick Wilkinson. Tapes 5 and 6 are the same and contain a mixed down mono version of the radio edit on the left channel, and a SMPTE LTC timecode signal on the right channel. It is denoted as “Normal Speed Playback” to signify that it is to be played back at the nominal 25 frames per second. Tapes 7 and 8 are the same configuration as 5 and 6, with the exception that it’s the full version of the song. Tapes 9 and 10 contain the radio edit but sped up (without changing pitch) and is to be played back at 37.5 frames per second (used for editing the slow motion shots of the music video). This concept is annotated as “VariSpeed Playback”. Tape 11 is the same as 9 and 10, with the exception that it’s the full song. Tape 12 is missing and only the Jewel case is provided and further details can be found on the pictures provided.

Looking at the waveforms, which are provided in one of the pictures of this listing, Tape 1 “Oasis - Little By Little (Radio Edit)” appears to be a unique mix (unreleased) and isn’t overly compressed like the final release. You can clearly see the extended dynamic range in the peaks of the waveform when comparing it to the reference CD release (bottom right of waveform picture).

Studios, Engineers and Clients

The majority of tapes have been made in FAB Sound studio, one of the tapes (tape 2) in Metropolis Mastering studio and one is unknown (tape 1). Some of the tapes have the client set to “Big Brother Recordings” which is a record label founded by Oasis that was setup to release material by rock band Oasis in the UK and Ireland. All of the FAB Sound tapes have the client BULLET listed. Bullet Films was a London-based commercial/music video production house headed by creative producers/partners Pete Chambers and Simon Poon Tip. The directors of the “Little by Little” music video are Max & Dania (Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini) which would’ve collaborated with Bullet Films to produce the Oasis - Little By Little music video.

All of the FAB Sound tapes were produced by Richard Wilkinson who has been credited on hundreds of records related to technical and production contributions. More information can be found by searching Richard’s name on discogs.