BS. THE ELUSIVE PERFECT LIVE TAPE

Subject: BS. THE ELUSIVE PERFECT LIVE TAPE
From: InOBU
Date: 10 Feb 00 - 11:01 AM

Well: After last night, it was eather posing this question to all, or putting my head through the wall. For several months my band has been recording our two gigs a week for a tape to send around to other venues. Every time terrible things happen, we play in a drafty corner, so we are starting at a disadvantage, placeing the tape to get a good balence is the next problem, and one only gets two cracks at it per week, then, there are the usual screw ups, a missed cue, forgoten line, all the little things that happen live when everything else is going well, drunks staggering up to ask quesitons in the middle of a quiet ballad... WELL, last night we had it, the gig from heaven at last. The pub was not empty, but it was nearly silent! People listening, clapping politey and often enthusiasticly! The weather was kind to the pipes, we had not one, but two Sony broadcast quality tape recorders humming away... our energy was up, ripping through the jigs and reels, taking our time with the ballads, we were happy the audience was happy... both Mike and I had been recording from line, not mike earlier in the day, and both forgot to reset the toggle.... two hours of no tape! The perfect gig, lost to the ages... back to that blood soaked one way trail, in search of the perfect live recording.
Any other live tape horror storries to make us feel better?
Larry

Subject: RE: BS. THE ELUSIVE PERFECT LIVE TAPE
From: Willie-O
Date: 10 Feb 00 - 12:50 PM

Last month my daughter wrote a radio play and had a bunch of her friends over so that we could record it. With great flourish, I set up my long-unused Tascam 244 4-track, cleaned the heads and they started. I didn't have official head cleaning fluid so I used CD wipe stuff. NOT a good plan. Five minutes into the show, background squealing became UNbearably loud and the tape drive appeared to be not threading the tapes right. So much for impressing everyone with technology--I stopped them, got out my Radio Shack recording walkman, and recorded the whole thing with that instead. Turned out pretty good after I edited it on my computer with Cool Edit--a great program for producing and enhancing basic raw recording. Not only could I wipe the background noise to near zero, it actually boosted the levels without noticeable distortion!

So, wasn't a horror story after all, except when I get the bill for fixing the 244. But its definite, if you don't use your headphones and give a quick playback check when you're starting to live record, you will have forgotten something crucial--as Larry demonstrated.

W-O