ANNOUNCE: Bootleg Race (stark remaster)

Queen - Bootleg Race
Budokan Hall, Tokyo April 14th 1979
Lineage: Bootleg Race (Tarantura silver cd) --> Flac > WAV > Har-bal 1.5 > Wavelab 5.01b > Flac (level 8)

**As always, I have restored/remastered this FOR MY OWN USE. I hope the community sees it as enough of an upgrade to want it, but if you don't like it, please don't download it.**

Firstly, this recording has been crushed by compression, and it's impossible to undo. However, by correcting the equalisation I have minimised the effect and significantly increased the peak-to-average ratio (dynamic range). 

Secondly, each track has been individually normalised by Tarantura, resulting in, for example, Love Of My Life being the same volume as Sheer Heart Attack.  This normalisation also causes the raising of background noise (i.e. tape hiss and crowd noise) on quieter tracks, so I have manually matched the transitions between tracks so the volume no longer jumps when a new song starts.

As for the sound, the bulk of the equalisation was done with Har-Bal. I then applied high- and low-pass filters (essentially sophisticated bass and treble controls) with a Waves VEQ4 equaliser and brought it back up to level (-0.2dB) with a Waves L3 limiter in Wavelab. 

I have re-tracked the songs so there now less tracks, corrected the balance between left and right channels and applied new smoother fades to disc beginnings and ends. All tracks were converted to 24 bits prior to processing (increased dynamic range/lower noise floor versus 16 bit). NO new compression was applied.  And...no denoisers!

Please note that if you are directly comparing this version with the original, it will sound quieter.  If anyone wants more info on the remastering, or what I mean by 'dynamic range'/'compression'/'16 or 24 bit' etc, please post and I'd be delighted to bore you with it.

If anyone missed the recent remaster of The Miracle Game, it's here:

http://www.queenzone.com/forums/1263959/announce-the-miracle-game-stark-remaster.aspx

Disc 1
01 - We Will Rock You
02 - Let Me Entertain You
03 - Somebody To Love
04 - If You Can't Beat Them
05 - Death On Two Legs
06 - Killer Queen
07 - Bicycle Race
08 - I'm In Love With My Car
09 - Get Down, Make Love
10 - You're My Best Friend
11 - Now I'm Here
12 - Don't Stop Me Now
13 - Spread Your Wings
14 - Dreamer's Ball
15 - Love Of My Life
16 - '39

Disc 2
01 - It's Late
02 - Brighton Rock
03 - Keep Yourself Alive
04 - Bohemian Rhapsody
05 - Tie Your Mother Down
06 - Sheer Heart Attack
07 - We Will Rock You
08 - We Are The Champions
09 - God Save The Queen
10 - Announcement

I know at least one person found these comparisons helpful, and it’s always good  to hear the before and after at the same volume, so here are four samples, always starting with the original source then switching into the remaster.

The first is We Will Rock You.  http://www.mediafire.com/?lllkcm7292c605q  
Switches are at 3, 6, 8,  11, 14, 16, 22, 27 and 32 seconds.  Excuse the clumsy edits, but listen to those drums!!

Tie Your Mother Down  http://www.mediafire.com/?ddyzn3rla4d9lh4  
Switches are at 8, 15, 27, 34 and 53 seconds.

It’s Late  http://www.mediafire.com/?59yrd73xrnvp3dk
Switches are at 10, 20, 28, 38 and 47 seconds.

Don’t Stop Me Now  http://www.mediafire.com/?p2gz3jxi4f265sc
Switches are at 9, 18, 26, 32 and 38 seconds.

Enjoy!

Hello Stark,

Thanks for your hard work !!
I will listen to this with pleasure :)

Thanks a lot, 'stark !!!
Your remasters are always welcome :)

Thank You!

Stark, this is simply fantastic work !  There is no comparison to the original in terms of dynamic range.

Here we now have the best recording of a complete concert from 1979.  Every Queen fan should be enjoying a copy of this.

MERCI BEAUCOUP FOR YOUR WORK

Thank you Stark!!

Thank you very much for your hard work!!

Very much appreciated, thank you!

Excellent!!!  Thank you so much.

Thank you very very much!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

Awesome remaster...!

Your brilliant work gives us an essential Queen-recording. That means a lot to me.

cheers

Thank  you very much for your great work!!

Many thanks for all your work, Stark!