Audience

CDR

2

DVD 63; lineage: Remastered for natural audience recording detail and speed & pitch correction. Original master [taper] source unknown, but based on careful analysis seems likely made with Nakamichi 550 cassette deck [one of the best available in 1977] > Highland factory boot CD, likely from the original master tapes but deleteriously altered by mixing and what sounds like hasty noise reduction > Good Dime member Gromek, whose original text appears below and we should all be grateful to for original upload no matter what Highland did to his source. Please see his text for his part of lineage > Dime > Rain Livebook L5S media computer via Bit Torrent > original audience tape sound capture analyzed and restored as completely as damaged source would permit with CEP 2.0. 95% resample stretch to match speed and pitch to YESSONGS GFTO tour material and other 1977 Yes ARs also effected with CEP 2.0. Low speed/pitch were probably in the original master tapes before Highland acquired them. No noise reduction attempted in this remaster > FLAC Frontend > Bit Torrent back to Dime

Strengths: As stated above, an exceptional AR for its year and decade. Like even poorer-quality ARs it captures more of what the audience heard and felt than most sterile soundboard-sourced and brutally mixed industry "live" releases do . This one was clearly one of the best for original sound capture and had to have been taped with the speculated Nak 550 or equivalent studio-grade cassette deck of its time, giving us enough to work with to provide a significantly more accurate document of what its Parisian audience actually experienced than the industry-like editing savagery of Highland. A thankfully great deal of the boot factory's destructiveness has been reversed here. Please see 'weaknesses' below for more detail on this.

A series of EQ passes created specifically for ARs was used to restore high frequencies and others in the upper bass spectrum originally flattened by Highland [we can be sure of this because they did it frequently and I have several raw masters to compare their work to]. The main benefits are now highs like percussive metals and certain keyboards sounding like they're right in front of us - just as they did to concert attendees thanks to Yes' superlative sound systems and engineers. So too have midrange items like vocals, deeper layers of Moog synthesizer sound and nonmetal percussives which had all sounded like they were coming through a telephone line after Highland got through with them. Anyone who actually experienced Yes personally knows how coequally important bass guitars and percussion were to the band's melodic structures, and how 'bassy' they were in concert as well as crystal clear in the upper frequencies. This recording is now VERY bassy in addition to being VERY sharp and detailed in the highs. It may not be to some listeners' tastes and some playback systems might not handle it as well, but it is now much closer to the real deal than we could possibly get without risking being eaten by the very ETs most likely to have time-travel technology to offer ;}

As stated above, no noise reduction was applied to this version and while not industry-"quiet" by any means it really wasn't needed. NR work is very dangerous to desired signal in any case and there are examples all over Dime and elsewhere of its destructiveness when carelessly applied. Some evidence of NR work by Highland can be heard in their source discs and it may have done some damage, but in this area at least they didn't do too badly.

Slow speed and pitch in the Highland discs as mentioned may well have been a property of the masters. Studio cassette recorders used in the '70s to get superior ARs were usually adjustable and were often set for lower speed/pitch theoretically in order get more detailed sound capture. Often such ARs then went into circulation without correction, and this one really needed it. Thankfully Yes in Paris '77 can now be heard at their natural tempo and pitch.

Yes' performance in Paris that night was end-of-tour and they were clearly tired, but it was nonetheless vital. While many thought 1974's RELAYER their crown jewel of albums [myself among them], GOING FOR THE ONE was still a masterpiece in an entirely new direction. Reuniting with an old friend [keyboardsman Rick Wakeman] injected its own energy even though much of GFTO was probably cowritten by Patrick Moraz, who many of us Yesnuts regret even in 2007 didn't stay on with Yes through the '70s at least. In any case they were justifiably excited about their new album and Wakeman brought his own evolved, exciting new style to the fold. Together with other European '77 tour dates Paris also witnessed the GOING FOR THE ONE tour's best, most refined moments.

Weaknesses: Inevitable AR tradeoffs - more tape noise, variably uneven sound including pretty severe dropout in places and seems to include some irreversible Highland tinkering.

Many ARs of Yes' 1977 tour are weirdly afflicted by a difficult to describe "pulsing", "rushing" sound in certain of its high frequencies like crash cymbals and resembling some sort of deliberate psychedelic sound effect. This assuredly was not intended or heard by attendees but it's pretty ubiquitous in '77 tour ARs, and to my knowledge impossible to mitigate. In Paris 77 it's quite bad at times, particularly during very busy moments by all members. Hypothetical causes range from a strange interplay between phase shifters in Yes' sound system and the contemporary cassette tape technology to air movement in the venues, but it hasn't been nailed. It does occasionally appear in other tours and a bit of it can even be heard in YESSONGS - possibly an official AR - but it most severely afflicts ARs from the 1977/GFTO tour.

Despite weaknesses this torrent should provide Yes aficionados some real listening pleasure and I hope its new remaster becomes very popular. Please enjoy and reseed often!

Gromek's original text file is just below and includes the unaltered setlist, lineup etc. info. Again thanks to him for making this effort possible to begin with. Artwork also as he provided it. If the original Yes-Paris-77 taper or a friend of theirs sees this - please consider uploading your original, unedited master tapes to Dime and we may be able to turn it into a Holy Grail!

-Lestat

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