Live Santana...

Thanks...will do...Lotus and Moonflower I havnt seen used in my area...Miles is $3 and very clean...thanks..

I have Lotus pressed in Holland. The quality of Holland mastering and vinyl is very good, not sure how it compares to Japanese pressing. The recording is pretty good although a little bass shy. Mix is very heavy/up front on Carlo's guitar, unfortunately keys are recessed a bit too much and overall sound is a little flat in terms of sense of space and stage.
I've had Moonflower on U.S. pressing, and Holland pressing. Holland Vinyl MUCH better; cleaner, clearer, more detail, less distortion... better recording quality than Lotus... drums hotter and with greater dynamics. Not all of Lotus is live, there were some studio cuts, some cuts are, like all Santana, so-so artistically speaking, others are great. If you sit down and listen to Moonflower all the way through you'll probably end up with a headache! I love Carlos but after an hour or so you want to get off the ride.
The Buddy Miles thing has never been recommended and I don't have it.

Correction to above.. "Not all Lotus is live" meant to say "Not all of Moonflower is live"

they are out of print now, so hard to find, but all are on limited edition japanese mini lp cd's.

I have a copy of the Lotus album that was origianlly done in SQ quad and has been transferred to DVD-Audio. It sounds terrific. I also have Caravanserai done this way as well as Santana III. If you ever get the chance to hear these in surround sound, you will never again be satisifed with plain old stereo renditions.

Caravanserai sounds especially good and is my favorite Santana album. BTW, Abraxas is also available in surround sound but it sounds *awful*. The best version of that album is the SACD closely follwed by the Sony MasterSound Super Bit Map (2 channel) version. The SBM sounds excellent, a very good use of that technology.

-RW-

Lotus is available as a regular CD at amazon. They also refer to a "DSD mastered" Japanese version. Not sure which that is, but might be worth looking for.

BTW, the Columbia CD remaster of 'Caravanserai' is a revelation, both musically and sonically; the 1/2 speed Mastersound 'Abraxas' lp is excellent, especially compared to the remastered CD, which sounds strangely dull.

Yeah I have the CD of Caravanserai as well, this is the newer remastered one that came out in 2003 or so (?) and it is no slouch.. rich full sound lots of detail retrieval and tape hiss minimum.. very nice..
I also have the same for Welcome. Wish they would do a "Borboletta" cd the same way.

I have Borboletta in surround sound, too. Sounds pretty good...

-RW-

Viridian,
If only Santana had kept it up! my three fav. Santana's were Caravansarai, Welcome, Borboletta... after that, he changed again. Bits and pieces on later albums refer to this era but never equaled again.
Some people do not talk highly of Borboletta but I think it hangs with the other two as his best.

Carlos lost his creative mojo a loooong time ago, and yet, he's worth more than ever today!

Viridian, True, true.. Great music (I love the Naima rendition) but that recording is not quite as good though.. lacks bass overall. Sounds like the early Mahivishnu's.

To me "Welcome" was the peak. The industry was different back then. Artists could explore new directions and the record company would support it. Very few current artists have that freedom now.