Champaign 22-10-1987

University Assembly Hall

Champaign (Illinois), USA.

22 - October - 1987.

Attendance: 16.193 (sellout) - Support: The BoDeans

Disc 1 (41:49)

01. Where the Streets Have No Name

02. I Will Follow

03. Trip Through Your Wires

04. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Exodus

05. MLK

06. The Unforgettable Fire

07. Exit

08. In God's Country

09. Sunday Bloody Sunday

Disc 2 (52:49)

01. Help

02. People Get Ready

03. Bad

04. October

05. New Year's Day

06. Pride (In the Name of Love)

07. Star Spangled Banner / Bullet the Blue Sky

08. Running to Stand Still

09. With or Without You

10. "40"

Recording Equipment - History

Sony WM-D3 with clip-on stereo microphones > Analog Master > Analog 1st > CDR-Master > EAC > Audigy Audio Cleaning Lab > WAV > FLAC Frontend > Flac

Transfer (from first gen cassette): ademotte

Additional comments (by ademotte): Audigy was used to split tracks and slightly adjust high and low end upward. Furthermore, the +1 kHz band was lowered to reduce echo.

I got this in trade back in 1988 from a Chicago-area trader. He was a freshman at U of I and *not* a regular taper; he used a Sony D-3 Walkman recorder with clip-on stereo mikes. I was really impressed by the quality at the time; I'm not as impressed today in the era of ALD, IEM, and professional-quality stealth mikes, but it's still a pretty good, clear recording nonetheless. The limitations of the microphones are apparent in the limited dynamics and somewhat shrill higher ranges; EQ'ing this tape was a choice of either tolerating some shrillness or having the vocals buried in the heavy bass. I chose the former, but you may wish to play with the settings somewhat before you burn this.

I don't want to set anyone's expectations too high -- this is not a fabulous recording, but it's definitely enjoyable and captures the band at their peak. I wanted to get this one out there before the cassette decomposes; it's a good document from a show in a college town, but won't win any awards in terms of sound quality.

The "Star Spangled Banner" is mostly missing; I think this was the first show this guy ever taped, so he was not yet quite up to the challenge of switching tapes in the dark.

Comments

Very good recording overall. The output is pretty clear and strong, and crowd noise is mostly located in the background or between songs, so they shut up when the band are playing. Music and vocals sound well captured and close. As mentioned above by ademotte, the high-end is a little harsh and this marks the whole tape.