strangely, it turns out i had this all wrong. the version i rebuilt the track on in 07/09 was actually the same file i'm using now, minus a sort of swoosh at the beginning. i thought i had time shifted the file, but was wrong...
...and it was just out of sync because i couldn't find the right place to paste to.
what that means is that i've determined the source of the file. it was from a now lost early 3-track rabit cd-r, dated to between april 22 and may 5, 2002.
what it also means is that i should be able to use it to replace the corrupted early version. so, i need to take a mildly different mixing strategy.
i was hoping this would be done in a few hours, but it's the last time i'm doing it so i'm making sure i do it right.
i simply can't use the mix i built in 2009. i ran through izotope or something and whatever sounded good then doesn't sound "right" now. so, i'm rebooting to the beginning one last time.
it means, in the end, i should get three mixes out of this file and use two of them.