From before a lot of redevelopment projects began throughout Tokyo (including the area surrounding Shibuya Station); not that any of it is clearly captured in a night shot video (originally 480p and somewhat ML upscaled to 720p). Also from the good old days when you had to fix a portable video camcorder onto the roof (before drivecorders were an actual thing).
Best attempt at upscaling this to 720p (which didn't turn out that great). Produced during the time that guitarist Rik Emmett was doing his solo career after leaving the band in 1988. At that time, he was very much estranged/not on speaking terms with the other two members (drummer Gil Moore and bassist Mike Levine). At that time, it looked highly unlikely that the band would ever get back together again.
It's an interesting look back (as each member talks about both the good and then the bad times that ultimately led up Emmett's departure, the acrimony resulting from lawsuits, and how each member felt about the possibility of ever reuniting (and at least in Emmett's case, get back on speaking terms with Levine and Moore again).
A few years later, many attempts were made when there were plans to have the band inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Emmett's brother who was fighting cancer, asked Rik before his passing, to at least talk to his former bandmates (that life was too short to remain bitter). That (plus others who did what it took to get those conversations and meetings happening) led to the three talking and ironing out those past unresolved differences where they also appeared together on stage again to accept their induction. This also led to them performing together for the first time since 1988 at two festivals in 2008; the Sweden Rock Festival and Rocklahoma.
The ending part of this documentary (and each of their words spoken including Emmett saying "never say never") is most poignant given their 50th Anniversary Reloaded tour.
Pro-shot at 東京厚生年金会館 (Tokyo Koseinenkin Hall) • closed as of 2010年3月31日.
Nostalgic trip down memory lane… one of the more interesting side things I got to experience ~25 years ago was being part of the rollout for the then new Yamaha PM1D professional modular digital mixing console for Shiina Hekiru’s 2001 Precious Garden Summer tour. It was introduced in December 2000; a modular system of the control surface and modules like the DSP engine, controller, I/O units, and power supply along with Windows software which allowed additional functionality (by connecting a PC/laptop to the system). Due to my side interest in music, I ended up being part of the prototype field test group (in Silicon Valley).
This was during that time period of the transition from analog to digital (my tech background with digital audio/video, networking, and systems is partially why I ended up being involved as event staff). I was still working in Silicon Valley but spent time in between Santa Clara, California and Tokyo as the enterprise liaison (at Apple) working with the Japanese office. Things sort of fell into place with Yamaha Japan/this side gig; when I moved to Japan a few years later (due to another opportunity), it resulted in one of the best life experiences I’ve had.
I still remember how this setup shaped the dimension of her live sound going forward (why I noted the “sonic superiority” in that draft (words from her long time sound engineer). Being at many of her concerts for the next 5 years, that live sound is still very vivid. This system was finally EOL in 2015 (PM5D replaced it in 2004). Since 2015, Yamaha now has a RIVAGE PM series that builds on this legacy but in a much more portable form factor (the old consoles required a team to move and set it up).
I’ve long wanted to “visually re-master” the original pro-shot footage (480p) to at least 1080p but that tech didn’t really exist until recent years. Hours of experimenting with different settings plus GPU processing has resulted in this video which now more closely matches the audio. Getting this to 4K (with excellent quality) is years away BUT I almost got a usable 1440p60 version (maybe a few software iterations away). Anyway, this is the fully "remastered" version in 1080p60.
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60 (using this newer process). Live audio comparison with a new band + new modular digital mixing console (Yamaha PM1D) used beginning from the Starting Legend 2001 ~Precious Garden Summer~ tour which ran from July-September 2001 (an encore concert was held in November and pro shot). Old band + house soundboard (flat mix for on-air broadcast) from the first part of the Precious Garden tour. STARTING LEGEND 2000 performance of One with the prior band and sound system.
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60 (using this newer process). Live audio comparison with a new band + new modular digital mixing console (Yamaha PM1D) used beginning from the Starting Legend 2001 ~Precious Garden Summer~ tour which ran from July-September 2001 (an encore concert was held in November and pro shot). This was the live sonic edge being strived for (guitars, drums, bass with very clear separation) on songs like these two (Ken Kimura's short guitar solo in between the two songs is also included highlighting how great this system was). Old band + house soundboard (flat mix for on-air broadcast) from the first part of the Precious Garden tour.
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60 (using this newer process). Live audio comparison with a new band + new modular digital mixing console (Yamaha PM1D) used beginning from the Starting Legend 2001 ~Precious Garden Summer~ tour which ran from July-September 2001 (an encore concert was held in November and pro shot). Dive into you with the old band + older console/mixer from 2000.
ML upscaled/enhanced to 1080p60 (from what is basically 480p pro shot source). 480p to 720p upscale (using ffmpeg), and then 2x upscale/enhance + 60fps with Topaz. 1440p output was then re-encoded and downscaled to 1080p. I could’ve gone straight with the 480p to 960p (but I find the final downscaling after the ML processing gets that sharp quality; I would need to downscale that to 720p and my objective is to get these to 1080p with as much sharpness as the tech currently allows). The zoomed out shots still present a challenge for the models/algorithms (then again, didn’t try dialing in the granular settings). Still, each software iteration is getting better quality.
First tour with the Yamaha PM1D digital mixing console. The slower songs like this tune were a "simple" preset change.
ML upscaled/enhanced to 1080p60 (from what is basically 480p pro shot source). 480p -> 720p upscale (using ffmpeg), and then 2x upscale/enhance + 60fps with Topaz. 1440p output was then re-encoded and downscaled to 1080p. I could've gone straight with the 480p to 960p (but I find the final downscaling after the ML processing gets that sharp quality; I would need to downscale that to 720p and my objective is to get these to 1080p with as much sharpness as the tech currently allows). The zoomed out shots still present a challenge for the models/algorithms (then again, didn't try dialing in the granular settings).
First tour with the Yamaha PM1D digital mixing console. The slower songs (like these two) were a "simple" preset change.
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60 (using this newer process). Live audio comparison with a new band + new modular digital mixing console (Yamaha PM1D) used beginning from the Starting Legend 2001 ~Precious Garden Summer~ tour which ran from July-September 2001 (an encore concert was held in November and pro shot). Old band + house soundboard (flat mix for on-air broadcast) from the first part of the Precious Garden tour.
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60 (using this newer process). Live audio comparison with a new band + new modular digital mixing console (Yamaha PM1D) used beginning from the Starting Legend 2001 ~Precious Garden Summer~ tour which ran from July-September 2001 (an encore concert was held in November and pro shot). Old band + older console/mixer from 1999 with the two same songs.
Live audio comparison of select songs from this on-air broadcast satellite show at the now-shuttered Akasaka BLITZ. Only a small portion of this concert was televised (around 45 minutes total). Audio mix and quality (for television broadcast) was typical for the time (flat/virtually no bass/drums) via the house soundboard and PA equipment. This particular tour was also the last with the old band (except for guitarist Shingo "Jake" Saito who was new at the time). Comparison video of the same songs from the encore concert in November 2001 with the new band and what was then, the new Yamaha PM1D digital audio mixing system which I was fortunately part of the rollout for the summer leg of the tour. An advacement at the time, we were able to achieve a vastly improved live sound, excellent guitar tone, and very clear separation of the bass and drums.
- 00:00:00 Intro
- 00:00:14 be yourself
- 00:05:15 Discovery
- 00:09:45 -MC-
- 00:10:41 Still
- 00:17:32 Chance!
- 00:22:16 -赤い華- You’re gonna change to the flower
- 00:26:40 One
- 00:31:07 -MC-
- 00:31:55 抱きしめて
- 00:36:32 大切なページ
The actual full setlist for this concert: be yourself, discovery, 裸のプリンセスマーメイド, Chance!, Still, BESIDE YOU, あなたも知らない恋の果てに, MOON, live to love -もう少し早く逢えたなら-, -赤い華- You’re gonna change to the flower, 星の涙を, REAL LOVE, RIDE A WAVE, Dive into you, One, No,No,No！, invisible, Love Graduation, ENCORE: 抱きしめて, 大切なページ
Steve Augeri era
Digital audio soundboard + DAT audience recording