Post by AForestFan on Jul 7, 2016 15:54:42 GMT 1
I was asked this on a message, but it's a topic of interest that I will share with others. Most audience recordings of The Cure are from dark murky figures who are friends of a friend, and do not post on any forum as a taper. That's prudent. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, as I post here and also have a number of audience recordings under my belt. I don't sell these recordings, they are for free sharing among Cure fans. If you are interested in recording a show, I have here some tips and advice from my personal experience. If you in doubt, don't record a show. Just use your smartphone to record your favorite song like everyone else. But if you want to contribute for posterity full concert recordings that would otherwise be lost, here is what I know:
Your goal as an audience taper is to successfully record the show without your equipment seized and you being thrown bodily out of the arena or perhaps having charges filed against you. These are not inconsequential results, so what you are focused on are two things, confidence and inconspicuousness.
1) Confidence: Smile at security as you go in, helpfully have EVERYTHING opened and unzipped on your person for them to see and look in, dump everything into a bowl if provided, be cheerful and not nervous in any way. You are not hiding anything, either they let you in or they don't. With luck, they are only looking for weapons and not cameras. The lady at my show on the 26th wanted to seize my camera because she was worried it could function as a video camera. I smiled and said no, it just takes pictures. (I don't think of it as a true video camera as it does shut off every 30 minutes to jam up your recording.) Believe that you belong there, be confident on entry and how you carry yourself, and you'll find yourself inside the venue ready to record the show.
2) Inconspicuousness. My first digital recorder was so small that it easily fit in a cell phone holster, and I could hold it up (in the holster, upside down so the microphones didn't show) to show security it was not a weapon. Problem solved. But the audio quality was so bad that it didn't record any bass. Good, but not great. You need something that doesn't look like a massive recording operation, and looks ordinary and typical, yet delivers a decent recording. This will always be a challenge.
The solution for me was to buy a high-quality HD camera that LOOKS LIKE an ordinary small camera. In 2013, this was the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX20. Search for that on the internet, look at what the camera looks like. Slim, small, normal. A $4,000 DSL camera with a giant 4-inch lens will be noticed by security. Bring an ordinary camera, and it's okay, although that is also a roll of the dice as I note above. That is an old camera, you can get that one or a new version, but I would still recommend Sony as the dual microphones on that model record great in concert. A normal cheap camera will simply record static when faced with the loud volume of a stadium arena speaker set.
Hide in Plain Sight: Finally, I tried something new with my Tascam DR-05 recorder, to hide a bulky, obvious digital recording device in plain sight. The thing is huge, no way to hide it. So I bought a DSLR-sized camera case, stuck the Tascam in a side sleeve, and filled the camera case with a river of camera accessories I had no plan of using. This is key. I wanted the actual recorder lost in the clutter, so no one would notice it. That worked both nights. On the first night the 26th, she was focused on the Sony camera, which I would have handed her my batteries to gain entry with the Tascam still working. On the second night the 27th, they had a security bowl on the table, so I quickly dumped everything from the camera case into the bowl while they waved the wand over me. Waved on, no problem. (That earned me half of the super-sized Rumrunner that night, I needed it.)
Inconspicuous timing: Make sure to make your entry in the middle of a big line, don't be first in line where they can take their time looking over your gear. You want them ready to wave you through to get the next thousand people through, not focusing on you while no one else is there. The crowd is your friend, let them focus on threats while you focus on preserving the show for posterity.
Be nice: If they don't like what equipment you have, tell them you'll take it back to your car. Do so, and enjoy the show. Or offer to take the batteries out, and have a spare set of batteries elsewhere, but that's just an idea that I thankfully never did. At minimum, your goal is to hear the show and enjoy the music, and if you fail to record, you haven't failed, just enjoy the show and at least you can write it up for others on a forum. Remember that having fun is your goal. Hope that helps. :-)
Your goal as an audience taper is to successfully record the show without your equipment seized and you being thrown bodily out of the arena or perhaps having charges filed against you. These are not inconsequential results, so what you are focused on are two things, confidence and inconspicuousness.
1) Confidence: Smile at security as you go in, helpfully have EVERYTHING opened and unzipped on your person for them to see and look in, dump everything into a bowl if provided, be cheerful and not nervous in any way. You are not hiding anything, either they let you in or they don't. With luck, they are only looking for weapons and not cameras. The lady at my show on the 26th wanted to seize my camera because she was worried it could function as a video camera. I smiled and said no, it just takes pictures. (I don't think of it as a true video camera as it does shut off every 30 minutes to jam up your recording.) Believe that you belong there, be confident on entry and how you carry yourself, and you'll find yourself inside the venue ready to record the show.
2) Inconspicuousness. My first digital recorder was so small that it easily fit in a cell phone holster, and I could hold it up (in the holster, upside down so the microphones didn't show) to show security it was not a weapon. Problem solved. But the audio quality was so bad that it didn't record any bass. Good, but not great. You need something that doesn't look like a massive recording operation, and looks ordinary and typical, yet delivers a decent recording. This will always be a challenge.
The solution for me was to buy a high-quality HD camera that LOOKS LIKE an ordinary small camera. In 2013, this was the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX20. Search for that on the internet, look at what the camera looks like. Slim, small, normal. A $4,000 DSL camera with a giant 4-inch lens will be noticed by security. Bring an ordinary camera, and it's okay, although that is also a roll of the dice as I note above. That is an old camera, you can get that one or a new version, but I would still recommend Sony as the dual microphones on that model record great in concert. A normal cheap camera will simply record static when faced with the loud volume of a stadium arena speaker set.
Hide in Plain Sight: Finally, I tried something new with my Tascam DR-05 recorder, to hide a bulky, obvious digital recording device in plain sight. The thing is huge, no way to hide it. So I bought a DSLR-sized camera case, stuck the Tascam in a side sleeve, and filled the camera case with a river of camera accessories I had no plan of using. This is key. I wanted the actual recorder lost in the clutter, so no one would notice it. That worked both nights. On the first night the 26th, she was focused on the Sony camera, which I would have handed her my batteries to gain entry with the Tascam still working. On the second night the 27th, they had a security bowl on the table, so I quickly dumped everything from the camera case into the bowl while they waved the wand over me. Waved on, no problem. (That earned me half of the super-sized Rumrunner that night, I needed it.)
Inconspicuous timing: Make sure to make your entry in the middle of a big line, don't be first in line where they can take their time looking over your gear. You want them ready to wave you through to get the next thousand people through, not focusing on you while no one else is there. The crowd is your friend, let them focus on threats while you focus on preserving the show for posterity.
Be nice: If they don't like what equipment you have, tell them you'll take it back to your car. Do so, and enjoy the show. Or offer to take the batteries out, and have a spare set of batteries elsewhere, but that's just an idea that I thankfully never did. At minimum, your goal is to hear the show and enjoy the music, and if you fail to record, you haven't failed, just enjoy the show and at least you can write it up for others on a forum. Remember that having fun is your goal. Hope that helps. :-)