Soundcheck Compilation

Notes

A compilation of soundchecks ranging between 1983 and 1993, chronologically ordered from oldest to newest. These soundchecks are interesting to listen to, as some tracks are pure backing tape, and others are more complete soundchecks with vocals and keyboards.

This audio was previously released in early 2014. For that fileset, the cassette was transferred using an inferior cassette deck. This is a fresh retransfer for improved sound quality, and speed correction has also been applied.

The quality varies, with some tracks being excellent quality (particularly 1983-05-28 Schuttorf, 1983-12-10 Mannheim, and 1984-12-01 Munich), while others have more distortion and hiss. There are occasional clicks and pops throughout the recording, but these are present on the tape itself (and are also present on the prior transfer of this cassette) and do not indicate an issue with the cassette deck used for digitization. Speed has been adjusted to be approximately correct.

Dates for soundchecks have been taken from the tape's inlay. 1984-11-03 London is the only one in question because there are no audience recordings from their 4-night stint in London. Additionally, 1984-11-02 is the only date with professional recordings available. As such, the track has been dated "1984-11-0x" as there is no way to confirm from which night the soundcheck is from.

The last two tracks, I Want You Now and One Caress, are not sourced from this cassette but are additional tracks from other sources. This rendition of I Want You Now is notable because it was not performed live regularly until the 1990 World Violation Tour, backed only by acoustic guitar, whereas this soundcheck version has bits of synth through it, particularly at the end of the song. Unfortunately, the quality of One Caress is very poor, likely due to heavy noise reduction (which I did not apply) and persistent clicks throughout the recording. Some efforts were made to alleviate the clicking using Audition's click remover tool.

The tape inlay lists a soundcheck from 1988-02-12 Stockholm, but it is not present on this tape. However, a recording of that soundcheck is available on the wiki here: 1988-02-12 Johanneshov Isstadion, Stockholm, Sweden/Source 2.

The tape's label also lists "demos, etc", but the remaining space on the tape is taken up by non-Depeche Mode songs: "Journey On The Nile" and "I'm Gonna Cry" by Tunnelvision (which are sometimes misattributed on bootlegs as fake Dave Gahan demos circa 1992 by the titles "Dirty Alright Now" and "Take A Look At Me Now," respectively), "Tomorrow In The Papers" by The Neon Judgement, and "Still Smiling" by I Start Counting.

A complete list of Depeche Mode soundcheck recordings available on the wiki can be found here.

Listen

You can listen to this entire recording below.

Track list

The tape's inlay card.

1. [2:47] Play My Secret Garden (1983-05-28 Schuttorf)
2. [1:50] Play Everything Counts (Take 1 - 1983-12-10 Mannheim)
3. [5:36] Play Everything Counts (Take 2 - 1983-12-10 Mannheim)
4. [2:27] Play Something To Do (1984-11-0x London)
5. [1:02] Play Somebody (1984-11-0x London)
6. [10:13] Play Something To Do (1984-11-21 Ludwigshafen)
7. [8:21] Play Something To Do (1984-12-01 Munich)
8. [2:40] Play Somebody (1984-12-01 Munich)
9. [4:10] Play Something To Do (Take 1 - 1984-12-08 Kiel)
10. [4:08] Play Something To Do (Take 2 - 1984-12-08 Kiel)
11. [8:57] Play Something To Do (Take 3 - 1984-12-08 Kiel)
12. [4:40] Play Somebody (1984-12-08 Kiel)
13. [6:30] Play Black Celebration (1986-04-26 Stockholm)
14. [2:55] Play It Doesn't Matter Two (1986-04-26 Stockholm)
15. [2:19] Play I Want You Now (1988-01-19 Manchester)
16. [3:37] Play One Caress (1993-07-31 London)

• Total time: 1:12:16

Lineage

The source tape.

• Lineage (tracks 1-14): unknown generation Maxell UR90 cassette tape, 1986 - 1987 stock -> Nakamichi MR-1 professional discrete head cassette deck (playback azimuth optimized) -> Mogami 2534 XLR to TRS cables -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen USB audio interface -> WAV (32/88.2) -> recorded in Audacity 3.2.1 using WASAPI input; speed correction, normalization, track splits -> WAV (32/88.2) -> downsampled to FLAC level 8 (16/44) using foobar2000 v1.6.14, FLAC 1.4.2 64-bit, and foobar2000's Resampler (RetroArch) component at "Highest" quality, dithering enabled
• Lineage (tracks 15-16): unknown, bootleg sourced / floating around on the internet.
• Transfer: DMLiveWiki on November 26, 2022
• Cassette tape photo, tape inlay scan, and auCDtectTaskManager log included

Download

• Download ZIP - FLAC 16-bit 44.1KHz - 429.26MB