Live Santana...

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-