The Tragic Tale of a Legendary Concert Taper

[Asamel]

http://www.kernelmag.com/?s=Bootleg

Any fans of live music recordings out there?

Bruce

 

[rockitman]

Thanks for the read. I was a big live band taper myself from the late 80's through the 90's. Nothing more satisfying than taking home a recording souvenir of the concert you just witnessed. I paid for the show and I deserved a copy. I would never sell the tapes..only trade..that way you can say FU to RIAA...even though they would not agree with me. Yes, the wheelchair was the only reliable way to get gear in. Did it many times.

 

[mep]

What I find interesting is that the tapes this guy made that are "legendary" for their quality and even sought after by the bands who were surreptitiously recorded were made by an analog cassette recorder. Mind you I'm a big fan of Nakamichi and I still own two of their cassette decks, but lots of people think cassette tape is something to look down on like analog people look down on MP3s. My point here is that cassette tape done right is better than most people have ever heard or realized.

 

[jazdoc]

What an amazing and tragic story. Thanks for posting.

 

[rbbert]

...My point here is that cassette tape done right is better than most people have ever heard or realized.

Mmm, or maybe not. I can confidently say I made some better sounding (and contemporary) audience cassette recordings than any of Mike Millard's, and I love listening to them, but they have marked limitations.

 

[mep]

Mmm, or maybe not. I can confidently say I made some better sounding (and contemporary) audience cassette recordings than any of Mike Millard's, and I love listening to them, but they have marked limitations.

This statement implies that you have owned or listened to verified tapes made by Mike. And assuming you did, you listened to a copy of his tape and not his master. So if you were using equally good recording gear to what Mike had and you had equal recording talent, your master tapes should have sounded better than copies of his tapes. No big surprise there. As for the "marked limitations" comment, all recording technologies have limitations. If I make a copy of an LP that has much more dynamic range than the same album recorded digitally and I record that LP on a cassette tape, the cassette tape will pass that on and show up the CD as well.

 

[rbbert]

Direct master cassette > 16/44.1 digital copies of most of Mike's masters are readily available. Most of mine have gone through more generations of analog or digital; I still think they sound better

http://db.etree.org/shn/88553

http://db.etree.org/shn/87560

http://db.etree.org/shn/11655

 

[mep]

Direct master cassette > 16/44.1 digital copies of most of Mike's masters are readily available. Most of mine have gone through more generations of analog or digital; I still think they sound better

http://db.etree.org/shn/88553

http://db.etree.org/shn/87560



http://db.etree.org/shn/11655

So does this mean you have personally never heard an actual cassette tape made by Mike? If so, all bets are off on your assertions.

 

[rbbert]

So does this mean you have personally never heard an actual cassette tape made by Mike? If so, all bets are off on your assertions.

Only if you think a 16/44.1 digital copy of a 1970's cassette sounds different than the cassette. From lots of experience I don't find that to be true. If you do, more power to you, but then we have even less in common than I thought.

BTW, I'm not sure what it says in that particular article, but no one except Mike ever heard his cassettes, only copies, early on to other cassettes, then near the end of his life to DAT.

 

[mep]

Only if you think a 16/44.1 digital copy of a 1970's cassette sounds different than the cassette. From lots of experience I don't find that to be true. If you do, more power to you, but then we have even less in common than I thought.

BTW, I'm not sure what it says in that particular article, but no one except Mike ever heard his cassettes, only copies, early on to other cassettes, then near the end of his life to DAT.

You kind of made my point. What you heard was a copy of Mike's tape after it was recorded to digital and you wonder why your master cassette tape would sound better than a copy of his tape recorded to digital. It should be no surprise. If your master cassette tape sounded worse than a copy of Mike's cassette that was recorded to digital, that would imply that either you had no ability to record at a high level of quality and/or your recording gear was junk. All I'm saying is that I wouldn't be puffing my chest out too far. Your master tapes should sound better than a second generation cassette tape that was recorded over to digital.

 

[rockitman]

That Nak 500 made great live tapes. It was either that, a sony d5 or portable 7.5 ips RTR which is not practical in clandestine taping. Once the Sony PCM F1 a/d and a portable Betamax hit the shows around 1984, the portable digital recording era began with DAT showing up at end of '88

 

[rbbert]

You didn't read very carefully what I said. I was comparing copies (typically cassette > reel > DAT) of tapes I made to copies (typically cassette > DAT) of Mike's tapes. I further said that as far as I am concerned there is no significant difference between a 1970's cassette and a well made DAT copy of it. And of course YMMV.

 

[rbbert]

That Nak 500 made great live tapes. It was either that, a sony d5 or portable 7.5 ips RTR which is not practical in clandestine taping. Once the Sony PCM F1 a/d and a portable Betamax hit the shows around 1984, the portable digital recording era began with DAT showing up at end of '88

Actually I took a Tandberg 10X (and 10" reels) into Winterland to clandestinely tape 6/7-9/77.

 

[rockitman]

Actually I took a Tandberg 10X (and 10" reels) into Winterland to clandestinely tape 6/7-9/77.

Very cool. You really need two decks so no cuts when you make a tape change. Then splice the two post show.

 

[rbbert]

Very cool. You really need two decks so no cuts when you make a tape change. Then splice the two post show.

A cassette was running backup. I think 1st gen copies are on archive.org. However, my priorities weren't focused on live recording, and the mics I had were AKG dynamic mics; their best dynamic mics, but still...

 

[c1ferrari]

http://www.kernelmag.com/?s=Bootleg

Any fans of live music recordings out there?

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the link...I'd never been aware of Mike Millard.
TDK Super Avilyn, C90, were my tape of choice for a Nak 1000II
I still have that cassette deck that I had purchased in my teens.

 

[c1ferrari]

Actually I took a Tandberg 10X (and 10" reels) into Winterland to clandestinely tape 6/7-9/77.

Geez -- how'd you do that

 

[rbbert]

Put in a suitcase and gave it to an usher to bring in; all he wanted was a copy of the tape in exchange. On the Winterland balcony there was an AC power conduit running at the base of the front rail with outlets every 20 ft or so.

 

[c1ferrari]

Put in a suitcase and gave it to an usher to bring in; all he wanted was a copy of the tape in exchange. On the Winterland balcony there was an AC power conduit running at the base of the front rail with outlets every 20 ft or so.

So, you ran your Tandberg R2R from up there?
Sounds like Millard was actually taping binaurally.

 

[Asamel]

It sounds like he was taping at the Forum. It must have been a difficult place to get good sound.