What’s your taping setup?
For this particular show, it was about as rudimentary as it gets, and I did pretty much everything I could do to sabotage it.
It was my first trip to this venue. We ended up parking quite a ways away. I had all of my gear with me but didn't want to hike back to the car if I was turned away. I left the big stuff behind and condensed down to a pair of Audio-Technica AT 853 cardioid mics and a Roland R-05 recorder.
Once inside I looked at all my options. I was sitting on the lawn. Sounded good but there was a significant uptick in sound quality about 50 feet closer at the break between reserved seats and general admission lawn. The soundboard had an open air cage around it made for a cover that was removed for the night show. Walked down during the opener to see if there was a spot I could set up but was shooed away by security.
During the break I got to talk to Wilco's soundman and he gave me the OK to set up at the soundboard. I had a small pack with my gear and laid it on the soundboard. Eyeballed my mics to a DIN configuration. Guessed at the level, hit record and went back up the hill to my chair and IPA.
Here's where my incompetence comes in. First off, I left my windscreens in my main taping bag. Some rain had come thru earlier in the day and , naturally, the wind kicked up a bit as the show went on. I have some wind noise at times on this recording I need to go back and work on. You can hear some during Nels' first guitar break on 'Handshake Drugs'. Not overpowering but there nonetheless. The other thing I did was set my record level too low so there's a bit of background hiss I could have avoided. The first band was loud and I actually worried during Wilco's set that my levels were too hot. Nope. Too low. Even with all that, it's pretty listenable.
This is where I have to remember my taping motto - the only truly bad recording is the one that isn't made. Everything I record is for free sharing. The only reason I do this is to help spread the word about the band, increase the sales of their music and merchandise and for my own enjoyment.
I hope you're asking about this because you tape. Tapers, those that actually invest in some equipment and put in some work to capture a nice recording as opposed to holding a phone in the air for half a song and throwing it on YouTube, are an endangered species. It's always nice to run across someone keeping it alive.
I had a more extensive thread on the old board but migrated a couple things here. If you tape please join in.
Gonna migrate a few of the posts from the old board to ye shiny newe forum... __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I had the utmost pleasure of attending a gig with @lee newman the...
www.needlesandgrooves.com
Live Music Is Better.