Audiophile: The live concert-taping subculture.

Steven Hoffer who writes for The McGill Tribune recently stopped over to Taperssection to gain insight on this here world-wide taping subculture. Thanks for the intricate research and the great article, Steve.

The entire article can be read here.

Audiophile

The live concert-taping subculture

Steven Hoffer | Published: 2/16/10

"No more than two dozen patrons have filed into the upstairs concert hall of Montreal's La Sala Rosa for an evening of live jazz. Among the dedicated few sits Mark Crawford, a beer in his right hand and a focussed yet unassuming countenance on his face. Positioned front and centre, Mark is preparing a medium-sized microphone stand that is wired through a pre-amplifier, digital to analog converter, and power supply into his digital recorder. Mark will leave the show with a personal recording of the performance.

Mark is a member of the small-yet-vigilant Montreal "taper" scene. He has been trading live concert recordings since the late eighties and has recorded performances at Metropolis, Le National, and Le Divan Orange, among other venues in Montreal and across North America. He claims that the Salle Wilfred-Pelletier theatre at Place des Arts has the best acoustics in the city.

"I have a need to hear bands evolve, a need to hear the bands I like explore," Crawford says."

A taper profile

"The tapers comprise a subculture of music fandom. A mix of obsessive-compulsive music documenters, former party animals, tape collectors, and hobbyists, it's difficult to pin down the taper subculture to a single personality type. The lowest common denominator is simply a true love for music.

Most tapers arrive at the show early enough to be the first admitted, gear in hand and mind focussed on constructing their rig. While the band is finishing its sound check, the tapers are busy searching for the room's "sweet spot," assembling and stabilizing their microphone stands, clamping and connecting cables, and making sure their recorders are fully charged for show time.

A taper might invest over $10,000 in equipment. A set of high-end Schoeps or Neumann brand microphones cost about $5,000 alone. Factor in preamplifiers running as much as $6,000, digital recorders for up to $2,000, digital to analogue converters, power supplies, cases, cables, and clamps, and most tapers have gear valued around the price of a well-running used car. Some, like California-based taper Ian Stone, have gone as far as running their own private server.

"I was going to Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and I had just gotten a new computer. I had a T1 Internet connection in my dorm room, so I took advantage of it," says Stone"

A document of everyday life

"Speak with any taper who has been at it for more than 20 years and odds are they will tell you that it all goes back to one band - The Grateful Dead. Although the Dead allowed its nomadic fan base to record as early as the mid-sixties, on October 27, 1984, the band officially created a special area of the audience known as "the tapers' section." Generally positioned adjacent to or behind the soundboard, from this point on tapers could freely transport and set up their rigs without hassle from venue security. As a result, taping emerged from the shadows and into the public eye.

"[The Deadheads] were really the hardcore music fans," says Ackerman. "The Grateful Dead were really one of the only bands back then that were constantly improvising so that every show was different."

These recordings provided free publicity for the band, as well as a method for fans to document the show. It was a way not only to collect, compare, and share the music, but also to revisit the concert experience from the night before.

So it should come as no surprise that a taper will opt for an audience tape over a doctored soundboard recording without question.

"There is something about a good audience tape that makes the perspective a lot better. You get a less sterile, more venue-oriented sound," says Crawford. "You can get it in your mind exactly where the mics are in the room. You actually know how the sound is bouncing off the seats; you get the whole feeling of how the sound was in the venue - more of the way that it is supposed to be portrayed. The whole recording idea is to capture the show exactly as your human ear would capture it - it's getting exactly what the band is trying to throw out into the particular room."

The tapes provide more than just the music. The listener can gauge the audience's energy and other sounds that are normally undetected by a soundboard recording.

"It's cool getting the ambiance in the room - hearing the tinkle of the bar glasses or hearing people slam the door, or playing pool in the background. You get more of a feeling or picture of what the night was other than just the sound," says Crawford."