Skip to main content

https://audiophilereview.com/a...ad-essential-li.html

Is Bruce Springsteen's Capitol Theater 1978 Radio Broadcast, Restored in 96/24 HD Download, Essential Listening?

 

AR-BruceCap78OfficeCoverShot450.jpgThe new high resolution download of Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band at The Capitol Theater 1978 is something of a revelation for fans of The Boss. It has been meticulously restored by Plangent Processes' innovative technology which has been used previously by Bruce as well as The Grateful Dead and many others.

Even if you taped this show off the air on a Nakamichi Dragon cassette recorder or a fancier-still reel to reel machine back in the day, you probably haven't heard this music sound this good.  And if you heard this show from one of the many variant versions of the Piece De Resistance bootleg, that added in a whole host of other problems to the recording... Even the CD versions of that have a sort of wonkiness to the sound. The versions on YouTube are all over the place sonics wise... 

Why?

AR-PlangentTapeHeads225.jpgWell, on the most basic level, this new version is skipping over the compression placed on all broadcasts for radio transmission back in the day... It is eliminating tape hiss and other recording anomalies you may have incurred on your consumer grade or even pro grade tape machine while recording said compressed FM broadcast. If you, like me, didn't have a great tape deck to begin with in 1978 and got your copy dubbed from your friend's mid-range Akai or Harmon Kardon deck, well then you will be hearing this concert without that multi-generation loss and other distortion which inevitably inserted itself into your copy of the show. 

But even more important, Plangent Processes technology is effectively eliminating problems that might have existed with the original tapes. You are effectively hearing a line recording of the show the way it happened (more on that in a moment) but its even better than that as Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band at The Capitol Theater 1978 was recorded on multi-track tape, so it has been properly mixed (by Jon Altschiller) for the first time since the 1978 live broadcast! 

AR-JamieHowarth225.jpgI asked Plangent Processes' founder and inventor Jamie Howarth what we can expect to hear on this version of the show. He provided some helpful insights (provided unedited to ensure contextual and technical accuracy):

"The tapes were in immaculate condition but like all tapes from that era needed to be baked. 

They were well recorded by Record Plant Remote. But ANY analog machine adds a subtle abstraction to the performance - doesn't feel as real, because the timing and pitch shifts affect the steadiness of the performance, less tight, less "muscular" in this case. We're usually hearing 2 layers of this (the multitrack and the stereo mixdown) but here those problems are gone... we're hearing the mics, the actual playing - with zero  deterioration in groove or intonation. 

AR-BruceCap78BootlegOne450.jpgAnother subtlety is the reduction in intermodulation distortion. The tape transports' flutter is not just a gargle (which is a fairly low frequency flutter) but actually if the flutter is above 20Hz in oscillation rate (stop and picture that) it starts to manifest as the same sum and difference distortion that is classic IM, only worse... at many more frequencies and with many more multiples than would be found in a preamp or amp. If these levels of IM distortion were in a piece of electronics it would be roundly criticized. But because of the way flutter is thought-modeled and measured it's not even recognized as distortion. We are often described as Windex for audio because the removal of those beats and ring modulations clears out the clouded texture omnipresent in tape recording generation loss. Here there is none of it. Typical well maintained multi-tracks generated well over 0.1% IM. Clearly audible in absentia post-processed."

So, you may be wondering what I have heard on this new master of Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band at The Capitol Theater 1978? Well, the drums and bass are indeed immediately more focused, tighter and rounder. Bruce's guitar leads are scorching without harshnesses. I'm not hearing certain distortions I remember from the many times I listened to this concert on my dubbed cassette (for the record: I didn't bother to go looking for my old cassette to compare knowing the multi-generational version I had... heck.... I don't know if I even have it anymore!).  

AR-BruceCap78Marquee450.jpgJump ahead toward the end of the show to spine tingling intro to Bruce's cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" and you'll hear to the sound of a band on fire resonating in the concert hall... Listen for the sound of the Capitol Theater reverberating Bruce and the E-Street Band's palpable energy... Take in that amazing slap echo on Bruce's voice. It is just haunting.

Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band at The Capitol Theater 1978 was very much a homecoming for The Boss and he rose to the occasion delivering a performance that many consider among his best. Riding on the joy of his then new hit album Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Bruce was not resting on his laurels with this show (has he ever? no way!). He broke out no less than four new songs for this broadcast. "Point Blank" and "Independence Day" appeared a couple years later on The River. Bruce delivered a soaring version of a song he co-wrote with Patti Smith -- which she was having a hit with at that time -- "Because The Night." "Fire" would be a hit for The Pointer Sisters but Bruce's concert version remained unreleased until the Live 1975-85 boxed set and a studio version didn't come out until The Promise was released in the 00s.

Anyhow, I could go on but I think you get the idea that Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band at The Capitol Theater 1978 is probably a download you'll want to get sooner rather than later. 

You'll not only hear an incredible concert again sounding better than ever before but if you're like me it may stir buried memories... For me, listening to this restored recording of Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band at The Capitol Theater 1978 rekindles forgotten high school times, lost nights spent cruising suburban and city backstreets, replaying this concert in a friend's beat up old car on cassette... drinking stale beer, chasing romance and contemplating when you'd be able to break away from that scene for a better future. For tramps like us, this concert was part of that life soundtrack... Lyrics to then-unreleased songs like "Independence Day" resonating in the Summer heat: 

AR-BruceCap78zCloseUp450.jpg"Well say goodbye it's Independence Day

It's Independence Day all boys must run away

So say goodbye it's Independence Day

All men must make their way come Independence Day"

Answering the question of the headline above: I do consider Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band at The Capitol Theater 1978 essential listening.

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

thinwhiteline posted:

 

 

 

AR-JamieHowarth225.jpgI asked Plangent Processes' founder and inventor Jamie Howarth what we can expect to hear on this version of the show. He provided some helpful insights (provided unedited to ensure contextual and technical accuracy):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anybody has questions for this guy he might answer 

let me know

people would jump onstage and grab me by the head and scream, ‘tilly! bootlegs!'"

I read and was going to post. I had never heard of DSD. Now, the HD files are 24/96. The DSD are 96/24. Are they really that different or are they just reversing the numbers? (dumb question). I still don't understand how I would play the 24/96, I think at one time I  bought a little headphone adapter, have no idea how I would play the DSD, not that I would pay for them. 

I am not sure I am the target market for this sort of thing.  I listen to music mostly on mp3 format while either running or riding a road bike on bone conducting headphones.  By the time the sound hits my brain I imagine 95% of the greatness of the upgrade is lost.

 

 

01000111 01101111 00100000 01000011 01100001 01110000 01110011

DenverBrian posted:

I am not sure I am the target market for this sort of thing.  I listen to music mostly on mp3 format while either running or riding a road bike on bone conducting headphones.  By the time the sound hits my brain I imagine 95% of the greatness of the upgrade is lost.

 

 

Aftershokz bone conduction headphones are great, very light, pretty good bass & sound for the type, also. I don't like the ones in my ear, don't have to worry about them staying on. 

 

FrankM posted:
DenverBrian posted:

I am not sure I am the target market for this sort of thing.  I listen to music mostly on mp3 format while either running or riding a road bike on bone conducting headphones.  By the time the sound hits my brain I imagine 95% of the greatness of the upgrade is lost.

 

 

Aftershokz bone conduction headphones are great, very light, pretty good bass & sound for the type, also. I don't like the ones in my ear, don't have to worry about them staying on. 

 

Those are the kinds I have as well.  Much safer when running and biking than in-ear headphones which is why I use them but with the ambient road/trail/traffic noise it's not like I am getting a hi-fi experience with them (which is good because I also need to be paying attention to my surroundings).

01000111 01101111 00100000 01000011 01100001 01110000 01110011

DenverBrian posted:

I am not sure I am the target market for this sort of thing.  I listen to music mostly on mp3 format while either running or riding a road bike on bone conducting headphones.  By the time the sound hits my brain I imagine 95% of the greatness of the upgrade is lost.

 

 

hmm, do you think after all the concerts you've been to and all the bootlegs you've listened to, that per chance... it may just be your hearing? 

____________________________________

The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

FrankM posted:

I read and was going to post. I had never heard of DSD. Now, the HD files are 24/96. The DSD are 96/24. Are they really that different or are they just reversing the numbers? (dumb question). I still don't understand how I would play the 24/96, I think at one time I  bought a little headphone adapter, have no idea how I would play the DSD, not that I would pay for them. 

 

24 bit is the audio sample rate - no of samples per second

here copied this

The more bits, the greater dynamic range of soft to loud sounds that your audio file can have. There are basically two audio depth measures in use today: 16 and 24 bit. CDs are traditionally produced as 16 bit, while 24 bit sound files are typically used by audio engineers during recording and production

 

96 khz - sampling frequency

so no matter what order now you know

the bit value is usually 16 or 24

the frequency 44.1 48 96 192

haha that's all I got in my head not much    

 

DSD is Sony private hidef they always do shit like that

proprietary   

people would jump onstage and grab me by the head and scream, ‘tilly! bootlegs!'"

Last edited by tillywilly

Thx, I'm usually not too lazy to search this stuff myself. Seems it is not worth the extra cost over the HD 24/96 we usually get. I did a quick and dirty search, seems the real audiophiles are also not convinced, seems PCM files are our usual digital files, they compare them in this article to the DSD, and this guy says: "And finally - you can't edit DSD. If there has been any editing performed during the mastering phase, the audio will have been converted to PCM (probably DXD - 24/352.8) to do the processing, and then converted back to DSD... so you lose any "advantages" DSD may or may not theoretically have, and have just added ultrasonic noise compared to straight PCM mastering. Is all this recent DSD hype just another thing manufacturers have come up with to sell you new hardware or "better" recordings? "

https://www.head-fi.org/thread...than-64x-dsd.664213/

And this, hard to keep track of who is saying what here, but the author is actually saying PCM is superior to DSD, and there is a quote in the article as follows: 

"I wrote a post about a German research project that compared DSD vs. PCM. The team recorded selections of music with exactly the same signal path and at the same level. You can read the post by clicking here. [http://www.realhd-audio.com/?p=3797]  Here’s what they stated:

“The results showed that hardly any of the subjects could make a reproducible distinction between the two encoding systems. Hence it may be concluded that no significant differences are audible.”  "

http://www.realhd-audio.com/?p=4850

Last edited by FrankM
Oats posted:
DenverBrian posted:

I am not sure I am the target market for this sort of thing.  I listen to music mostly on mp3 format while either running or riding a road bike on bone conducting headphones.  By the time the sound hits my brain I imagine 95% of the greatness of the upgrade is lost.

 

 

hmm, do you think after all the concerts you've been to and all the bootlegs you've listened to, that per chance... it may just be your hearing? 

There is that.  I have some hearing loss in my right ear from a perforated ear drum but I probably classify my hearing as okay for my age. 

I was listening to the Roxy '78 show on a ride this weekend.  I think I will wait to see if Winterland comes out in a couple of weeks and if it doesn't I'll pull the trigger on the Capitol Theater show. 

01000111 01101111 00100000 01000011 01100001 01110000 01110011

bit depth 16 or 24 refers to the number of bits in each sample...i.e. the amount of information in each sample

sample frequency 44.1  , 48, 96 khz refers to the number of samples per sec

 

 so 24 96

has 24 bits of info in each sample  and 96000 samples each second 

 

 

---------------------------------------

just stand back and let it all be

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×