Why did you start taping?

[jessedscott]

I was asked this question by my parents yesterday but it was Why do you want to start so it got me thinking. Why did you start taping? For me its the love of music and the ablitity to share it.

And second question what was your first rig?

Look here....

http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=1271

WOW , that's a blast form the past...... my how far this place has come....

[thegreatgumbino]

For whatever reason  - I snuck it in to a Stevie Ray Vaughn show at Constitution Hall in 85

+T for seeing SRV.  Wish I could have.  Bet that was a great show!

[Bloomer]

What a Jackass >>> Typical Hexbelt stuff  ....>>>> see @ Murphs soon

[thegreatgumbino]

What a Jackass >>> Typical Hexbelt stuff  ....>>>> see @ Murphs soon

Hieroglyphics?

[mmmatt]

It's even cooler when you are the only taper... Think about that.. you are the *only one* in the *world* who has this music..  That's pretty wild

I got into taping for a few reasons: I've always been into music as a musician, and my intent before droping out of college was to work for a while as a musician, and then get into studio work.  Alan Parsons was always my hero in that regard.  I never fulfilled that dream, but this is pretty close in terms of my satisfaction.  I like the challange and, the feeling of being able to give back to the taping/trading community that I have been mooching off of for so many years.
     My two favorite things about taping are what npsinboro said above, and the couple of times I've left a show with a group of friends, then stopped at my "home away from home" corner bar, plug into his PA and relive the whole show over, just an hour later... that is just cool!
     My first rig was a behringer mixer, rode nt-5's, jb3, and every adaptor known to man.  I started out wanting to only do matrixes and sbd patches.

Matt

[silverbullet]

started it taping because i love our local music scene. Many bands had no cds for sale so I went out and bought an analog Rat Shack portable tape recorder. Did that for several months then went to DAT PCM-M1 with a Sony ecm. Finally found SP products and picked up a battery box and a pair of small stealth mics CMC-8's. From there it went to stealthing national acts and with personal masters I was able to start trading with others. Now, I have a V3>410>lappie combo

[twatts]

I wanted a cassette recorder really bad somewhere around '70/'71, for some reason.  I got one, a mono table top portable deck, as a b-day present in '71 (?)(I was about 10 or 11).
About a year later, '72, Don McCleans American Pie was getting number one hit A.M. airplay, and I became determined to record it to tape. So I set up my trendy "eight-ball" round a.m. radio, with the tape deck mic pointed at the speaker, and I waited for the next time the song was played. And it seemed that everytime it was played, my mom or brother would come bursting into the room and ruin the recording
So I obsessed on getting that song to tape, and have been fascinated with ambient recording ever since.
I used this same cassette deck in '76>'78 or so, to record some Larry Carlton / Robben Ford concerts in a tiny club in H'wood but the recordings sucked and have long since died. I didn't get into techie recordings until '82.

I remember holding my boombox up to the TV during a Police concert broadcast to get a recording, I must have been in the 6th grade - 84 or so...  I still have that tape somewhere...

T

[silverbullet]

I taped the special Charlie Brown cartoons with my really old tape recorder, the one that is about 2 bricks big and you had to press play and record real hard at the same time. I was about twelve. This was before VCRs were popular. I think Beta was just coming out.

[reesey]

when i was in college i would smoke with these two asian dudes (pre-med) and when the dead came to philly in 87

they were like
"are you going"
i was like "hell yeah"
then they were like
"are you taping?"
i was like
"umm, should i?"
they were like
"you gotta tape man"

so they gave me a D5 (sicko) and told me to patch in to some good shit.  they told me what to look for (mic wise) and sent me on my way.  i realized later that they just wanted to get fucked up and didn't want to deal with the taping, but i had the time of my life.  after the spectrum run, the D5 was mine!!!!! 

AT4051>(some pre)>casio dar-100 was the first OFFICIAL rig.

PS. i still got those Maxell XLII-S masters.... but im afraid i'll break them if i listen to them now.... heh.

[ts]

Yea Moke. I had similar early recording experiences, with toyish recording devices. Mostly recorded my own voice, since I was in singing groups at a very young age.
You and I seem to be around the same age and you mentioned in another post being at Santa Fe in '82 and getting the bug while helping out vintage tapers. Although only 22 at the time, I may have been one of those "vintage" tapers you were helping. A buddy owned Nak CM300's back then and my first show with him was Red Rocks '83. First mics I borrowed to use myself were Beyer M88's, but stopped using those for a pair of CM300 with CP4's that I purchased myself when the OTS got moved behind the board in late '84.
My most memorable taping experience was the Police in Denver '83. I tried a hand held stealth job from 7th row dead center and about 4 songs in, Sting actually pointed me out to security and I got busted. Was able to pop in another tape a few songs later and walked out with something.
I guess I started taping for alot of the same reasons everyone else did, but the biggest reason was it kept me semi sober, which made for a much more memorable experience.