Topic: New taper questions of recording and thoughts

[bja5150]

I have been back and forth on what I would like to do. I have looked into different items to buy. I think iRIVER and Edirol 09 were leaders in the buy battle. I had a cool local taper do a recording project project for me. I saw how the process was for a soundboard and audience project work. It was cool and interesting. I learned some on what is needed on matrix work too. For someone like me at this time, I want to be more simple. I just went to a show where I talked to another local taper and he just had a DAT and set of stealth mics. I heard some of it back and it sounded pretty good. He tried to get me to go more the DAT way then digital. I have read some DAT equipment and media is diappearing so that is a concern. So here is where my head is at and just looking for some quick advice.

I am doing mostly club shows for this kind of work. There are some local bands I go and see alot and would like to record some shows at times. I have their trust so I have freedom to do whatever I like. I would like to record bigger shows at times as well. I just haven't had a big show I have wanted to see for a while. Anyway, here are some quick questions.

1. In buying equipment, what are good things to look for?
2. What would be a good stealth mic? (My recent taper hooked it on his baseball cap - that sounds easy to me and was cool :-)
3. Are the two models I looked into my best options? (say the $350 range)
4. What are basic good recording practices?
5. When you have the recording done what is the best processes to do on the compter to enhance the recording (EQ etc)

If there are good links to the above questions just post them to save you all the time. There is just so much info on this site it is pretty awesome. I am looking for general info now so I thought to start here first. I would appreciate any opinions and suggestions. I am really wanting to get into this more. I love music so I can see really enjoying doing this. Thanks for your time and help.

Brent

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

My quick thoughts: 

If you are welcome to tape your local bands, and have the venues OK, then perhaps you should look into an "open" taping rig (larger mics, more gear, etc.) rather than a "stealth" rig.  I guess it depends on the bands, and venue and your tastes, but I've found over the years of trading and the few years of taping, that open rigs tend to produce better tapes than stealth tapes.

And if you want to make quick and easy matrix tapes, the Edirol UA5 (w/ DigiMod) allows you to input SBD and AUD, and output to a recorder.  Many tapers use the UA5>Recorder combo to fantastic success (I used to run this).

Terry

[sunjan]

I have been back and forth on what I would like to do. I have looked into different items to buy. I think iRIVER and Edirol 09 were leaders in the buy battle. I had a cool local taper do a recording project project for me. I saw how the process was for a soundboard and audience project work. It was cool and interesting. I learned some on what is needed on matrix work too. For someone like me at this time, I want to be more simple. I just went to a show where I talked to another local taper and he just had a DAT and set of stealth mics. I heard some of it back and it sounded pretty good. He tried to get me to go more the DAT way then digital. I have read some DAT equipment and media is diappearing so that is a concern. So here is where my head is at and just looking for some quick advice.

I am doing mostly club shows for this kind of work. There are some local bands I go and see alot and would like to record some shows at times. I have their trust so I have freedom to do whatever I like. I would like to record bigger shows at times as well. I just haven't had a big show I have wanted to see for a while. Anyway, here are some quick questions.

1. In buying equipment, what are good things to look for?
2. What would be a good stealth mic? (My recent taper hooked it on his baseball cap - that sounds easy to me and was cool :-)
3. Are the two models I looked into my best options? (say the $350 range)
4. What are basic good recording practices?
5. When you have the recording done what is the best processes to do on the compter to enhance the recording (EQ etc)

If there are good links to the above questions just post them to save you all the time. There is just so much info on this site it is pretty awesome. I am looking for general info now so I thought to start here first. I would appreciate any opinions and suggestions. I am really wanting to get into this more. I love music so I can see really enjoying doing this. Thanks for your time and help.

Brent

Brent, see the questions I posted here, they refer to the pros and cons of iRiver vs. R-09:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,102111.msg1361741.html#msg1361741

It all depends how "stealth" you want to go. The smaller your gear, the bigger tradeoffs you have to take in terms of build quality, versatility, high-end sound.
For the budget you mention, the universal starter's stealth rig is the Church combo + the iRiver H120. For non-stealth, you have many more options.

/J

[DisturbedPyro]

im a new stealth taper. i havent done a big show yet, just a couple test runs to get the hang of taping. did my second show just last night actually. but anyway, my rig: iriver h320, chris church STC-11's & a BAT-2B. i am very pleased with this rig; great sounding recordings of the two shows i taped. best thing, i got it all used for $200. which seemingly is pretty unheard of if you ask around. if you got the extra cash, you might wanna go for the edirol, because those are specifically made for recording, unlike the iriver which is an mp3 player with recording capabilities. but honestly, im happy with the iriver. and i got it for $70, which just aint gunna happen with an edirol. so it all depends on how much cash youre willing to spend. i know im just a newbie and dont know much of anything about all this yet, but i figured id give my thoughts to a fellow newbie. feel free to contact me via pm if you wanna specifically ask me anything else. good luck!

[bja5150]

My quick thoughts: 

If you are welcome to tape your local bands, and have the venues OK, then perhaps you should look into an "open" taping rig (larger mics, more gear, etc.) rather than a "stealth" rig.  I guess it depends on the bands, and venue and your tastes, but I've found over the years of trading and the few years of taping, that open rigs tend to produce better tapes than stealth tapes.

And if you want to make quick and easy matrix tapes, the Edirol UA5 (w/ DigiMod) allows you to input SBD and AUD, and output to a recorder.  Many tapers use the UA5>Recorder combo to fantastic success (I used to run this).

Terry

Thanks for the heads up. I should make a note too. When I said stealth I didn't mean it in a secretive way. The main people I plan to do for fun would be stoked that I would be doing that...shoot they would be " Can I get a copy?"  I just saw a mic recently that was pretty small that pointed straight left and right. The taper even just hooks it to his ballcap. That to me is cool and it sounded pretty good. I have seen some elaborate setups. I remember when I was younger I saw a guy record a Dead show and he had equipment like I have never seen it was awesome. I am just looking for something compact and easy that will get a good recording so I can save the memory. I could play around with the computer software some to enhance the sound. I do a little now but I could use some more involved practice. I think the Edirol is leading at the moment, but I will look into that link another taper posted to compare. That matrix mention was interesting.....I will check into that unit as I never heard of that one before. Cool stuff. Thanks all.

Brent