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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: 6079 on September 30, 2007, 06:39:47 AM

Title: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: 6079 on September 30, 2007, 06:39:47 AM
I may be wrong, but it seems like most bands just use the mics that belong to the venue.  But if there were one or two extra mics/mic stands left unused, what do you think the odds are I could use them?

I suppose it would help if the band vouched for me, but that's not certain to happen at all.

Do you think if the sound guy was in a good mood, there would be a chance, or I'm asking way too much?
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: attheshow on September 30, 2007, 10:47:45 AM
You're asking way too much. A taper should be completely self sufficiient. You'll want your own power source, your own equipment, your own stands, everything. The idea is to minimize the impact to the band and the venue so that they're more likely to suppport your taping efforts. If tapers were always asking to borrow this, use that, we'd all be shut down everywhere we go.
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: Gordon on September 30, 2007, 11:05:37 AM
You're asking way too much. A taper should be completely self sufficiient. You'll want your own power source, your own equipment, your own stands, everything. The idea is to minimize the impact to the band and the venue so that they're more likely to suppport your taping efforts. If tapers were always asking to borrow this, use that, we'd all be shut down everywhere we go.

what he said
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: jkbyram on September 30, 2007, 11:18:27 AM
i would not ask either unless it is a spot i have taped and become friendly with the staff. i have rooms locally that i would ask for lots of things but i have been taping in there for a while and know the owners staff personally and they know i am responsible enough for them to consider loaning me things. self sufficiency is a priority. 
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: jasonw on September 30, 2007, 12:28:36 PM
Why would you want to use their mics?  Not sure I would? 
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: leehookem on October 01, 2007, 11:24:35 AM
i would not ask either unless it is a spot i have taped and become friendly with the staff. i have rooms locally that i would ask for lots of things but i have been taping in there for a while and know the owners staff personally and they know i am responsible enough for them to consider loaning me things. self sufficiency is a priority. 

WORD!!!
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: Tim on October 01, 2007, 11:45:09 AM
What everyone else said.

also, most of the small venues I've done sound in don't have many extra's, either stands or mics. So I doubt you'd have much luck anyway. Besides, you don't want to tape with some beat up sm57's anyway
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: anodyne33 on October 01, 2007, 12:22:39 PM
I actually had one of my regulars ask me this once. I got a chuckle out of it and gave him a cheap ass condenser that I never use. I think he fucked up his tape anyhow. Rookie.


Now if you were a hottie and wanted to wriggle your way under the console during the set, I'd set aside my best Beta 57s for you.  :-*

But then, there aren't a whole lot of hottie tapers in Pgh. :(
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: rdflash on October 01, 2007, 12:31:22 PM
I actually had one of my regulars ask me this once. I got a chuckle out of it and gave him a cheap ass condenser that I never use. I think he fucked up his tape anyhow. Rookie.


Now if you were a hottie and wanted to wriggle your way under the console during the set, I'd set aside my best Beta 57s for you.  :-*

But then, there aren't a whole lot of hottie tapers in Pgh. :(

i'm too sexy for my shirt  ;)
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: boojum on October 01, 2007, 07:04:24 PM
Hell, ask them for the mics, and maybe something to record with, and while you're at it, ask them to throw in a steak dinner and beer.  What the hell, if you are going to ask for things, ask for a lot.   ;o)  TINSTAAFL, or a free mic!  You have some real crust to even think about asking.
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: Kindguy on October 01, 2007, 11:48:34 PM
You'd be better off to check the loner section. Post a ISO, maybe a taper who lives close can help you out.

Out of all the sound guy's I've met & know. I couldn't imagine asking any of them for a mic to record with.

Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: ianstone on October 02, 2007, 03:46:20 PM
This post reminds me of a good story. Rewind almost 10 years, to fall 1998.

club: AS220 in Providence RI.

I had just gotten my first DAT deck about a month or so before this show (sept) and this was one of the first times using it. I was a "patcher" and all i had was the d8, 7pin in/out, and analog patch cables.

I got to the venue early, with hopes of getting permission to tape. The band was the HAL CROOK TRIO, brass/jazz ensemble. Hal crook is a great trombone player.
John Medeski was set to perform with the band for the evening, and I even ran into John when i got there, and we chatted for a bit. I was telling him how much i love MMW, and that i recently got into taping and he was really glad i was there. I asked if it would be OK to record, so he said its fine with him but he would need to clear it with Hal & the guys first. about 5 minutes later he comes back with an OK for me. So i'm really psyched, i said cool, can i get a patch into the board? And he replied, sure i wouldn't mind - but there is no board, do you have mics you can setup?
Well i continued on about how i just got into taping, and didn't even have mics, etc....

So, he goes back and talks to the club owner, and they tracked down a vocal mic for me to use, even found the right adapters and such to make it down to 1/8" mini to plug into the d8. I had a great spot front and center, and propped the borrowed mic on the table on top of a sweatshirt.

The recording was not great. But it was something. And at the time, i wanted to use my new dat and i was able to. John went to bat for me, and the club really was happy to help.
Shortly thereafter, i considered buying a sony ECM mic for those type of situations, and when consulting with the oades they talked me into a pair of akg c1000's (which were self powered) and could run straight into the d8 - at the time i was looking for cheap, and easy - i was in college and poor.
I made some great tapes with that little rig - to this day still listen to many of them.

As for the hal crook recording, it needs some serious EQ help...
 ;D
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: rdflash on October 02, 2007, 03:53:22 PM
good story ian.
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: Tim on October 02, 2007, 04:40:34 PM
Cool stories...
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: terrapinj on October 02, 2007, 08:07:21 PM
I went to a venue in Santa Monica, a couple of years back, and, they loaned me a Royer SF24 stereo ribbon

:shrugs:
;D

- Mikey was there, I think?

edit:
ever debated the correctness of a word, as applied?
changed.

why did we end up not running that?

thats when dude freaked out about the hum and used the internal mics on that little sony recorder right?
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: terrapinj on October 02, 2007, 08:17:29 PM
nope - same studio, different show.
oh my god,... that character,... ::)
That was his own tube royer, and he was hearing the studio art lights, but wouldn't take my word for it. He kept blaming his rig,... then he flew that Sony thing at the stagelip.
I tried to get a copy of his recording, but as soon as I asked, he quit the correspondence.

That studio has its own Royer, that I mentioned, but they've since lost the cable for it, so it sits in the mic locker, unused.

that guy was a crack up, did you get any shots of our "tree" ?

Hykes is coming back to LA this month, but not to that same spot unfortunately
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: datbrad on October 03, 2007, 04:44:52 PM
Best story I have was at GD Richfield in march '93, the second night after the blizzard show that was cancelled. I got in late due to how I got there from the shut down Pittsburgh airport (a whole other tale of incredible Dead kharma). I was running a 3 Nak 300 rig into an MX100 and when I got it all set up, the damned external battery box to the mixer was dead. Opened it up, and a wire was broken inside, and there was no way to secure it because it was too short to strip and try and twist it on the plug terminal.

There I was at a show that I should not have even made it to due to the weather, great front row OTS spot that was saved for me by some buddies, and my rig had a problem. Now what? Well, my friend Rob saw Don Pearson tinkering around the racks, and called him out. He asked him if he had a soldering gun we could use. He said no, but then called over one of his Ultrasound techs and told him to see if he could help us. I showed him the problem, he stepped back up on the board, opened a drawer next to Dan Healy's chair, pulled out a wire with insulated alligator clips on each end, and said "here you go, just give it back at the end the night". He said it was the way they solved the same kind of issue when a problem was found without enough time to permanently fix it.

Well, I clipped both ends of the broken power circuit, and I was up an running. After the show, I returned the clips to the Ultrasound guy, told him thanks, he said "no problem". On the off night before the Cap CTR run, I soldered the break, and had a great rest of the tour. Saw the guy in Atlanta a week later at the Omni run, and he joked with Healy, "there's that guy that used your clips in Richfield", and Dan cracked a big smile and asked if I was good, and I gave him the thumbs up.

One of the best taper stories I have about being helped out by a band's crew.

This year, the helpful crew member award goes to Bob Cogswell who hooked me with a stand for the TLG SoCal run so I did not have to fly with one.
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: Tim on October 03, 2007, 05:12:23 PM
nope - same studio, different show.
oh my god,... that character,... ::)
That was his own tube royer, and he was hearing the studio art lights, but wouldn't take my word for it. He kept blaming his rig,... then he flew that Sony thing at the stagelip.
I tried to get a copy of his recording, but as soon as I asked, he quit the correspondence.

That studio has its own Royer, that I mentioned, but they've since lost the cable for it, so it sits in the mic locker, unused.

this sounds like quite an amusing story. oh and why not buy a cable? :p
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: Tim on October 03, 2007, 05:14:08 PM
Best story I have was at GD Richfield in march '93, the second night after the blizzard show that was cancelled. I got in late due to how I got there from the shut down Pittsburgh airport (a whole other tale of incredible Dead kharma). I was running a 3 Nak 300 rig into an MX100 and when I got it all set up, the damned external battery box to the mixer was dead. Opened it up, and a wire was broken inside, and there was no way to secure it because it was too short to strip and try and twist it on the plug terminal.

There I was at a show that I should not have even made it to due to the weather, great front row OTS spot that was saved for me by some buddies, and my rig had a problem. Now what? Well, my friend Rob saw Don Pearson tinkering around the racks, and called him out. He asked him if he had a soldering gun we could use. He said no, but then called over one of his Ultrasound techs and told him to see if he could help us. I showed him the problem, he stepped back up on the board, opened a drawer next to Dan Healy's chair, pulled out a wire with insulated alligator clips on each end, and said "here you go, just give it back at the end the night". He said it was the way they solved the same kind of issue when a problem was found without enough time to permanently fix it.

Well, I clipped both ends of the broken power circuit, and I was up an running. After the show, I returned the clips to the Ultrasound guy, told him thanks, he said "no problem". On the off night before the Cap CTR run, I soldered the break, and had a great rest of the tour. Saw the guy in Atlanta a week later at the Omni run, and he joked with Healy, "there's that guy that used your clips in Richfield", and Dan cracked a big smile and asked if I was good, and I gave him the thumbs up.

One of the best taper stories I have about being helped out by a band's crew.

This year, the helpful crew member award goes to Bob Cogswell who hooked me with a stand for the TLG SoCal run so I did not have to fly with one.

that's a great story! +T
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: Tim on October 04, 2007, 11:45:23 AM
that's classic
Title: Re: Do I sound like a dick if I ask a venue to use a couple mics?
Post by: calvinroots on October 05, 2007, 05:45:52 PM
great stories!