(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . "Recordings of Independent Origin", and What Recordings BEST Capture Your Favorites Live? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-02-03 Welcome to another Saturday night of music, memories, and conversations! Gentle reminder: Please continue putting the name of your artist selection in your comment along with your song*. Those of us on our phones? We really appreciate it. And people using screen readers need this in order to identify the video. You know how this works — Put your quarter in the slot and your song in the comments. This is your Saturday night jukebox and the party starts NOW! *location and year instead of song if it’s a whole concert, as below. And welcome, anyone new to the series. It goes without saying however much a masterpiece any given studio album, the live performance tells us everything we need know about any artist. While I’d think there there have been many great ASN editions focused on live recordings, a certain category gets much closer to being there. How many back in the day eagerly bought that live album by whoever, having seen and been blown away by them, and however much enjoyed the “live” album at some point realized it really didn’t have their live sound or feel ? As some will know but many may not, “recordings of independent origin” [“ROIO” henceforth] and in particular open air mic audience recordings [“AR” for short] get a lot closer. ROIO makes a less fraught and actually better descriptor for what are often called bootlegs. That’s a curse word for many including me in cases where it should be, like illegal selling of copied official releases and selling of ROIOs, where it otherwise shouldn’t. ROIOs made through soundboards meanwhile usually have a lot more detail, less tape noise, distortion etc. but they’re flat, sterile and don’t capture venue/crowd energy. Ring any bells? Commercial “live” albums, before around 2000 anyway, were nearly always soundboard anchored with a separate, distant audience track added later. Even a really bad AR made with something from Radio Shack circa 1975 will have vastly more of that ambience, energy and feel despite being a sonic mudslide. A surprising number from that era will also have detail across the entire sound spectrum matching or even exceeding any soundboard capture, where tapers made the needed equipment and learning investments. On discovering ARs in the early ‘80s, good and bad, I jumped right in and never looked back. Even made contact with one of the very best ‘70s/’80s tapers, and have remastered several of his raw recordings — this usually still needed even with the best. I was gifted with exceptional hearing, his was largely shot having attended a lot more big rock shows. Have shared some of the results here before, more below as part of the sample array. Bad remasterers proliferate incidentally, a diary topic of its own but I’ll just say for now no matter how skilled with equipment and software these never learned how to listen — an acquired skill like any other — and often didn’t have keen enough hearing even when they did. Anyhow, a worldwide culture out there of tapers and traders dedicated to concert ROIOs for their own enjoyment and zero profit. So, if fully steeped in them already please share any ROIOs of any artists you know and love. Those not, please share anything live, audio or video, you think comes closest to what you know that artist really sounded like on the night. All welcome and I’m really looking forward to them. Many videos are ARs and more easily recognized as such, so post away whatever the quality or camera handling. We’re speaking mainly of stuff from the Mesozoic like most of us, and with ever more affordable, shrinking digital devices recent audience ROIOs will be far more common on YouTube, also better quality ones. I’ve have trouble finding older ones with some artists, and most YT uploaders are infuriatingly lazy about documentation including recording type. These samples will help comparisons and learning to recognize AR sound if needed, Yes-heavy as you’d expect but I know their ROIOs best.and one is of same concert as an official release. You won’t believe what the record label did to their own damned soundboard recording. The rest vary more widely and some much better for sound quality than others but all capture the artists’ natural live sound in ways soundboards never do, ROIO or commercial, even after MP4 and other YouTube imposed compression. Most are complete concerts, so years and locations listed instead of songs. By all means follow suit as needed. My direct original remastering/publishing involvement denoted by *. I had no involvement in any YT upload. Where I’ve linked to direct downloads, if any questions re. the FLAC encoding please ask away in comments. Grateful Dead — live at Hollywood Bowl 1974. Perfect one to start as their ROIOs the most prolific and widely known: Sound systems obviously huge factors in AR quality whatever the taper’s equipment, and the Dead’s were rightfully legendary. This one of the very best Dead AR’s, any year. Outdoor venue acoustics offer their own set of challenges, and this taper clearly knew them well. The original master with excellent handling and documentation too. Two source comparative: Yes — Detroit, 1976. The AR. Their best tour overall imo, and this one of its very best performances. A very wild period with less rigid structuring and more improvisation. If you’ve heard and liked the the * 1976 Providence, RI performance you’ll love this. The Providence download is free, full 96/24 WAV files in their full intended glory. Folder about 3 GB in size. This AR a bit less clean than the Dead offering, more tape noise and a few other issues but one of the four best AR’s of their ‘76 tour and in some ways even better than the Dead capture. Yes’ own legendary, state of the art 1970s sound systems no small part of why, more on that further down. The YT uploader another sloppy one for documentation, but whatever copy they used the best sounding of any I’ve heard. Could still be better — sound in Providence noticeably more detailed and if I ever land this one’s master tapes it will be too. Yes — Detroit, 1976, the commercial soundboard release, Ritual, Pt. 2. That begins at about 1:39:50 in the above. Almost no tape noise and plenty of soundboard detail here as we’d expect, but no real venue or audience ambience and less detail in all instruments/voices than the AR’’s speaker output capture. Even worse, someone mixed out instruments, namely certain keyboards and percussion and it was a mostly instrumental piece. * Yes — Boston, 1978, Heart of the Sunrise. Only ‘70s Yes gig I saw was on the ‘78 tour, and I haven’t heard sound this good since including from Yes themselves. Also one of the cleanest and most detailed 1970s ARs of any band, any tour. Very fired up performance: Yes began suspending their main speaker systems in ‘72, likely the first to do so. On this tour it was not only suspended but dead center venue with in-the-round staging and 360O omnidirectional. As taper Barry Rogoff likes to say, with that setup you almost couldn’t get a bad AR even with Tandy crap ;} He also took the photo and several others, quite the skill set combo esp. considering the stage was slowly rotating. Full original WAV files download here. Free and safe as with Providence, and a performance power not unlike the one in Detroit. Release Release, On the Silent Wings of Freedom and Awaken alone worth it. Bonus: * Yes — Boston 1979. Same taper and even better sound quality in some ways. Slightly different setlist and a rather colder performance but still quite the journey. 96/24 WAVs. Like the Dead’s, these sound systems and in Yes’ case Clair Brothers Audio were effectively additional band members. Whoever posted these pics online turned them into pixelly thumbnails not worth the trouble of enlarging, but they still give the idea. System and stage were also pioneering firsts: INXS — Providence, RI 1986. “Warning: raw and live content with crowd noise and other audio flaws”, said the YT uploader. Well, maybe not same quality as Dead and Yes but you just needed a good remasterer, pal. It’s actually well above average raw SQ for the time and has a lot of potential. And incidentally that crowd noise part of the joy, as long as it doesn’t swamp music signal. INXS’ power is well captured, and their performance wonderful as always. Like their fellow Aussies Midnight Oil an irresistible punk with hints of prog. Louis Armstrong — Chapel Hill, NC 1954 Full concert here if the picture link only loads one chapter I’ve had a digital copy for years, only now found it on YT and it’s a well done upload. The AR sound quality was stunning for 1954, and would’ve been impressive even in 1974. At times Louis’ band also sounded like Miles Davis’ a good 15 years later. Moody Blues — Long Beach, CA 1981. “Long Distance Voyager” album and tour considered by most including me their last great moment. The taper here was Mike Millard, also legendary and rightly so, but... * this one even better. That’s another download link, good for 7 days only whereas the ones above permanent. Unfortunately it’s apparently not on YouTube so must share this way. Patrick Moraz on keys btw, whose brilliance graced Yes in ‘76. * Electric Light Orchestra — Boston 1978. My 15 year old self passed on seeing ELO in ‘78. Only on first time listen of this before starting processing just last year did I realize how completely I’d F-d up. Their performances were fantastic even if we weren’t thrilled with every song: I did really like Face The Music btw. ELO apparently had a less than Dead or Yes standard sound system but still quite good, and hardcore ELO people told us when we published this it surpasses every other AR out there for sound quality. Grateful Dead — Tuscaloosa Alabama 1977, Terrapin Station. Terrapin Station was their crown jewel imo, song and album. Their most Yes-like, if you will. This a sterile soundboard ROIO but still better captures them better than a commercial “live” album of the period would have. Couldn’t find an AR of any TS performance on YT by deadline: x YouTube Video Love the cosmos slideshow. Would be great with Moodies, Yes etc. uploads as well. Sonic Youth — Atlanta 1987. An audience video but desired effect more or less the same . Well preserved too, at least when it went up: Most video tape from that era has not survived well: A lot stuffed in one ASN diary admittedly, esp. for anyone already well immersed in this world but anyone not will find it useful, and hoping the samples enjoyed much by all. Your turns — please blow me away! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/3/2214633/--Recordings-of-Independent-Origin-and-What-Recordings-BEST-Capture-Your-Favorites-Live?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/