Bruce Springsteen
Spectrum
Philadelphia, PA
March 8, 1988
(Soundcheck)

Transfer: 1980's era tape > Nakamichi DR01 (azimuth adjusted) > Peak Pro 6 (pitch adjusted) > iZotope RX / ozone 5 (mastered) > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 Raise Your Hand
02 Paradise By The C
03 Tunnel Of Love
04 Be True
05 Cover Me
06 South Street
07 South Street
08 South Street
09 Sweet Soul Music
10 Two Faces
11 Tunnel Of Love
12 Tunnel Of Love
13 Two Faces
14 Spare Parts (Intro)

Known Faults:
-All songs are incomplete

I was going through a number of tapes from a friend checking against circulating versions and came across this soundcheck. In comparing the raw transfer to the circulating version they are identical and both suck, the actual music appears to be there just enough to make out what is being played, barely. It is buried under a thick layer of booming low end and extreme hum making it difficult to tell where songs started and stopped.

I love a good challenge, so I set out to remove the the extreme hum and excessive low end to see what was there. After successfully removing both and restoring some mids, the audio is much clearer and songs are more identifiable. Yes, it is still way below average but we now know the song labeled as "unidentified" on Brucebase is "Cover Me".  The proper song starts and stops are now more identifiable so the setlist is slightly more detailed than what has previously circulated.

I've also smoothed all the transitions and cuts, removed some loud talking, mic bumps and general external noise.

The highlight of the soundcheck is Bruce's take on 'The Orlons' 1963 hit "South Street" that Bruce was apparently considering, based on the musical lead in to some of the takes, in the slot "Sweet Soul Music" often sits. Neither would be played that night.

Each sample below has before low end hum removal and after so you can compare and decide to download or not to download.

Artwork included...

mjk5510