Trouble with 2005 Bootlegs

Dead Man Walking said:

I wanted to share my little project with everyone.

About a year or so back I went to listen to a 2005 show in my car and was amazed at how awful it sounded. No, it wasn't one of the Rockin In The Free World versions Sleater Kinney was singing on, there were these huge dead-air gaps between every song. Nothing worse when you're listening to a show with the volume up and the crowd and music disappear for a few seconds before every song.

Having a modest knowledge in audio software I thought I would try my hand at fixing the audio. But if I was going to do that, I would need to replace my 2005 set of bootlegs I personally ripped and created artwork for.

I spent a few weeks on photoshop re-purposing all the 2005 bootleg PDF's that were included with the original MP3 Downloads.

I cropped each front cover, modified the spines, and re-typed all the track listings to fit more aesthetically onto a label template I created using the measurements from an existing PJ bootleg. Finding the font proved to be the most difficult part of this process (see above post for font request).

There is a member here who is big into PJ stickers and has created some of his own. I've received one of these fan made stickers and was really impressed with the quality of the work so I approached them to help me out. They were great in doing so.

After some back and forth and me sending a few sample jpg's, they sent me a physical sample of what the label would look like finished/printed on sticker-backs. I was very pleased with the result so we went forward with the entire 31 shows (Tester included) from 2005.

A good friend of mine here is very familiar with all kinds of audio software and obviously love PJ recordings. In just one week, he took all the 2005 bootlegs, converted them to WAV files, spliced the dead air off the ends of every single song, re-attached the songs seamlessly, re marked the songs for tracking and uploaded them all as a torrent. So much work. A huge thanks to him. He pretty much did the heavy lifting.

I started ripping the shows on white-top, blank CD-R's so I could directly print the CD labels on them and not worry about stickers or lightscribing them. I used iTunes so I could include all the Meta Data I wanted for the shows, and then rip the CD's with data text on the CD so where ever these CD's get played, all the track/show information is on the CD's. I also purchased a pack of the cardboard eco-pack CD cases from Neato.com (a site previously discussed in this thread) and when the stickers and cases arrived, I went to work.




I have about 5 shows from the South American leg of the tour left to rip to CD, but for the most part this project is pretty much complete. I've been contemplating on whether or not I should include a stamp on the inside of each cardboard sleeve like NUGS did when Backspacer shows were being released. They had a "Pearl Jam" Backsapcer logo in theirs. I was thinking of creating a stamp and making one unique to 2005. Still undecided though.

Anyway, I would love to hear some feedback or constructive criticism regarding this project. I definitely took my time to make sure I didn't cut any corners and in my opinion, they're just a good as what Pearl Jam has been releasing over the past 7 years officially. Huge thanks again to those who helped me with this project. Certainly could not have done it alone.

Thanks for taking a look.

Dead Man Walking said:

Quite a few people have asked for the label files I created. Here they are. I think this link lasts for 2 weeks. So get em while you can.

https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/6462b288171b23d06d510e9ed07b9d3520151112143305/efae6b91ceac179dd8858968824ebc4320151112143305/324bc9

Tim Simmons said:

Dead Man Walking said:

About a year or so back I went to listen to a 2005 show in my car and was amazed at how awful it sounded. No, it wasn't one of the Rockin In The Free World versions Sleater Kinney was singing on,

Can't comprehend. SK are too awesome. Only made the 2005 shows better.

corduroy10 said:

I think starting last year Nugs was offering higher quality downloads of the 2005 tour at http://www.nugs.net/Pearl_Jam.htm.

They offer FLAC and ALAC downloads for the entire 2005 tour. Likely not 24 bit HD but they should be at least 16 bit CD quality like the silver boots and not the 192kb quality offered in 2005. Last year I downloaded the Hamilton 05 boot from Nugs and there was a noticeable difference in sound compared to the original mp3.

on2legs said:

Tim Simmons said:

Dead Man Walking said:

About a year or so back I went to listen to a 2005 show in my car and was amazed at how awful it sounded. No, it wasn't one of the Rockin In The Free World versions Sleater Kinney was singing on,

Can't comprehend. SK are too awesome. Only made the 2005 shows better.

Gotta strongly disagree. They clobbered the 03 bootleg encores too.