1.01 Firebird Suite ~ Yours Is No Disgrace (cut @ 6.48) (11:48)
1.02 Rhythm Of Love (5.35)
1.03 Shock To The System (5.53)
1.04 Heart Of The Sunrise (11.58)
1.05 Owner Of A Lonely Heart (cut @ 1.59) (4.45)
1.06 And You And I (cut @ 3.54) (11.44)
1.07 Bruford-White Duet (5.34)
1.08 Changes (7.37)
1.09 I've Seen All Good People (cut @ 1.45) (5.33)
==============================
2.01 Rabin Solo (6.14)
2.02 Long Distance Runaround ~ The Fish (cut @ 2.25) (14.46)
2.03 Lift Me Up (cut @ 3.02) (8.07)
2.04 Wakeman Solo (5.21)
2.05 Awaken (cut @ 11.08) (13.28)
2.06 Roundabout (9.17)
==============================

YES
10 JULY 1991
LOCATION: Raleigh, NC, USA
VENUE: Hardees Walnut Creek Amphitheater [At last check renamed Alltel Pavillion Amphitheater]

RECORDING TYPE: Audience ["AR"]

WORKING TITLE: "R91"

SOURCE: Local trader network. The actual taper and equipment unknown but original masters were loaned to a mutual friend who loaned them in turn to me within a month of the event. There can be no question the recorder and mics used were professional quality, and the cassettes themselves were studio-grade Maxell's.

LINEAGE: Master cassettes > First generation 3M Blackwatch metal cassette, Pioneer studio monitor source deck to NAD studio monitor dubbing deck via Harmon Kardon HK505 amp > Professional transfer to WAV by local recording studio circa 2003 > some remastering in CEP 2.0 by another individual > EAC via Addonics Digicopier to Lestat's mastering computer > CEP 2.0 and Ozone 3 > FLAC Frontend > DIME

LINEUP: Jon Anderson - vocals; Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin - guitars; Rick Wakeman and Tony Kaye - keyboards; Alan White and Bill Bruford - percussion; Chris Squire - bass guitars.

SETLIST:

Vol. 1:
1.01 Firebird Suite ~ Yours Is No Disgrace (cut @ 6.48) (11:48)
1.02 Rhythm Of Love (5.35)
1.03 Shock To The System (5.53)
1.04 Heart Of The Sunrise (11.58)
1.05 Owner Of A Lonely Heart (cut @ 1.59) (4.45)
1.06 And You And I (cut @ 3.54) (11.44)
1.07 Bruford-White Duet (5.34)
1.08 Changes (7.37)
1.09 I've Seen All Good People (cut @ 1.45) (5.33)

Vol. 2:
2.01 Rabin Solo (6.14)
2.02 Long Distance Runaround ~ The Fish (cut @ 2.25) (14.46)
2.03 Lift Me Up (cut @ 3.02) (8.07)
2.04 Wakeman Solo (5.21)
2.05 Awaken (cut @ 11.08) (13.28)
2.06 Roundabout (9.17)

*Breaks due to tape flips and other causes known only to the taper

STRENGTHS:

Sound -

I doubt it's the best UNION tour AR sound capture but am certain one of the best and definitely the best of a score I've heard. Recorder operator was dead-center, roughly 15 rows back. Venue one of the best anywhere acoustically and contributed to the fine capture. Another legendary Yes sound system helped. Though taped by someone else I was there and know well what it actually sounded like, so final master can be considered the more accurate.

While this torrent is a transfer from first generation cassette, it suffers almost none of the horrid signal to noise ratio problems many such tape copies do, even when one generation only and especially those made prior to 1985 or so and requiring extensive EQ work. A comparative example on DIME can be found in Yes Boston 6/18/76 ["B76"] - one of my own. While I spent a year fighting generational tape noise - resembling carefully excavated high frequencies and rendering midrange somewhat 'distant'- it remains problematic to some ears and in some playback systems despite extensive 'Beta' testing and its nearly miraculous AR sound capture for 1976 [an upgrade of B76 with more visible midrange and less middle-high frequency conflict is coming soon, but I decided to get this and another even more stellar 1970's AR Dimed first]. R91 enjoys remarkable freedom from such problems thanks to considerably higher deck and tape quality available in 1991.

High frequencies are extremely detailed and sharp for any AR, even one post-1980. While some remastering was needed to render sound spectrum on CD as it could be heard in the cassettes and parametric equalizer analysis shows highs peaking somewhat above the industry standard curve line, high end does not compete with midrange as it did in B76. AR highs as sharp and clear as in commercial 'live' releases tend to graph some distance above parametric industry rolloffs anyhow, but R91 parallels them more evenly and B76 was an extreme of peaks resulting from the need to dig highs out from under so much tape noise.

Other things have exceptional presence too, including kick drums and bass guitar hitting flesh/bone-resonant frequencies almost as they did at the concert itself. One aspect I remember well about Yes' sound that night was its 'Amazing Bass', thanks in part to the amphitheater's outstanding acoustics. Midrange not bad either, and it's quite well documented in this recording.

All in all, outstanding full spectrum detail with minimal noise problems and distortion limited to a few isolated spots.

Performance -

Overall sound in this recording comes as close as any to actually being there, and preserves a performance worthy of comparing to some of Yes' best '70s nights. Of all the UNION tour ARs I've heard none featured nearly as enthustiastic a delivery by the often unwieldy 8-piece Yes.

It was the second leg of the UNION tour and while no longer in-the-round some 40 prior concerts had enabled more refined arrangements along with more cohesion among the eight disparate musicians. Arrangements and delivery were as stunning as they had been with ABWH and even in many a 1970s tour. The Raleigh UNION concert recaptured a certain '70s "totality" largely missing from two revenue-oriented 1980s tours prior to ABWH. Other factors contributing to a standout UNION tour performance include an amphitheater brand new that night and Yes its very first engagement [listen for Jon Anderson's 'baptismal' comment just before "Shock to the System"]. Yes had to be enjoying the energy of sleepy little Raleigh's brand new pride and joy somehow. I'm certain they had other nights in 1991 just as vital if not more so, but I haven't run across any tapes of them yet.

WEAKNESSES:

Breaks -

Recorder operator either had technical problems, frequent attacks of paranoia or was some sort of radio-hit oriented philistine, resulting in a far larger number of breaks than most such recordings suffer. In sum there are gaps to piss off everyone, be they '70s Yes purists or more partial to the '80s Yes direction. A few tracks suffer multiple breaks. For me the worst one occurs in "Awaken", just before it hit its crescendo in the second movement. The whole segment is lost, and having been there I can testify to what a loss it represents. Steve Howe's 'MoodClap' is missing altogether but has been so ubiquitous in Yes concerts I don't personally consider it a major loss. If he'd played "Sketches in the Sun" or another of his later, more adventurous solo works we'd have something to be universally upset about. On the upside most of the best, including "Heart of the Sunrise", "Long Distance/Fish", Trevor's and Rick's solos, and the percussion duet are fully intact, except for one mercifully tiny break in "Long Distance".

Sound -

Despite original quality control efforts tape age at time of transfer had resulted in stretch and wrinkling at leaders with consequent rolling dropout, which we can be grateful largely disappears with distance from leaders. Its worst examples occur at the very beginning, lasting a minute or so into "Yours Is No Disgrace", just before and well into "Owner of a Lonely Heart", and at various other points where apparent tape flips occurred but having thankfully shorter durations.

When the tapes were transferred I did not have professional mastering software so hired an individual who did to remaster the raw WAV files for me. The rates were miraculously low and naturally I got what I paid for - a decent but very uneven job requiring me to make extensive corrections after acquiring the needed tools. It turns out I had three different levels of EQ settings to even up, an effort largely successful but the third level included an effect [probably widening] I could neither reverse nor duplicate for lack of log file, so mid-"Lift Me Up" we can hear a shift of the stereo center slightly to the left and carrying through "Roundabout". It's not a radical departure from earlier segments but is noticeable. Fortunately I was able to match this segment's overall dynamic spectrum to the other two - its high end was also considerably brighter than the rest.

In two places we also have digital skipping inherited from the initial outsourced mastering attempt. They occur during the "Make It Easy" intro to "Owner" and during Anderson's spoken acknowledgement of Squire's bass playing after "Fish". I have not detected this problem anywhere else, and decided not to delete the effected segments due to their brief nature and importance to the total AR's energy.

Bass frequencies as described above are extremely powerful in this AR and while no boosting of low end was needed or attempted the low end overmodulates when Chris gets really aggressive. It does overwhelm other frequencies at times and low end was slightly reduced in such segments to compensate, but it's in the original tapes and represents another AR tradeoff. When it's a choice between preserving as much as possible of what a concert was actually like and tolerating some limited distortion I always choose the latter.

Midrange is a bit harsh, but not due to any EQ work and initial reduction experiments resulted in it being overwhelmed by low end. Again, part of the original analog document and should not be intolerable.

Hiss can be detected but not nearly so severe as in other analog generations of analog masters, and in fact far less noticeable than in the 1976 Boston AR. No hiss or noise reduction has been attempted.

So there you have it. Hopefully this admittedly long winded Info File helps your download decision, and results in a better enjoyment of the show for all who do. For post-1970s Yes I find it unusually enjoyable and hope everyone else who downloads it has as much fun as I have!