Here's another nice capture of Yes I made at Fiddler's Green Ampitheatre in 1998. I seated within the first 5 rows but in the left section (not center). No Tales was played, but all of Close to the Edge. You can hear me mention to my party between songs about #1 and #2 - thats what I was refering to - the tracks on CTTE. Also, as a stealth recorder always looking for a better recording, I tried an experiement at this concert. If anyone has ever tried to record a Yes show with Steve Howe, you know how the sound levels drop dramatically during his acoustic solos during the show. I fiddelled with the sound levels during his solo and then re-adjusted the recording levels after the band started playing again.

After 25 years of stealth recording and goofy experiments like this, here is my advice to any stealth tapers out there:

1) The higher your mics are, the better your recordings will be PERIOD !! During this show, I had the mics dangling from either side of my eyeglasses, got popped in 2000 at a Who show when a bouncer recognized the mics on my glasses so I permanemntly mounted the mics into a hat after that and have recorded that way ever since.

2) Set your levels as soon as possible (preferably prior to the show starting), put the recorder on HOLD and LEAVE IT. I can't tell you how many times I've checked my levels in the middle of the show only to put the recorder on pause or stop or something stupid. I can't remember a time where I have screwed up a recording after the deck has been put on HOLD.

3) Finally, getting back to the Yes show and the Steve Howe acoustic solo, its much easier to mess with a recording AFTER than DURING the show. The way the software is now, you can do practically ANYTHING to a recording now (raise sound levels, remove audience and diginoise, EQ, etc.). My son makes me cringe when he says "Dad, I just record shows on my Zoom with the internal mics in my shirt pocket because I can always clean the shows up later with Wavelab". What kind of a monster did I raise? :-)

Sample included - enjoy another tase of Yes.

Yes
July 14, 1998 (1998-07-14)
Fiddler's Green Ampitheatre
Greenwood Village, Colorado
USA

01) [02:37] Firebird Suite
02) [10:03] Siberian Khatru
03) [07:10] Rhythm of Love
04) [13:24) Yours is No Disgrace
05) [06:25] Open Your Eyes
06) [11:40] And You and I
07) [12:01] Heart of the Sunrise
08) [02:57] Second Initial
09) [02:23] Masquerade
10) [04:11] Clap
11) [00:35] Happy Birthday Igor
12) [04:06] Long Distance Runaround
13) [09:06] Chris Squire solo
14) [06:49] Owner of a Lonely Heart
15) [03:46] Wonderous Stories
16) [21:31] Close to the Edge
17) [09:05] I've Seen All Good People
18) [09:05] Roundabout

Total 2:16:53

Recording:
Sonic Studios DSM-6 > 85 cycle bass roll-off > Sony D7

Transfer:
Sony DTC-ZE700 > E-MU E-DSP Soundcard > 16/48 wav > Wavelab (tracking and tweaking) > you !

whotrader-091-Yes-1998-07-14