Taping this summers' gigs

[Obviousman]

A friend of mine came to ask me if I'd like to tape the Sisters this summer, wich I'd basically like to do, but some questions came to me:

How do you normally do this, is there like one very experienced person who takes care of this normally, and upon which we all trust so that there'll be only one recording, or is it much more so that as many as possible people go and record the gigs and you pick out the best recordings to save for eternity afterwards...

The second thing was, if there's many guys among us taping it, what's the material you'd advise to use, for having the best quality etcetera...

Thanks!

[christophe]

I don't know Nothing About Taping gig... You arn't aloud to do so you know !
butt we have some experience in live recordings and I must say the devices are very expencive! and not very easy to use. (the Bass seems to make some trouble from now and then)
a friend of mine knows all about it, he will be in Lokeren so maybe you could seak to him Before or After the Gig...... (not during the show)

[Obviousman]

I don't know Nothing About Taping gig... You arn't aloud to do so you know !
butt we have some experience in live recordings and I must say the devices are very expencive! and not very easy to use. (the Bass seems to make some trouble from now and then)
a friend of mine knows all about it, he will be in Lokeren so maybe you could seak to him Before or After the Gig...... (not during the show)

Not allowed to do so , you're kidding me

Anyway, if it's that pricy to get decent equipment, my good friend will be the one getting it, not me, lol

[paint it black]

at least two people can usually be relied upon,

i have a 'complete' list of 2003 gigs and sources, and it varied between only one source and six or seven versions, depending on location, security etc..

for the good versions, hats off to the people prepared to stand still at the back or even better put in hours of preparation

[Peter KJ]

Some years ago I wanted to tape some gigs but after searching for the material, it was all to expencive if you want to make a good recording. The best thing is a portable DAT recorder and some good small mics.

You can read everything about taping and how to do it on http://www.core-sound.com/ where you also can buy the material.

I know there is someone in Holland who tapes a lot of Sisters gigs so he will probably also tape Tilburg and Lokeren.

[Scardwel]

A good cheap rig is an MD recorder and a pair of
binaural mics which can be clipped to your jacket or fixed onto a pair of shades.

[christophe]

Some years ago I wanted to tape some gigs but after searching for the material, it was all to expencive if you want to make a good recording. The best thing is a portable DAT recorder and some good small mics.

you know the price of a DAT recorder... it surely is not for the general audience.
the best recrording system I'm aware of is a minidiskrecorder. but even that is pretty pricey

[Dan]

for the good versions, hats off to the people prepared to stand still at the back

It doesn't matter where you stand. If it sounds good to your ears it's got the potential to sound (depending on a good mic) equally as good on the recording. Leeds 2003 sounded really s**t to me, so it's not surprising my recording was just as bad (but it was a more or less faithful representation of the gig as I experienced it). There's better recordings of Leeds so I must've been stood in an acoustically dead spot.
Indeed some of my recordings in the past have been made when I was jumping around near the front - luckily this didn't affect the recordings too much except where the buttons got bashed - for that one I kept my finger firmly pressed on the record button.

Not allowed to do so, you're kidding me

Yes, almost all gigs say on the tickets that you aren't allowed to record or film them, that's why people have to sneak the recording equipment in. In 20 years I've only failed to get my tape recorder into a gig twice. Once at Birmingham NEC when I forgot to hide it at all, and once in Hamburg where the search was way too thorough.



As for what equipment you need. Any small recording device will do. Cassette, minidisc, dat, there's even some digital cameras that record straight to mp3 (although this will annoy the lossless brigade, but f**k them). Last year a friend in America recorded part of an open air gig on a digital camera that records mp3 using its built-in mic, and it was the best audience-recorded bootleg I've ever heard.
Of course you could have the most expensive recording device in the world, but your recording will be useless if your mic is no good. If you don't have automatic recording level then make sure your levels aren't set too high or you'll get distortion and that's almost impossible to fix. If in doubt test it out at home by blasting out some music on your hi-fi and record a bit, or go to a few local gigs and test it there before recording an "important" one. Don't stand right up against the speakers or you'll get distortion, although it's possible there's a type of mic for which this could be a benefit.

[Obviousman]

Yes, almost all gigs say on the tickets that you aren't allowed to record or film them, that's why people have to sneak the recording equipment in. In 20 years I've only failed to get my tape recorder into a gig twice. Once at Birmingham NEC when I forgot to hide it at all, and once in Hamburg where the search was way too thorough.

Yes, I was aware of that, just was joking about a bit
As for the rest, the tips all of you gave were very good up till now, and made me think it over
So I guess, if my pal doesn't supply me with some material, I won't be recording, and just waiting for recordings from other people Don't know if I want to be standing in the back and all that etcetera too, so we'll see[/url]

[Dan]

Don't know if I want to be standing in the back

You don't need to stand at the back. Stand where you like.

[christophe]

Don't know if I want to be standing in the back

You don't need to stand at the back. Stand where you like.

only difference is
in front you got screaming fans and at back you got drunk screaming fans

[Obviousman]

Don't know if I want to be standing in the back

You don't need to stand at the back. Stand where you like.

only difference is
in front you got screaming fans and at back you got drunk screaming fans

Ah, yes indeed
Anyway, the point I tried to make was about the trouble you'd have to go through, and all that, so I did get the point about the sound being the most important thing, rather than position , so

[DaveTheRave]

Or slip the sound guys some dollar and get a sound board recording

[biggy]

SHARP minidisc recorder £100 - £200 (sony don't have the ability to change recording level while recording).
Sony PRO mic. £100

Stand around 15 ft from the speaker. Read the MD instruction book beforehand & make sure your recording levels are right. Near the speaker you get the clearest sound - at the back the sound is distant & it picks up much much more audience noise.

Voila !!!!!!

[Izzy HaveMercy]

If you want to, you can lend my truck for a day or two...



IZ.

[Obviousman]

If you want to, you can lend my truck for a day or two...



IZ.

Sure looks nice and portable, isn't it

[paint it black]

Don't know if I want to be standing in the back

You don't need to stand at the back. Stand where you like.

you always take me so literally

actually best to stand in the mosh on the front row, right under the speaker, and don't forget to keep the mic attached to a coat or something that gets knocked around alot. there is that better

[Dan]

and don't forget to keep the mic attached to a coat or something that gets knocked around alot. there is that better

When I had a seperate mic I had the recorder clipped onto my belt with the mic wire running down the inside of my sleeve and held the mic in my hand. Sadly water got into the mic at Loreley and it didn't work after that and I had to go back to using a different recorder.

[Zuma]

PZM Mics are best Ihear....

[Izzy HaveMercy]

If you want to, you can lend my truck for a day or two...



IZ.

Sure looks nice and portable, isn't it

Just drive it in the backstage area and turn on the console.

The people there would not even DARE to ask questions when you arrive with a truckload of THIS.

"You are with the crew, sir?"

"No, moron, I'm an illegal bootlegger with a truckload full of Otari consoles, Neve technology and Focusrite eq's."

"Haha. How stupid of me, really, ride on sir..."

"Yeah, rite on, sir"



IZ.

[Obviousman]

If you want to, you can lend my truck for a day or two...



IZ.

Sure looks nice and portable, isn't it

Just drive it in the backstage area and turn on the console.

The people there would not even DARE to ask questions when you arrive with a truckload of THIS.

"You are with the crew, sir?"

"No, moron, I'm an illegal bootlegger with a truckload full of Otari consoles, Neve technology and Focusrite eq's."

"Haha. How stupid of me, really, ride on sir..."

"Yeah, rite on, sir"



IZ.

Now that's what I call a nice and elaborated plan
I'd say let's give it a go

[markfiend]

...some digital cameras that record straight to mp3 (although this will annoy the lossless brigade, but f**k them). Last year a friend in America recorded part of an open air gig on a digital camera that records mp3 using its built-in mic, and it was the best audience-recorded bootleg I've ever heard...

Hmmm... I've never tried taping a gig before; my camera records to mp3; I might give it a go...

[Eva]

It's amazing how much one can learn in this forum...

But there's one question left:

Which is the best SHARP minidisc recorder at the moment? Note: The most important thing is that the record level buttons are easy to be found (bet on the front)...
Cheers!

[christophe]

plannes have changed a bit
I'm going to both lokeren as Tilburg but we chose the indoor gig to try the recorder. (tillburg)

the first test are quite promecing but we have some trouble to change the OMG file into a WAV or MP3 file....

[markfiend]

Having experimented with my digital camera at Bloc Party, I find it has recorded a 8-bit 8kHz mono wav file.

Unfortunately there's some clipping of the audio peaks. Any kind souls who fancy playing with the file let me know; I'm not 100% sure how to get the best out of it.