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
Offshot outtakes from the (now shuttered) Nakano Sun Plaza show on August 7, 2000. ML upscaled/enhanced to 1080p60
Found this 2000 era PR (shot in the office) clip of Shiina Hekiru for the Sony VAIO (since she had a tie-up with them since the Face to Face release in 1999). The original clip I had was 320x240. I used Aiarty Video Enhancer to upscale it to 480p (using the superVideo-HQ model); longer writeup about this.
This is also testing the "CC" (English) subtitling (click the CC button to turn on subtitle captions).
Live audio comparison of STARTING LEGEND 1999 ～Face to Face ver 417～ ガンバレ. This was the old (second) live band which emphasized keyboard arrangements. The guitar tones from the Nobu K era band were really studio quality bright/crisp; I'm glad this song was pro shot during this period. Comparison video from the January 1, 2004 show at Nippon Budokan with the new band (from 2001) and the now 3 year old Yamaha PM1D digital mixing console (with a vastly improved live sound, excellent guitar tone, and very clear separation of the bass and drums): ** link to be added ** 30th anniversary (2024) performance (with most of the band from the 2004 video): ** link to be added **
#代々木第1体育館
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60. Live audio comparison of STARTING LEGEND 1999 ～Face to Face ver.417～ Kaze ga Fuku oka + ROLLING STONE. This was the old (second) live band which emphasized keyboards. Comparison video of the same two songs from the encore concert in November 2001 with the new band and what was then, the new Yamaha PM1D digital audio mixing/sound system (with a vastly improved live sound, more guitars, and very clear separation of the bass and drums):
#代々木第1体育館
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60 (using this newer process). This concert (thankfully pro shot) was also live streamed (Real Media at a slide slow/low frame rate 160p resolution).
ML Upscaled/Enhanced 1080p60. This concert (thankfully pro shot) was also live streamed via Real Media at a slide slow/low frame rate 160p resolution (which made the 480p source look good). To get this upscaled, I used a different process (cutting out the ffmpeg step) by using Digiarty VideoProc Converter to transcode the MPEG-2TS source to 1080p since the output looked pretty good (the de-interlacer worked much better). I then ran that through Aiarty Video Enhancer AI to upscale/enhance that to 2160p60 (video detail plus frame rate increase) and then performed the final downscaling to 1080p60.
ML Upscaled/Enhanced to 720p from grainy 480p source (this was a more granular upscaling utilizing Topaz Video AI as the backend). The original broadcast (NHK POPJAM) was recorded using VHS tape (Panasonic VHS Hi-Fi). This is just the OA performance part (not the initial interview with Moriguchi Hiroko). The footage was originally digitized with an PowerMac 8500 (it had AV inputs making it easy to connect to a VCR). Video formats and compression technology (in terms of being cross platform compatible) was not great around this time. Since this was also on a Mac, the Quicktime MOV container format was used along with the Sorenson video codec (since it was included with QT3 and looked the best). A few years later, I re-digitized it (better tech) and used MPEG-4 (various permutations were created since then by others).
Trivia: these on-air performances with bands for music shows are normally backing tracks. Longer songs are also usually shortened (entire section and/or solo removed). Some performers would also lip sync (Hekiru's vocals for this were live).
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