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...