The Sisters Of Mercy - Fenders Ballroom, Long Beach, California - 30.05.1985 (PAL DVD)

Excellent video, even if plagued by too much smoke. Huge Thanks to Egg_Crisis for sharing his repaired version of this complete concert.


VHS(TDK HS E180, unknown gen) > LG DVD/VCR combo > DVD-RW disc > TMPGenc(editing the video) > TMPGenc DVD author(add chapters & menu,no re-encode) > VIDEO_TS folder
With all the songs in the correct order and a new improved audio track. (see below)

PAL DVD
Menu
Chapters at the start of each track
Video: MPEG2 Video 720x576 (4:3) 25.00fps 6556Kbps
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 256Kbps

The VHS came (around 1990) from a guy in Manchester.  I believe most peoples copies of this gig originate from that guys copy.  I couldn't guess at what generation it is, but it's probably not been professionally transferred.  If someone were to trace a low gen NTSC copy and transfer it professionally I think it'd be an imprpovement on what we have here.  However what we have isn't bad.  What was bad was the sound.

What you got when you got a copy of this VHS was an incomplete version of the gig, starting part-way through No Time To Cry.  Also on the tape were the missing first 3 songs (as well as a more complete No Time To Cry) where someone had attempted to dub various audio tracks on.  It was a mess.  There were multiple versions of each song, but there was no copy of the first few songs with their original sound - I don't know why, but it pissed me off enough to eventually create this video.
Once I placed the first 3 dubbed tracks in the correct order with the rest of the gig and made a few timings I found there were a few seconds missing between each of these first few tracks.  I used clips from elsewhere in the video to fill in these small gaps.  All the timings were done on paper, then I used TMPGenc to cut appropriate length pieces to fill the gaps (not as easy as it sounds as TMPGenc won't let you cut with frame accuracy, it's only accurate to about 12 frames, the same as when you're positioning chapters).  Once I had all the bits I joined them all together.

Then I had to reconstruct the soundtrack.  For tracks 2-4 & 8-11 I used the soundboard audio from the "Silence Is Platinum" 2x7" set.  For the other 4 tracks I used an audience recording.  For any other little bits that weren't covered by those 2 sources I used the video audio.  Once speedcorrected to match the video audio it was only a case of building up the soundtrack using Soundforge, then encoding and adding the audio track back to the video and authoring it.  I did the whole thing in one long 6-8 hour session.

There's one part during the first song (I think) where you see Eldritch's mouth for a few seconds and can see it's not in sync.  I tried ages to get it to sync but it just stubbornly refused to, so I left it as it is.  It's only a few seconds anyway.

Uploaded by Egg_Crisis for Dark Circle Room



01 First & Last & Always
02 Body & Soul
03 Marian
04 No Time To Cry
05 Walk Away
06 Emma
07 Amphetamine Logic
08 A Rock & A Hard Place
09 Floorshow
10 Alice
11 Gimme Shelter

Length - 51:58


http://textsnip.com/4d0169