DATE: 11 December 1974
LOCATION: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
VENUE: Boston Garden
RECORDING TYPE: Audience ["AR"]
VERSION: Full Lestat Audio Projects remaster - CD resolution.
ART: Included
SOURCE: Original Dan Lampinski master cassettes
FUNDAMENTALS:
Lineup:
Jon Anderson - Vocals and various instruments
Steve Howe - Guitars
Chris Squire - Bass guitars
Patrick Moraz - Keyboards
Alan White - Percussion
Setlist*:
Disc 1
01 - Intro cue [Firebird Suite]/Sound Chaser
02 - Close to the Edge
03 - To Be Over
04 - Gates of Delirium
05 - And You and I
Disc 2
01 - Ritual
02 - Roundabout
* Fades and sector boundary alignment follow this standard CD track distribution, but ending disc 1 with To Be Over makes a really nice transition somehow :]
LINEAGE: Included in download
NOTES FROM LESTAT: Many, many thanks to Mr. Lampinski, to djscomics and to Mr. Morstadt for their efforts in unearthing what may be the best quality AR of Yes from 1974 and bringing it to us.
Like everyone, I was floored when I heard this recording for the first time. Even raw it surpasses every other pre-1977 Yes AR I’m aware of for sound quality. Taper Dan’s achievement here is unique and speaks for itself.
Even the best raw AR masters made with the best, skill equipment, and media available nearly always have not just flaws but hidden strengths undetectable to most. This one makes a typical example, having some largely correctable weaknesses but more importantly a broad spectrum of detail nearly inaudible in its raw form.
When I upload original sources I make sure such things are dealt with in advance. What was possible with this recording has now been fully attained, and provides its own best illustration of why. It also generated this response from a participant in the remaster ‘beta test’, an integral part of the process -
"I just finished listening to the remastered samples over my main rig, and just did another comparison between the remastered and raw versions on my computer. As always, you have done very fine work on what was already an astounding audience capture for 1974: everything sounds considerably crisper and more defined, and you seem to have tamed a certain upper midrange harshness, making for a more pleasant
listen overall. For me, a standout moment is Howe's solo in "Sound Chaser"-- while listening, I forgot for a moment that I was not right there in the hall. The degree of holographic spatial realism you helped bring out in this tape is extraordinary (and one of the qualities I most appreciate in your mastering). "Close to the Edge" was a joy as well, and your mastering helped bring out the amazing detail in Squire's bass accompaniment at the end of "I Get Up, I Get Down," which adds an element of drama to the climax not found on the studio version.
"Particularly with your careful mastering, this tape is a real holy grail for Yes collectors like myself, who count the 1974 Relayer tour as possibly the peak of Yes live performances. The only other documents of that tour I've heard that even approach this are the Pre-FM version of the same show (which was oddly mixed, had a very harsh midrange, and was missing "Ritual"), and the (in)famous Baton Rouge recording. This release may very well sit at the very top of the heap now in terms of overall quality".
The raw master had a number of issues.
1] Pitch and tempo were both off [fast].
2] Low frequencies with poor definition or nearly absent - a common drawback of condenser microphones but Dan’s was top shelf and it got more than most. They still desperately needed ‘liberation’, as did frequencies in every other part of the spectrum except the very uppermost highs occurring prior to mid-Ritual.
3] Some quite noticeable midrange distortion occurs at different points in the raw upload, especially during Close to the Edge and Ritual. Most likely it’s in the master cassettes and a consequence of age - even well-cared for Maxells don’t last forever - although it may also be a condenser mike issue.
4] A jolting change in sound properties occurs during Ritual, at about 16:45 and constant through Roundabout. It seems likely to have started with a tape flip and probably involves a bias or Dolby switch on the record deck, or possibly a tape manufacture defect. Whatever the cause, symptoms include a severe high frequency dropout, an increase in at least one type of distortion [‘swish’] and weirdly but on the upside better low frequency definition.
All of these mitigated well except the distortion, which can only be treated with signal-damaging compression and not very effectively. While now more detailed along with more desirable sound, it does not overwhelm by any means. The dynamic range transition in Ritual-Roundabout is treated with slightly different EQ settings and less noticeable, with high frequency definition better matching the rest of the recording.
The recording’s especially miraculous hidden tones in several frequencies, including the lows, are now much more apparent. As one example, different cymbal types can now be easily discerned where in the raw recording they’re nearly indistinguishable from each other despite the absolutely fantastic uppermost frequencies [which needed
no work at all]. Other Yessounds, from nonmetal percussion to guitars to keyboards to voices, now have considerably more identity, presence, and detail in all their tones
All work was done at the 24/96 resolution, before downsampling. EQ work designed to reveal detail, as the audience heard and felt it. No attempts to alter band-crowd-venue sound balance. If crowd sound as real and detailed as band sound isn't desired, please pass this by and stick to soundboards or industry releases. No compression or noise reduction.
- Lestat, July 2009
NOTES FROM BARRY (BALROG): Up until the discovery of the Lampinksi tape, the only known audience recording of this show was the one I made with a mono recorder from
the back of the Boston Garden. Once I had a copy of the FM broadcast, I copied the "Missing Ritual," the only song not included in the broadcast, to a reel-to-reel deck. That tape, along with the master tapes, was stored at a friend's house and lost for many years.
Over the years, I received many anxious requests from people wanting to hear the "Missing Ritual" no matter how bad it might be.
Eventually, my friend dug out the reel. I digitized it and shared the raw transfer with everyone who had inquired about it.
I intended to combine Ritual with the FM broadcast to create the first-ever complete concert recording. So I asked every serious Yes trader I could find for the best source of the pro recording. I also tried to find someone with expertise willing to remaster Ritual.
I eventually received 22 different sources and narrowed them down to a "short list" of the five best. I planned to determine the winner using a blind comparison test.
However, no one remastered Ritual. Even Shaun Toole (Tooleman), the best known Yes remastering expert turned it down. Once everyone had heard the recording, it was no longer the famous "Missing Ritual." It was just another audience tape from 1974. Everyone lost interest in the project, including myself. So it sat on the shelf until a few months ago.
What brought it back to life was Lestat's willingness to do the remaster. The sound quality turned out much better than I had hoped.We were planning to upload the project to Dime. But now that the Lampinski recording has surfaced, the "Missing Ritual" project is obviously never going to see the light of day. The Lampinski is vastly superior to my audience recording and I consider it to be superior to
the professional recording made for the FM broadcast.
Some of what I had written for the "Missing Ritual" project may still be of interest. So here's an edited version.
Yes concerts have always had a very special significance in my life and 12/11/74 was my first one. It was also one of the first concerts that I taped from the audience, not knowing that the performance was being professionally recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, a nationally syndicated radio program of live concert performances.
The Relayer album was released on December 5, 1974 less than one week before the concert and roughly a month into the tour. No one in the audience knew the album very well, which was quite unfortunate. Like Tales From Topographic Oceans, the songs on Relayer are much too intense and complex to fully appreciate on the first listen.
Similarly, no one knew how the songs from the other Yes albums would sound with new band member Patrick Moraz on keyboards. I had been listening to Refugee, the album that he had recorded with Brian Davidson and Lee Jackson (formerly of The Nice) for several weeks and knew that Moraz had way too much talent and style of his own to simply fill in for Rick Wakeman.
Hearing the familiar Firebird Suite opening climax into Sound Chaser instead of the anticipated Siberian Khatru might have surprised some of the audience, but no one who was there could have possibly been disappointed with the tight but excellent performance. Make sure to read the concert page on Forgotten Yesterdays.
The original two-part broadcast, hosted by Bill Minkin, in "SQ Matrix" quadraphonic sound was aired only six weeks after the concert. It came as a complete surprise to those who had been there as nothing had been said about it being recorded for an FM broadcast.
SQ Matrix was one of several early matrix schemes from the quadraphonic era. The matrix concept was similar to today's surround sound technologies and SQ is considered by some to be the origin of Dolby Pro Logic.
The broadcast included the entire Yes concert except for one song: Ritual. It also included the entire insipid opening set by Gryphon.
That decision, to omit part of the Yes concert in favor of the entire Gryphon set, has angered countless Yes fans for more than three decades, none more than myself.
The original broadcast and subsequent rebroadcasts have been used as the source of countless collector and commercial "pirate" bootleg cassettes, LPs, and CDs. I have collected images of 21 different pieces of cover art and I'm sure there have been many more. Some contain the full setlist (except Ritual of course) and some are
partial. Some of these bootlegs claim to be from radio station (pre-FM) tapes or LPs. Based on the lack of compression, it's possible that some of these bootlegs are actually pre-FM tapes.
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