Kanalvogt SG
New Years Eve Premiere
updated
July 12th, 1991
The Mix Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: B+
Attendance: 3000 - 3500
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00:00 Meine Damen Und Herren
00:57 Numbers
06:11 Computer World
11:17 Home Computer
19:47 Computer Love
27:03 The Model
30:55 Tour De France
38:39 Autobahn
50:11 Radioactivity
57:14 Trans Europe Express
1:08:01 The Robots
1:13:27 Robotronik
1:18:20 Pocket Calculator
1:30:34 Music Non Stop
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Uploaded in celebration of Fernando Abrantes' 64th birthday.
A year before the Sellafield '92 concert in Manchester, they did a prior concert there, but with Fernando Abrantes instead of Henning Schmitz.
The arrangement changes between The Mix version and the live versions have already been analyzed in the Glasgow 1991 upload, but not the stage design.
Wolfgang Flür stated a few times that he was not only responsible for the drumming, but also for the stage design.When Wolfgang left the band in 1987, he got replaced by Fritz Hilpert who adopted his role and even had rights to contribute to the music. It was Fritz' idea to use robots which were designed and produced by an Italian mechatronic technician on stage during Robotronik and he created the projection videos which were used from 1991 to the late 2000s.
Because the stage design is part of his role, he was as well responsible for mistakes in regards to this. After the transition from Numbers to Computer World, the lights turn purple instead of green and during Computer World, the projection video says "Medecine" instead of "Medicine". In 1990 performances of Pocket Calculator, the video projections showed the faces of each member. In 1991 concerts, the projector was not in use. Lights in all colors were on. In a short distance, a rainbow can be seen, but in a long distance, it glows white because all main colors mixed result in white.
The songs didn't change much from last concert. Ralf or Florian improvised with the Synclavier at the beginning of Computer Love. During the intro of Radioactivity Fernando briefly switched on the bass sequence from William Orbit's remix. Ralf mostly used the "stylophone"-preset in Pocket Calculator and Florian and Fritz had an epic duet during Music Non Stop which I love. Ralf's voice may sound hoarse, but that could be due to the tape distortion.
Ralf's comments are also worth mentioning. Before continuing with The Model, audience members asked them to play Uranium, but Ralf negated their request with a "no" and they continued strictly following the setlist. While starting the car engine in Autobahn, Ralf asked the audience what car this was, after which he cleared up that this was a Volkswagen. The VW Käfer is known to be featured in the album artwork of Autobahn and in the current projection video of this song.
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For many big fans of Kraftwerk, Manchester 1991 is considered to be a favourite due to highlights like the duet between Florian and Fritz in Music Non Stop and Pocket Calculator itself. The audio quality of this recording on the other hand is far from formidable, but still enjoyable.
In modern recordings, brickwalls cause heavy compression, but in older recordings, they are the culprit of distortion. The waveform of this recording is brickwalled and thus moderately distorted.
The high end of the frequency range ends earlier than in recordings of a quality which are average for the 1991 UK tour.
I softened the snare because it was too bright, increased the bass, corrected the speed and removed gaps between tape flips.
This time, I did not remove the left channel and make the sound mono with the reason that the bass sounds off on this channel. Someone in the comments of the old upload wasn't amused with it. There is nothing wrong with the actual critique inside their comment since mono sound has a downside that it lacks depth.
At the start of the tape, strange clicks appear which indicates that this is ripped from a slightly damaged or rotten CD. In Babass_' upload, this short seqment was patched up with an alternative rip of the same recording which has more white noise, but not the clicks. This section is used in my home remaster too, and for this, special thanks go to Babass_.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
October 12th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: B+
Attendance: 3.500
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
00:51 Meine Damen Und Herren
01:33 Numbers
06:01 Computer World
09:07 Home Computer
16:12 The Man Machine
24:13 Tour De France
30:46 Autobahn
43:10 The Model
46:52 Airwaves
47:46 Tango
56:19 Numbers (False Start)
57:33 Sellafield 2
58:36 Radioactivity
1:05:37 Trans Europe Express
1:15:21 Pocket Calculator / Taschenrechner
1:22:31 The Robots
1:26:56 Robotronik
1:32:20 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:38:46 Music Non Stop
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During an interview on the Beacon Radio in 1981, Ralf Hütter teased that Kraftwerk would perform in South America amongst other places. These concerts unfortunately never took place, either because there was time pressure and Florian wanted to take a short break from touring which could explain the gap in October 1981 or because it was expensive to transport their sensitive equipment by plane. 17 years later, during the 1998 world tour, it finally happened. Three gigs at Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo weren't only announced, they actually took place.
Before any song started, the audience cheered with high enthusiasm which is typical for South American crowds. They chanted the famous Anderlecht Champion chorus with Kraftwerk in it, the main melody of The Model and Boing Bumm Tschak.
The arrangements didn't change much during the break between June and October 1998. There is a transition between Nummweltverschmutzung and Music Non Stop. Such transitions are now common since the Minimum-Maximum era. Other than this, there is no significant difference to the arrangements from the summer leg. After Tango, the intro of Numbers instead of Sellafield 2 was wrongfully played. This reminds of Sheffield 1991, when they shortly continued with Tour De France instead of The Model by mistake.
In Radioactivity, Ralf started playing along the riff with the overused Fantasy pad. This persisted in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. At one point in Pocket Calculator, Ralf sang "'cause I'm the operator with my pocket calculator" which makes sense. He adds, substracts, controls and composes because he is the operator with his pocket calculator. Then, he counted the bars in German.
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Despite being enjoyable, this recording bears major flaws. The dynamic range is completely crippled and the waveform is brickwalled which is irreversible. I could only make it less rough by smoothening the high frequencies and killing inaudible low frequencies with a high pass filter which shouldn't affect the bass. Even if the waveform now has a slightly dynamic form, signs of the brickwall can still be heard, although in a weaker form. On the other hand, the sound is strong and in-depth, and the fidelity is high which makes restoring instruments in the high frequency range possible (it can cause pops though). With this, the damage is compensated to a level where the recording is still listenable with joy.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
I started doing this in 2021 for a Karl or Wolfgang birthday special, but forgot about it until I rediscovered it. Not much had to be done because the quality doesn't need to be that good for a demo. Just some sounds had to be refurbished.
Three elements that are also included in Tour De France and the Techno Pop demo are used here: the Orchestron, the Emulator I slap bass and another bass that has similarities to the one from the Korg PS-3300 used by Kraftwerk in 1981. While the arpeggio in the Techno Pop demo is reminiscent of Europe Endless, the reverbed Orchestron choir reminds of Showroom Dummies. Not only the Orchestron cello, but also the Orchestron violin appears in the demo concept, although slightly obscured.
After the mix was finished, I applied some special effects on it to make it sound like as if it came from a cassette found in 2024.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
In celebration of Ralf's 78th birthday.
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This is a concept of how a live album of the 3D concert tour would be. Although a part of the concept was already realized inside the Kraftwerk fanbase, this project combines live video with live audio giving it the lively type of experience that the 3D Catalouge lacks.
The setlist is based on songs that make up the highlights of a Kraftwerk concert and songs that must be part of the performance. My preferences on songs and the setlist order also fall in, so, the setlist is biased to a degree. It includes exciting and creepy, happy and sorrow moments.
For the video I used concert videos from the 3D Catalogue and audience-recorded footage as substitute. The audio is composed of audience recordings from many different concerts ranging from 2013 to 2022. The rule was to only include material from the Ralf-Henning-Fritz-Falk lineup which had to be broken for brief segments.
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds (Tokyo 2013 - 2nd Night)
01:00 Meine Damen Und Herren (Tokyo 2013 - 2nd Night)
01:40 Numbers (Washington 2014 - 1st Night)
04:38 Computer World (Evoluon 2013 - 1st Night)
07:52 Home Computer (Evoluon 2013 - 1st Night)
15:04 Computer Love (Detroit 2016)
20:52 The Model (London 2013 - 1st Night)
24:32 Tour De France (Luxembourg 2002 - the 3D version doesn't have the outro)
31:15 Neon Lights (London 2013 - 8th Night)
37:18 The Man Machine (Vienna 2019)
42:46 Autobahn (Düsseldorf 2013 - 4th Night)
55:49 Airwaves (Paradiso 2015 - 2nd Night)
1:02:21 Tango (Los Angeles 2022)
1:07:39 We Are Friends Forever (Yuzawa 2024)
1:10:11 Geiger Counter (Tokyo 2014)
1:10:41 Radioactivity (Tokyo 2014)
1:16:58 Trans Europe Express (Paris 2014 - 2nd Night)
1:24:29 The Robots (Los Angeles 2022)
1:28:20 Robotronik (Los Angeles 2022)
1:33:21 Pocket Calculator (Paradiso 2015 - 5th Night) / Dentaku (Tokyo 2013 - 2nd Night)
1:37:46 Non Stop (Los Angeles 2022)
1:41:35 Music Non Stop (Gothenburg 2019)
Used footage:
Kraftwerk - The 3D-Catalogue (Concert)
Tango & Non Stop by MSP Aviation
We Are Friends Forever by willflyforconcert
Music Non Stop solos by Hurr Durr
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
June 25th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: A-/A-~
Attendance: 17.000
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
00:24 Meine Damen Und Herren
01:06 Numbers
05:34 Computer World
08:40 Home Computer
15:45 The Man Machine
23:47 Tour De France
30:36 Autobahn
42:54 The Model
46:41 Airwaves
49:49 Tango
58:06 Sellafield 2
59:10 Radioactivity
1:06:06 Trans Europe Express
1:16:02 Pocket Calculator / Taschenrechner
1:25:49 The Robots
1:30:25 Robotronik
1:35:52 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:42:07 Music Non Stop
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7 years after the concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, Kraftwerk revisted the country at the Rosklide Festival with a live performance. The attendance was higher as last concert in Barcelona since the Green Stage, now known as the Arena, has a capacity of 17.000 and was crowded. The true figure might be higher. For a long time, I thought they performed in front of around 100.000 at the Orange Stage until I read a report which mentioned that the gig took place at the smaller stage.
The first song of many Kraftwerk concerts, Numbers, was plagued by a glitch. This time, it wasn't the disabled pitch randomizer (most likely a LFO with a random waveform), but a wrong MIDI trigger. Another glitch appeared at the end of Pocket Calculator with an instrument that randomly jumped to different notes that are part of the key chord. It actually sounds pleasent, so, Henning left it on. Besides this, the performance went flawlessly. German lyrics that were absent in Barcelona returned in Pocket Calculator which seems to be longer than any other 1997/8 version.
With 17.000 attendees or more, the crowd was energetic, enthusiastic and cheerful. There was clapping along the beat especially in The Model and Radioactivity. High attendance also means that there is a higher chance of the event being filmed. There are three audio recordings, the first being incomplete in mediocre quality, the second having better quality, but with a subtly bass distortion and a DC offset on the left channel, and the second having good quality too. An amateur filmed the show from the second part of Tour De France until the end of Trans Europe Express. Recently, an official video clip of Robotronik from MTV surfaced on the internet.
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Special thanks to Alternative Cyborg for uploading this recording.
Out of the three audio recordings, I chose the latter one. It has even more audience noise and the acoustics are captured magnificently. I applied the usual effects on the audio to improve the sound. Unfortunately, frequencies of at least 10kHz are obscured by white noise which made it difficult to restore them. Audio files compressed by YouTube (compressed twice) sound even worse than lossy audio files that are only compressed once. There is even a high pass filter applied which is not enabled on every MP3 encoding software (I don't have it enabled and I didn't touch anything). Thus, it sounds slightly muddy in some tracks.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
I don't remember exactly where I got this interview from, but it could be either from Soundcloud or Mixcloud.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
NOTE: This is not a real cover made by Kraftwerk. It's just a Kraftwerk-inspired mockup.
Original by Scatman John
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
Music used:
The Tragedy Of Reupload by Lord3d
Ucsesuaec Ealocin by KanalvogtSG
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
June 18th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: B+
Attendance: 5.500
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
02:04 Meine Damen Und Herren
02:41 Numbers
07:09 Computer World
10:15 Home Computer
17:19 The Man Machine
25:23 Tour De France
32:29 Autobahn
45:00 The Model
49:07 Airwaves
52:13 Tango
1:00:20 Sellafield 2
1:01:26 Radioactivity
1:08:00 Trans Europe Express
1:18:57 Pocket Calculator
1:28:09 The Robots
1:32:46 Robotronik
1:40:14 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:46:34 Music Non Stop
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After a series of concert in Japan and in the USA, Kraftwerk returned to Europe to perform at a festival in Barcelona, Spain. The Sónar festival, founded in 1994, specializes, as its original slogan emphasizes, in "advanced music and multimedia art" and is thus a hotspot of electronic music artists such as Kraftwerk, obviously, who undertake multimedia performances since the 70s with the additional usage of projectors, and focus heavily on being forward in time in terms of creativity and being up to date with technology.
The venue of this festival in 1998, the Pavelló de la Mar Bella, had a seating capacity of 2.000 people and a standing capacity of 4.000 people. It was speculated that all 6.000 tickets were sold, but according to Spanish radio, it turned out that 500 were still left.
Francois Kevorkian, a colleague of Kraftwerk, did a DJ set before they started performing and another one after they finished.
Compared to other 1998 concerts, this one seems to be the most average one as there are no special occurances except that Pocket Calculator didn't start with the arpeggio intro.
Attendees were strictly checked for recording equipment by security and only those with a pass-card were allowed to shoot photos of The Man Machine and film clips of Home Computer and The Man Machine which aired on Spanish television. Still, few managed to do shots of other songs, there is an amateur video recording of the two aforementioned songs and the entire show was recorded on an audio tape.
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An infamous CD bootleg that has Kraftwerk's traffic cone with blue stripes instead of white ones on the front cover supposedly contains the only (known) audio recording. The booklet claims that this is a soundboard recording, but it sounds far from being recorded from soundboard. There are typical characteristics of an audience recording such as reverb and crowd noises and, unfortunately, there are few minor cuts and distortion on the kick drums in combination with DC offset in one audio channel as well. Some high frequencies are hidden, but restoreable, although I couldn't restore all of them because I remastered it from a lossy audio source.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
October 2nd, 1976
Trans Europe Express Tour
FUBUKI 3-6-9's Home Remaster
Recording quality: A-
Home remaster quality: A~
Attendance: unknown
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00:00 Meine Damen Und Herren
01:35 Kometenmelodie 2
09:22 Europe Endless
19:46 Geiger Counter
20:41 Radioactivity
28:28 Goethe's Poem
29:37 Airwaves
39:23 Die Stimme Der Energie
40:13 Radio Sterne
40:57 Die Sonne Der Mond Die Sterne
44:04 Ohm Sweet Ohm
49:57 Trans Europe Express
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Premiered in celebration of Wolfgang's 77th birthday.
For a long time, I haven't covered Kraftwerk's 1970s shows since I'm still occupied going for the concert from 1998 to 202? (don't worry, I will only select the most important and unique shows, so, it won't take decades until I reach their early concerts). In 2021, a partial recording of Geneva 1976 got leaked and circulated on trading websites followed by an upload on YouTube by Babass_. It only took little speculation and most importantly research to determine the date and the venue this performance took place. The hype was big when this recording got shared publicly because it originates from a concert of the Trans Europe Express tour, a tour of which few recordings are available and the TEE songs are performed before the album released.
Some may scratch their heads and point out that the Trans Europe Express tour never existed. In regards to the fact that 2 and later 3 out of 4 main songs of the album premiered in their late 1976 shows, it is actually not invalid to classify this series of gigs as the TEE tour, although the tour only existed unofficially.
The show starts with Kometenmelodie 2. Kometenmelodie 1 and Tanzmusik were removed from the setlist (with latter song never returning again) in order to fit in Europe Endless, Trans Europe Express and maybe Showroom Dummies.
Europe Endless has a bassline that differs from the one in an earlier concert in Amsterdam. Even if Switzerland is primarily a German-speaking country, this song was performed in English. Geneva belongs to the French-speaking part of Switzerland, but that doesn't mean that its residents don't speak German. The same applies to Trans Europe Express.
In Geiger Counter, a kick instead of a snare is used for the ticking sound, and Radioactivity, Airwaves and Die Sonne Der Mond Die Sterne now include the Orchestron giving these tracks more depth.
Two titles, Radio Sterne and Ohm Sweet Ohm, were absent in the setlist from early 1976 and got first introduced later that year. Ohm Sweet Ohm follows the same structure as the album version. It has an accelerando and the melody repeats for an eternity whereas the later versions constantly have a slow BPM and are not overly repetitive. However, the "sweet" in the title is not spoken by the Votrax, but by Ralf, and there is a proper outro.
The last recorded song is Trans Europe Express. It already has the whispering Votrax voice that first appeared in Paris September 1976, but not in Amsterdam 1976. This was replaced by a whispering vocoder in the album version. The different key, intro and chorus order stand out the most in the 1976 iteration.
Sadly, there is a tape flip during the Iggy Pop & David Bowie line and the second tape that includes Autobahn and Kristallo, if not Showroom Dummies or even Les Mannequins, is lost. A user compulsively asked for Autobahn, but he got disappointed for a 3-digit number of times. The Radioactivity and TEE tours remain undocumented to a high degree.
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This Kraftwerk audio home remaster is the first of the two FUBUKI 3-6-9 created. He specializes in video remastering, yet his audio remasters show even more improvements. London 2nd Night 1991 for instance sounds flat, dry and muffled and he turned it into a marvelous remaster. Recordings of other bands were touched by him too. One of them sounded horrendous before and ended up sounding like an official live album.
Geneva's tape didn't need much polishing work. Every hearable frequency is captured on it. On the other side, there's a problem that many microphones have. They often capture the sound flat and muffled. FUBUKI 3-6-9's remaster definitly has the sharpness that the original audio doesn't have. The only downside of the remaster is that it still lacks depth. Additionally, there was a note on his upload that he remastered it from mp3 128k audio, so, he couldn't get hands on the lossless files at that time.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
It's also featured in Scatmambo in muffled form.
"Count Dance Bass" is just a custom name I've given to this synth. It must have an official name since it was used in two songs hinting that there is a preset of it from an unknown VST.
July 6th, 2024
2024 World Tour
Audience Recording (my own recording)
Recording quality: A-~
Attendance: ~10.000
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
10:03 Meine Damen Und Herren
10:36 Nummern
14:49 Computerwelt
19:19 Heimcomputer
26:18 The Man Machine
31:25 Computerliebe
37:24 Autobahn
46:12 Geigerzähler
46:43 Radioaktivität
53:14 Tour De France
57:23 Chrono
59:30 Etape 2
1:04:30 Trans Europa Express
1:12:18 Spacelab
1:17:17 Die Roboter
1:24:30 La Forme
1:30:49 Régéneration
1:31:21 Planet Of Visions
1:35:46 Music Non Stop
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After five years, Kraftwerk finally played another concert in Vienna, Austria. It was speculated that they would perform a special projection show at a sight of Vienna like in Athens and in Karlsruhe. Out of the many sights where such shows are possible, they chose Schloss Schönbrunn as the venue, or the Ehrenhof of Schloss Schönbrunn to be exact. Unlike many concerts in Germany, this one got slowly sold out, if not at all. According to Austrian press, more or less than 10.000 attendees appeared at the concert, which was not to be expected because of the slow sellout.
Due to the late sunset, the concert had to be postponed from 8:30 PM to 9:15 PM. The exact reason for the delay wasn't stated. It could be due to hot temperatures, but it was tolerably warm outside. On the other side, the projections would be disrupted by sunlight which explains the delay. The setlist suffered from the delay too. Neonlicht, Das Model, Ätherwellen, Tango and maybe Taschenrechner... these songs that they regularly play in 2020s concerts were sadly skipped. It is known that Viennese people are grumpy and a few residents who live near the venue complained about the loud music in comment sections of online boulevard newspapers. Not only local people, but people from around the world attended the performance. Some of the foreign people were Germans of which most of them missed the opportunity to buy tickets of the gig in Dresden.
One of the attendees was me. I was excited because of seeing Kraftwerk live and nervous because of the potential conditions at the venue at the same time. The first obstacle was the venue entrance. I was worried that the security would be strict, but they were instead friendly. It was allowed to record on phones and someone even smuggled a digital camera in. Finding the reserved seat on the other hand was not easy. Few attendees occupied the wrong seats, but shortly before the concert started, they took their correct seats.
At exactly 9:15 PM, the pre show sounds creeped in. The crowd's enthusiasm was high. Ten minutes later, the introduction kicked in and the show began with Nummern afterwards. For Nummern and Computerwelt, big numbers were set up in front of the stage that glow when specifically triggered. A few samples were possibly altered with a vocoder. In Computerwelt, Ralf's suit began to glitch during the entire concert. The Speak & Spell samples were muted. Heimcomputer and The Man Machine were performed as typically. A new bassline got introduced in Computerliebe that has simillarities to the one in the 2006 version.
In Autobahn, the synth that is responsible for the Doppler effect was muted as well and in Radioaktivität, Henning accidentely pressed the wrong keys at beginning. There's nothing special in Tour De France, Chrono and Etape 2 except that Ralf played the intro to early. Although Spacelab is not their best song, its projections contained marvellous eye candy. It did not only display the venue, but also Vienna's skyline during the break. Die Roboter followed up and then a surprise. La Form and Régéneration were included in the setlist which they rarely are. In my opinion, most of the tracks on the TDF soundtracks album are not for proper listening, but they fit perfectly as background music and especially for cycling. Planet Of Visions is more for dancing.
The show ended with Music Non Stop. Only few clapped for Georg, even though he did more for the projections in a year than Falk did in nine years. Falk's solo was mediocre. In Nummern, he was on high performance as it could be heard in the percussions and then, his performance slowly decreased like a battery. Henning did well as always. He often changes things up a bit like with the bass in Computerlove and that's good. Ralf did his melodical part and sang through his vocoder. He bowed to the audience and left the stage, and the concert ended.
Ein HERRRRRRRRLICHES Konzert!!!
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For the case nobody else does it, I took the opportunity to record the whole show on an old, unused smartphone that records every frequency that humans can hear at best. It has distortions and cloth friction noise, but is still enjoyable. This time, I didn't do a home remaster.
DOWNLOAD: drive.google.com/file/d/10ctluMAVxQbX38FjbsbJW9XkuO1MOF4Z/view?usp=sharing
*THIS VIDEO IS UNDER FAIR USE*
June 13th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: A-
Attendance: 3.000 - 3.500
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00:00 Meine Damen Und Herren
00:22 Numbers
04:49 Computer World
07:54 Home Computer
15:01 The Man Machine
23:00 Tour De France
29:39 Autobahn
42:03 The Model
46:02 Airwaves
49:02 Tango
57:16 Sellafield 2
58:21 Radioactivity
1:05:06 Trans Europe Express
1:14:11 Pocket Calculator / Taschenrechner
1:23:34 The Robots
1:28:06 Robotronik
1:35:27 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:41:40 Music Non Stop
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For the last trick, Kraftwerk performed the final US concert in the heart place of hip hop, New York City. When Trans Europe Express and Computer World arrived in the US in 1977 and 1981, a DJ sampled the riff from "TEE" and the drum beat from "Numbers" by reproducing them with synthesizers and similar sounding drum samples, and mixed them together into one song. It is Africa Bambaataa and his (in)famous piece with Kraftwerk samples is called "Planet Rock". For most listeners at the time, this song was an innovation, but for Karl Bartos, it was a homage and a rip-off at the same time.
Karl's response: he both remixed his song and called Africa Bambaataa a "bastard" for sampling his drum beat on "Numbers". For the latter part, Ralf Hütter allegedly reacted the same to Jay-Z due to a producer of him sampling the bassline from "The Man Machine" without permission during a mail correspondence with Coldplay.
Not only Africa Bambaataa, but also other hip hop artists got influenced by Kraftwerk with Moses Pelham being the most particular case. In 1997, he produced a song for Sabrina Setlur entitled "Nur Mir" with a sample from Metal On Metal. Ralf sued him later for sampling from his work without requesting permission. Although versions of "Nur Mir" including the sample are forbidden now, the lawsuit is still active. Rumours have it that Moses Pelhalm punched on Ralf's eye during late 2015. This has not been confirmed, but it seems plausible since he once broke Stefan Raab's nose (German TV moderator) for making fun of Pelham's work.
Now addressing the concert, Kraftwerk was still plagued with technical difficulties (Isn't it typical for Kraftwerk's gigs?). The curtains refused to close automatically, so, Florian did it manually during the encores. One attendee reported that Florian had problems with his handheld instrument during Pocket Calculator. There is video footage of this concert available and last time I watched it, I didn't notice anything strange. It was just his typical moves he always made.
A day later, they were supposed to play a short concert at the Free Tibet Festival in Washington D. C., but it was cancelled due to bad wether. The planned, but cancelled appearence at the festival didn't leave them without consequences. In 2013, Kraftwerk were invited to play at the Strawberry Music Festival in Beijing, China as headliner on April 29th. Chinese authorities first checked if they were involved in political activities against the CCP and discovered that they had plans to perform at a festival promoting Tibetan independence. Entry into China was immediatly forbidden for Kraftwerk afterwards.
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In its original form (before the home remastering), this recording is of decent quality. It is muffled and has short, minor distortions in a few songs, but the frequency range goes up to the limit of human ears and there is lively reverb which is a plus point.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
I'm calling out from Windows World
If you wanna be free
You better listen to me
You've got to learn how to crash in your fantasy
June 11th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: A- / A-~
Attendance: 2.500 - 2.900
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
01:08 Meine Damen Und Herren
01:50 Numbers
06:18 Computer World
09:22 Home Computer
16:26 The Man Machine
24:28 Tour De France
31:10 Autobahn
43:37 The Model
47:28 Airwaves
50:33 Tango
58:39 Sellafield 2
59:42 Radioactivity
1:06:30 Trans Europe Express
1:18:27 Pocket Calculator / Taschenrechner
1:26:57 The Robots
1:31:32 Robotronik
1:38:50 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:45:04 Music Non Stop
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Since 1981, Kraftwerk revisited Detroit, a heart place of hip hop and the birth place of Detroit techno, during the end of the second millennium. Various artists from the hip hop and Detroit techno scenes have cited Kraftwerk as one of their big influences. Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May from The Belleville Three even have close contact to Kraftwerk and invited them to an afterparty in 2015. This time in 1998, Kraftwerk gave back what they got from admiration from Detroit's DJs. The concert was attended by local fans as well as fans from Toronto, Canada according to a fan report. The crowd was enthusiatic about seeing Kraftwerk again and expressed it by singing along the Italian lyrics of Numbers or shouting "Boing Bumm Tschak Peng" before Nummweltverschmutzung.
There is a famous photo of Kraftwerk's four robots before the concert standing in front of the State Theatre which is now called The Filmore. Another known photo from this concert is used as a cover of a bootleg of the Warfield concert. I used color correction since Ralf most likely wasn't angry and red like a tomato during the gig.
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Although the recording shows high fidelity, it has a dull, hollow sound in its unedited form. This is not a problem that is difficult to fix. The real problem is that it is slightly distorted on the lower end. Once a waveform is distorted and its original form is unknown, it cannot be fixed. Sometimes the distortion is strongly present, sometimes it's gone. The recording could have been improved to an A+ without the distortion. The sound dynamic sounds strange too. I didn't use a heavy compressor. It was already that way before the process of compressing.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
This is an experimental mix of my song The Marshal featuring the Vako Orchestron.
With equalizers and reverb, some sampled instruments of the Orchestron sound more realistic than sampled orchestral instruments that are commonly used nowadays. The Orchestron violin still sounds cheap, but it works.
I'm not completely happy with the mix. The second half of the vocals are drown by the instruments and the riff sounds chaotic to me, but this is just an experimental mix.
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All used imagery is under fair use:
*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
June 10th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster / Enhanced Audio (Airwaves / Tango, Pocket Calculator - Music Non Stop)
Recording quality: A-~ / B+ / B
Attendance: 2.000 - 2.500
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00:00 Meine Damen Und Herren
00:42 Numbers
05:09 Computer World
08:08 Home Computer
14:51 The Man Machine
22:39 Tour De France
29:02 Autobahn
41:19 The Model
45:00 Airwaves
48:16 Tango
56:14 Sellafield 2
57:15 Radioactivity
1:03:45 Pocket Calculator / Taschenrechner
1:12:30 Music Non Stop
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After taking a detour to a 2002 concert, we return to the 1998 tour and continue where we left off. This time, it's a concert at Chicago, the heart place of house music. Kraftwerk didn't only influence hip hop, but also house music. Frankie Knuckles, the father of house music, mentioned Kraftwerk as his primary influence. Kraftwerk's performance at Chicago was most likely a special occurance for house musicians.
The concert was well attended. In one attendee report, it is said that the venue was crowded, indicating that the concert was sold out. Another attendee report mentions that a security guard had told him that around 2.000 tickets had been sold. The audience was definitely noisy and engaged between the songs, especially during Pocket Calculator and Music Non Stop.
Unfortunately, Trans Europe Express, The Robots, Robotronik and Nummweltverschmutzung are missing. In the latter cited report, a taper was mentioned as well. It's definitely an alt recording that is on this tape because the author of this report was located in front of the stage together with the tape. This recording on the other hand has distant acoustics. The alt recording might include the missing songs.
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Compared to recordings of other 1998 concerts of the US leg, this recording has the lowest quality. The audio is mono which I mitigated by using a plugin that creates a stereo effect, and it has a DC offset caused by a low frequency that is inaudible to human ear, but still contributes to the amplitude causing the waveform to be asymmetrical which I fixed too. The frequency range is decently high, but after a few songs, the white noise gets louder and louder. Something weird happened to the tape which causes a snippet of The Model to be played in reverse. The Model was affected by a weird sine noise as well. I tried to correct this and suppressed the sine noise. Every track got EQed individually.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
December 15th, 2002
2002/03 Atlantic-Pacific Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: A-
Attendance: 2.000 - 2.200
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00:00 Pre-Show-Sounds
10:03 Meine Damen Und Herren
10:38 Numbers
15:16 Computer World
18:26 Home Computer
22:34 Pocket Calculator / Dentaku
29:01 Planet Of Visions
34:02 The Man Machine
42:06 The Robots
49:49 Tour De France
55:19 Autobahn
1:04:25 The Model
1:08:09 Neon Lights
1:14:15 Sellafield 2
1:15:17 Radioactivity
1:22:12 Trans Europe Express
1:33:31 Music Non Stop
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In celebration of Florian Schneider's 77th birthday.
As requested (@collinmcdonnellmusic), here is a remaster of a 2002 show. Kraftwerk performed yet another concerts in Japan during the 2002-2003 tour. The studio/stage setup changed radically in comparision to the 1998 concerts. The racks got removed and the four projection screens got replaced by a big projection screen. Every synthesizer and even the Votrax SC02 that were locked into the rack are now stored on a computer in virtualized form. The consoles seem to be positioned in a straight line, but in live photos from the 2002-2009 era that are shot in a specific perspective, it can be seen that they actually formed an extremely flat "U".
At the beginning of the recording, there is another easily noticeable change. The randomized square arp got replaced by a dark sequence that resembles parts of Kling Klang from the Kraftwerk 2 album. Meine Damen Und Herren is partially in Japanese. The setlist starts like in 1998. After Home Computer, most following songs were played in a different order with additions such as Planet Of Visions and Neon Lights. Because the robots stayed in a exhibition in Paris, Kraftwerk performed The Robots on stage which was also the case for last concert in Tokyo and the Australian leg of the tour. Airwaves and Tango were temporarily ditched from the setlist. Most songs from the setlist received an overhaul as well. The dance influences got cut down to a minimum for which Radioactivity is a good example. The drum set is reminiscent of the 1975 studio version and with it having a climactic build-up, the song is no longer aggressively energetic.
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In terms of sound quality, this recording is decent for having a high frequency range, but also for having downsides like minor distortions and flat sound. I used several EQs that are individually adjusted for each track. Home Computer is cut off during a late part. Apparently, there is a copy of this recording with incomplete Home Computer in circulation. I've gotten hands on the complete track now, so, I will upload a remaster of that track someday. There is a recording of Tokyo 2002 which is much worse than the Osaka 2002 recording. The security was strict at the former concert and because of it, the taper had to hide his recording equipment inside his clothes. It would of course be a disgrace to use a recording like this for a birthday of a(n) (ex-)Kraftwerk member.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
A well-known Scatman cover of a Queen song is The Invisible Man. On the Scatman's World Interview CD and later on the Everybody Jam Behind The Scenes tape, Scatman John mentioned that he was a fan of Queen which had led him to produce a cover of The Invisible Man. His cover was originally made for the Queen Dance Traxx tribute album and later made its way to Everybody Jam. Only one cover could be included on this tribute album for each artist or group, but if John could cover more Queen songs, he would have chosen Teo Torriatte.
The original song is composed by Kraftwerk. I uploaded this snippet of my AI cover not only in tribute to Scatman John on this specific date.
June 8th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: A-
Attendance: 3.000 - 4.000
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
00:53 Meine Damen Und Herren
01:35 Numbers
06:02 Computer World
09:06 Home Computer
16:12 The Man Machine
24:14 Tour De France
30:54 Autobahn
43:18 The Model
47:11 Airwaves
48:40 Tango
56:58 Sellafield 2
58:02 Radioactivity
1:04:52 Trans Europe Express
1:16:38 Pocket Calculator
1:25:27 The Robots
1:29:46 Robotronik
1:36:46 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:43:01 Music Non Stop
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A day after the concert in San Francisco, Kraftwerk played in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Palladium. The security was strict which is why there is no photo of this performance, so, I chose a photo with a close-up of Fritz from a later concert, performed in Detroit on June 11th, 1998. Luckily, there is a recording of the Los Angeles gig which was previously barely circulated.
Their performance this time was clean and flawless compared to the last four concerts and Florian's handheld instrument had gotten fixed. After the concert, they were heading towards the heart places of house and hip hop, Chigaco and Detroit.
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While the recording has a high frequency range, its sound is flat and there are brief distortions in Tour De France which I tried to suppress. I increased the middle- and high frequencies to give the audio more depth and clarity. Like in any other recording of Kraftwerk concerts since 1990, the bass has been strengthened as well. Sadly, parts of Airwaves are missing.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
I remember accidentely clicking on the 3D Pinball shortcut when I was a kid. The screen turned black with only the logo of the game and then a machine loading up could be heard. I was confused and closed the game immediately. A few years later, someone showed me how to play this game and I started understanding how it works. I once reached over 4 million points.
The original video is unrecoverable, but I found a clip where he shouted the same phrase.
J'ai fait du Rock'n Roll du front l'Elyseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
June 7th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: A
Attendance: 2.000 - 2.300
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
00:14 Meine Damen Und Herren
00:56 Numbers
05:24 Computer World
08:30 Home Computer
15:36 The Man Machine
23:42 Tour De France
30:25 Autobahn
42:54 The Model
46:46 Airwaves
49:50 Tango
58:07 Sellafield 2
59:10 Radioactivity
1:05:58 Trans Europe Express
1:15:23 Pocket Calculator
1:23:12 The Robots
1:27:52 Robotronik
1:32:57 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:39:10 Music Non Stop
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After 17 years and a cancelled North America tour in 1991 in between, Kraftwerk finally returned to the USA starting in San Francisco. The venue in which this concert took place, the Warfield Theatre, is commonly used by rock bands, but nothing is unusual for Kraftwerk since they even performed in a venue that was originally a church (Paradiso, Amsterdam 1976).
In comparison to the earlier three concerts in Japan, the performance was clean, but technical difficulties occured and the problem with the sound system still persisted. Ralf's voice is suppressed by the music, the lead synth is detuned in Nummweltverschmutzung and Florian's handheld instrument temporarily stopped working in Pocket Calculator. He smashed on the buttons, but no sounds were triggered. Then he swung his instrument in the air. To say it in the words of an attendee of this show, Florian acted like a rock artist for a second. Later, his instrument started working again. It feels to me that they rushed this song because of that fault, but they always played Pocket Calculator this short during the late 90s.
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According to a well-known bootleg of this gig, the tape was recorded from the soundboard. This is disproven by the description of another bootleg created by a friend of the taper. A high-end microphone and a DAT recorder were used for the recording. The latter bootleg doesn't have the brief distortions at the beginning and is complete unlike the first one with the exception of the straight cut at the intro of Trans Europe Express which appears in both bootlegs.
Because this recording is magnificent, not much had to be done, but it is too weak on the middle frequency while the low-end is alright. I fixed it and with that, Ralf's vocals can be heard slightly better.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
I'm the Macintosh man with the virus scan
Moving your files across the land
Some Photoshop filters and After Dark
Get your Microsoft Office express your quark
I'm saying Windows 95 is Plug'n Pray
It's not you want, you gotta go the Mac way
Log right on as a personal guest
You got Macintosh software on your desk
Millions of colors with a VRAM chip
How about a system crash that'll make you flip
Sending an email at your request
If it's hardware you want, baby, I'm the best
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
June 4th, 1998
1998 World Tour
Home Remaster
Recording quality: A- / B+
Attendance: 604
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00:00 Pre Show Sounds
07:27 Meine Damen Und Herren
08:09 Numbers
12:36 Computer World
15:40 Home Computer
22:45 The Man Machine
30:48 Tour De France
38:02 Autobahn
50:22 The Model
54:10 Airwaves
57:20 Tango
1:05:29 Sellafield 2
1:06:34 Radioactivity
1:13:18 Trans Europe Express
1:25:14 Pocket Calculator / Dentaku
1:35:37 The Robots
1:40:18 Robotronik
1:47:03 Nummweltverschmutzung
1:53:15 Music Non Stop
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Like last concert, this concert was well attended with the full venue capacity being exhausted. Because the demand for tickets was extremely high for a small venue, an extra concert was announced and then performed on June 2nd, two days before the other concerts in Tokyo.
This concert was filmed by MTV Japan and then partially broadcasted. Nummweltverschmutzung and the first half of Music Non Stop are included in the broadcast. Short clips of The Robots and Music Non Stop were used in the broadcast promo. It's unknown whether the entire concert was filmed or only selected songs like in Rio De Janeiro 1998.
After getting used to the instruments, Kraftwerk made less mistakes during this performance. Lots of wrong notes by Ralf and faulty MIDI triggers can be heard in the first concert. The project file of Lichthof was presumably corrupted thus Lichthof having to be removed from the setlist. After trying to play Lichthof during the second night, they gave up. Only during Ralf's solo in Music Non Stop, wrong note that are easily noticeable are played. This could explain why the second half of Music Non Stop wasn't broadcasted.
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Even though this recording is highly enjoyable to listen, it has the worst quality out of the three concerts together with the first night recording. The high frequencies are slightly muffled in most songs and the dynamic range is somewhat low.
As usual, depth, bass and treble have been strengthened using multiple EQs, but I didn't compress the sound since it would make the dynamic range worse. I was able to restore some of the higher frequencies with the same method.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
"When did Megyn Kelly say it, when... whenwhenwhen?!"
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
"Jetribbleh!"
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
"TRAFALGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!1!1!!111!1!11!!"
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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
"He runs faster than you!"
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
This is my 2nd attempt uploading the video for the New Year's Eve premiere. The original version has a copyright block. I've remove the part that is affected by the copyright block and I'll be premiering this in case the copyright block won't get lifted on the original version.
Now that the original video is no longer blocked, here is the link to this video: youtu.be/Dn-ghYRh2LE?t=3806
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
03:05 Sombrero (Minor Waltzer Mix)
06:28 The Marshal (2023 Mix)
October 18th, 1991
The Mix Tour
Semi-Home Remaster
Recording quality: A-~ - B+ - B - B-~
Attendance: 1000 - 1400
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00:00 Meine Damen Und Herren
00:40 Numbers
05:40 Computer World
10:09 Home Computer
18:22 Computer Love
25:11 The Model
29:15 Tour De France
36:33 Autobahn
48:32 Radioactivity
56:00 Trans Europe Express
1:07:50 The Robots
1:13:17 Robotronik
1:18:06 Pocket Calculator
1:30:34 Music Non Stop
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This is the first gig with Henning Schmitz and the start of the second half of the "The Mix" tour. Henning already worked with Kraftwerk 13 years before they performed this concert. He was the sound engineer of the albums "The Man Machine" (1978) and "Electric Café" (1986). Comparing the performances of both Henning and Fernando, the first noticeable change is that the bass isn't played manually anymore except in The Model, and in Radioactivity, the bassline got reverted to the simple one used in the original. Henning's improvisations in Music Non Stop are more focused on the bass.
Changes weren't only made by Henning. Fritz only played the drums in The Model and complementarily in other songs since this time and changed the drum beats in Home Computer, Pocket Calculator and Music Non Stop. In any other song were he used to play the drums, he simply brought back the drum beats from The Mix album versions.
The audience seemed to be very thrilled seeing Kraftwerk for the first time. They cheered a lot and later they did it even more. After Autobahn, they wanted Kraftwerk to play Dentaku or the English version Pocket Calculator. They shouted these songs out loudly. One person even sang the lyrics of Dentaku during the intro of The Robots (1:08:10). Ralf didn't respond. After Autobahn, they screamed "Radioactivity" and they got what they wanted.
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Uploaded and premiered in celebration of Henning Schmitz' 70th birthday.
Special thanks to Babass_ for uploading the better quality source.
For a long time, there used to be a source with a low frequency range and clicks and speed fluctuations spread on the entire tape. Until Autobahn, it is possible to restore some of the higher frequencies. Then, the audio quality starts to decrease. It seems like that someone tried to enhance this source by correcting the speed with the wrong tool, the Change Tempo tool. The pitch on this source is still too high. I remember when someone commented that the tempo on my enhancement in some songs feels slower than it should be. That's because I used the correct tool, but didn't notice that the tempo is already corrected, so, it was kinda the wrong tool. Because the audio quality is horrendous, I joked that the Finnish winter climate did the damage on the tape, just like in Melbourne '81 where someone made a similar joke. There might be some truth behind these jokes.
Several months ago, Babass_ uploaded a source with better quality. I knew that there are lower generation tape sources of this concert. Only are they not in circulation. The frequency range is broader, but the damage caused by the cold climate is still present which indicates that this damage could be inherited by a lower generation tape. On top of it, there is lots of reverb making the snare sound rough and the audio begins deteriorating in Autobahn as this is the case too for the LQ source. The sound has been strengthened and after Autobahn, I tried to save some of the fidelity and remove white noise by suppressing unnecessary frequencies with the equalizer. The speed has been corrected as well. Numbers and Home Computer have the best audio quality. Songs after Tour De France get a B on the audio quality except in Pocket Calculator where some parts have the lowest frequency range. Hopefully, the master tape or a low generation source get shared one day, but due to them being possessed by hoarders, this is improbable.
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*Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*
It's no secret that this was his last song. On a post by a Scatman John social media account, someone asked what Scatman John's last song was. Someone else answered that it was "Can You Hear Me". My interpretation probably sounds completely different, but still, I created it for the fanmade album I released on the 23rd anniversary of Scatman John's death day.
In the anniversary before, someone claimed in the premiere chat that Japan was like Scatland. I didn't agree because while at first glance it seems like everyone in this country is happy and everything is colourful, behind all of this there are social issues that are rather subtle unlike in most countries. This gave me the idea of creating this song.
John's idea was to drift away from pointing at problems in society and to focus on finding solutions for these problems as he understood that only complaining about these problems doesn't fix them, but just making up solutions and at the same time neglecting studying the problems isn't better either in my opinion. Some of his solutions aren't made thoroughly. For example, in his song "Song of Scatland", he advocated for equality. Equality doesn't always bring bloom. Every person has different needs and if everyone is treated equally in one aspect, only those that share the same needs in that aspect benefit from it. The others are put at a disadvantage. It's not about equality. It's about fairness.