PR Forum

Westfalenhalle, Dortmond, Germany
February 18, 1981
PRRP release (PRRP031)

CD 1:
1. Master Of The Ceremonies
2. In The Flesh?
3. The Thin Ice
4. Another Brick In The Wall Part 1
5. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
6. Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
7. Mother
8. Goodbye Blue Sky
9. Empty Spaces
10. What Shall We Do Now?
11. Young Lust
12. One Of My Turns
13. Don't Leave Me Now
14. Another Brick In The Wall Part 3
15. The Last Few Bricks
16. Goodbye Cruel World

CD 2:
1. Hey You
2. Is There Anybody Out There?
3. Nobody Home
4. Vera
5. Bring The Boys Back Home
6. Comfortably Numb
7. The Show Must Go On
8. Master Of The Ceremonies
9. In The Flesh
10. Run Like Hell
11. Waiting For The Worms
12. Stop
13. The Trial
14. Outside The Wall

Notes from the Re-Master
Choosing a Wall show to do was the first step of this project. Some have already been remastered very well so we did not want to duplicate other people's efforts. After reviewing all the shows we found that some had good remastered versions, some had no remastered versions but very poor quality master tapes and only a few had good quality master tapes but no significant remaster. The Dortmund February 18th, 1981 show was the one we felt we could help the most.
We began with a SHN copy of the master tape. Upon initial review, the recording was found to be complete with tape flips occurring during applause so no patches of music were necessary. The quality of the recording was also felt to be very good but a number of problems were obviously present that needed correction.
First, the Hiss noise was bothersome and obscured some of the details of the show. To make things more difficult, the hiss varied and was particularly pronounced during the acoustic guitar sections. Disc 2 also had a different Hiss profile than disc 1 suggesting that they might have been recorded on two different tapes. This called for multiple and variable noise reduction techniques to be used. Now, with much of the hiss removed, you can occasionally hear the click of a camera from someone close to the recorder taking pictures. This is particularly obvious during Goodbye Cruel World.
Clicks and pops were also found and removed manually. Where whistles and other audience noises were excessive, they were reduced.
Balance was also a major issue early on. The left channel was much lower than the right and was normalized with the right during dynamic adjustments. In general, the tonality needed a small correction. A bit of a bass boost and cut in the midrange helped to make the bass guitar a bit more noticeable and reduced the harshness of the guitar solos. Selective dynamic adjustment of tonality was also used where necessary. Dynamics were adjusted to increase the dramatic character of the show.
Tracking was found to be incomplete. On disc 1 separate tracks were made for MC Introduction, Empty Spaces and A few Last bricks. Disc two was missing a separate track for In The Flesh. The whole show was re-tracked using the live, commercially available Is There Anybody Out There? as a reference source. Track gaps were found and eliminated during this process.
The final major issue in remastering the show was speed correction. Disc 1 had a gradually changing speed error that began as a stretch and ended as a compression. Using the commercial live version of the show as a reference, the magnitude of this error was calculated and the speed correction algorithm was applied. Disc 2 had more of a flat speed error that was also easily corrected.

PRRP Staff