Hartford Civic Center, Hartford 5/8/2000 (wet mix edition)

Source #1:
5x Wireless Sources > 4x DAT
Taper: The OG Crew

Source #2
DPA4061 > Core Sound Power Supply > Sony TCD-D100
Taper: bossman284

Mixed, Produced, and Mastered by Sharebear/Hoserama
Aligned in Adobe Audition
Mixed in Reaper, using extra waves and Ozone plug-ins
Dithered using Izotope MBIT+
Flac'ed using Trader's Little Helper
Mix version 20210502

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01. Intro
02. Roulette
03. Prove it All Night
04. Two Hearts
05. Darlington County
06. Atlantic City
07. My Hometown
08. Independence Day
09. Youngstown
10. Murder Incorporated
11. Badlands
12. Out in the Streets
13. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
14. Brilliant Disguise
15. Because the Night
16. The Ghost of Tom Joad
17. Racing in the Street
18. Light of Day
19. Encore
20. Spirit in the Night
21. Born to Run
22. Encore
23. Thunder Road
24. If I Should Fall Behind
25. Land of Hope and Dreams
26. Encore
27. Ramrod

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How we got here...

During the 1999/00 tour, some long-time tapers started experimenting and expanding on recording IEM feeds. As the tour went on, they expanded with extra receivers. Towards the end of the tour, a nearly full set of receivers had been assembled, allowing the crew to pull 5 distinct feeds. Hartford 5/8/2000 was the first of the shows with the full coverage and came just in time for a dynamite show and home stretch of the tour.

Of course, while taping the show correctly is probably the most critical part of the process, it's not the only component. Listening to a straight Bruce guitar tech feed is a horrible listen by itself but settling it into a full mix can create a product better than the sum of its parts. Just must get the mixing right. So, AK decided to take the first stab at a 5-IEM matrix using Cool Edit Pro in late 2000, which circulated amongst friends. Not a lot of tools at the time for static clean-up and such, so it was raw. Additionally, none of the feeds had strong upfront vocals, so some parts got buried. Over the next couple years, that mix was later released as part of the "Uber" series.

Fast forward to 2018/19, where AK is still eager to do a full mix. Lots of new tools available for mixing, especially some of the new AI extraction modules. These new extraction tools have been a godsend for unlocking IEM mixes in general. AK started playing and tinkering with those, even releasing a sneak peek shortly before the 20th anniversary of the show. However, it just wasn't coming together. So, in true team effort, E from JEMS connected AK to me/hoserama and we started planning. First big step was getting a fresh transfer from the DAT to avoid data dropouts, which our comrade Rockcat provided quickly. Then during Jan/Feb of 2021, I started putting all the pieces together and got about 90% done. The last two months have been just minor tweaks here and there.

So now that the show is 21 years old, we can buy it a beer and release the new mix into the world. Just as the initial taping was a team effort, so has the mixing process.

Now we'll see how the extractions develop over the next couple years...may end up doing a 25th anniversary release if the tools keep getting better!

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Recording & Mixing Notes:
The feeds were generally pretty clean, but there was still periodic static and pops that needed to be cleaned up. You may still hear some remnants of the glitches, but hopefully not too distracting.

Like I said above, there were handful of feeds, but still not one for every band member. For example, Nils + Stevie are extracted from stereo field of other feeds. The vocals are extractions from all the feeds, stacked on top of each other. And so on. So, it's a different type of project compared to working from multitrack (like most of the Nugs releases). However, it appears there are no multitrack in the archives for this show, so I doubt we'll see a release from Nugs of the show. Enjoy it for free!

As I've done with some of my recent U2 releases, I've done three different mixes. I know folks have their own personal flavor preference:

1. Dry - No Audience recording in the mix, reduced compression.
2. Wet - Lots of audience recording in the mix, higher compression
3. Goldilocks - "Ahh...this porridge is just right". My personal preference on the mix. Audience is automated to key points, although there is a base level of aud throughout the show. Moderate compression.

If somebody was really dying to do their own, they could take the dry version and mix it with the audience recording. Have fun if so, just don't release it without asking.

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Show Notes:

Considered one of, if not THE top show from the 1999/00 tour. Hot performance, great setlist, nice improv moments (that Honky Tonk Women in Darlington just works too well for it to never appear again...tragic). If you like the era, you shouldn't be disappointed.

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As always, encouraging people to get into taping and mixing. Just take the craft seriously and it will reward you many times over. There's no point in complaining about missing recordings or subpar quality if you're not contributing--pushing 1's and 0's around on the internet is no comparison for taping.

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IEM recordings are not for everyone. If not they're not your thing, either sonically or ethically, there's excellent alternative recordings out there.

Similarly, I'm mixing primarily for my ears. This is what sounds best to me. This may not sound best to you. That's a fair statement. I'm open to honest criticism (although you should have caught me when I was working on the mix!), but pointless complaining is unappreciated (naturally). Let's play nice. Or maybe lug in recording equipment and make an alternate mix of your own sources. Or if you really think you could do a better mix, reach out with your resume, and maybe you can have the raw sources.

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Please don't sell this recording in any way - no cash for blanks, 2:1s, or any other form of "getting paid for your time". Just share it freely.

Please don't convert to mp3, then back to wave, and then trade it around. This stuff is too easy to find on torrents now.

Feel free to remaster/remix this recording. Just keep it to your own computer and iPod.

Also, please don't torrent or share on other sites without at least dropping me a line and asking. This includes YouTube and Guitars101! I may want to just torrent/share it there myself. Just ask permission, it's not that hard.

Please ask (and wait for permission!) before putting it into any matrix + video production. If you ask nicely for a quality high-res video project, I will likely say yes. If you put it on YouTube or cell phone video production without asking, I will send my cats from hell to chew your computer cables.

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Enjoy y'all!
- Hoserama/Sharebear

And an extra word from our sponsor AK:

Back in June 2000, when the original 5 IEM Hartford mix was concocted, the process to align and mix sources like this was rudimentary based on the technology available at the time.

Workflow involved aligning the 5 IEM .wavs visually at the beginning of the files to the point that they looked in sync, and then mixing the show together by raising and lowering levels here and there as called for by the song or artist solo. It is important to remember that IEM sources are themselves mixes: each contains a hodgepodge of instrumentation. If, for example I wanted to raise Danny's organ, I did so at the cost of raising the guitars, piano and drums that were also in Danny's IEM feed.

Mixing back then was all about trade-offs and compromises. Was having more organ worth burying the vocals or causing phasing issues? When things got out of sync, the process was restarted from the point of lost sync until, painstakingly, a final mixdown was rendered. Slap on a little equalization, track out, burn to CD and the first 5-IEM mixdown was completed in June 2000.

Twenty years later in April 2020, following a frustrating series of personal attempts at a better sounding and more professional mix utilizing new AI STEM technology, JEMS put me in touch with Hoserama. I had heard his work from various U2 mix projects, as well as his Springsteen 8/23/09 St. Louis multi-IEM mix. Unfortunately, at the time, Hoserama was deeply involved in work commitments and other projects, and my hope of a Hartford 20th Anniversary mix was shelved indefinitely.

Over many months I repeatedly checked in with Hoserama and each time he was still tied up in other projects. Finally in early January 2021 the stars aligned, and as you will hear...so did the source .wav files: Hoserama commenced work on the new Hartford mix.

Today, the IEM mixing workflow has been taken to a whole new level starting with .wav file prep (scrubbing for pops, clicks and static). This means hours were spent listening to all five .wav files for any glitches, which were then smoothed, patched, de-clicked, denoised, and masked in ways to make the listener not perceive their faults. Considering there were five, three-hour feeds that means the first phase alone took over 15 hours.

Next, Hoserama took on the critical step of manipulating .wav length so that each .wav was in sync practically down to the sample or millisecond. Utilizing the latest in AI STEM models, musical components such as vocals, bass, drums, piano and other instrumentation were extracted from each feed. Many of these elements were processed, further cleaned and composited using additional tools and plug-ins, along with Hoserama's considerable expertise from mixing so many projects of this kind.

Within a few days, Hoserama rendered an initial mix. Although that version was inferior to the final mixes presented here, it was excellent nonetheless. Most people would have been quite satisfied at that point. Fortunately, Hoserama had bigger goals in mind.

Many test mixes followed, incorporating suggestions from a small group of beta testers as well as Hoserama’s exacting standards. Somewhere in mid-February, a metamorphosis took place where the mix catapulted to a whole new level.

JEMS was right. Hoserama was the right person for this unique project. I hope you enjoy the remixed and remastered Hartford 2000. It was worth the wait.

--AK