who can't make a good stack tape
I love the way this comment is always thrown around.......amazing to me, especially considering how MUCH better section tapes sound.... ;D...seriously what do you do that is different and SO much more difficult to get a good section tape? Run to the section so you can claim the center spot, regardless of what your ticketed seat is?? ;D All kidding aside, section tapes, stack tapes....not much difference...now if you want to talk a skill, lets talk how difficult it is to get a good stealth tape...now there is talent!
I taped in the section at Phish this year, and will never do it again....if stack taping is the only other option...then so be it...cause section tapes are WAY overrated.
My .02
Nick
:DISCLAIMER: not trying to start shit, just defending my position here :/DISCLAIMER:
I agree with the stealth tape comment, mucho props there.
I just think that as far as section tapes go (or any open taping, sans stack tapes) it takes a little more skill to make the most of it- cap selection, stereo config, stand height, even gear selection come into play in a way that they don't when you're 6 feet from a mono PA.
I imagine if you give someone taping their first show a 17 foot mic stand, a D8, and, say for comparison's sake, CMC64>V3, they'd be able to pull a decent tape so long as they start the deck and get their levels close. From a section, or in the middle of a bar, even at a festival, there are so many more variables that need to be learned in order to get "the" tape. I'm not knocking the DMB stack tapes- they smoke-or the people that make them- they're great- but I think it takes a little more skill to get the same caliber source from behind the board.
I guess what hassles you give up in terms of feeling the room out you make up for in having to deal with the crowd. Not having the "drunk fratlord/spun wookie/'shhh'-ing old man" variable come into play-at any show- makes it worth my while to be a section rat.
+T's all around
