Hey did any of you guys go to Coventry? I went and though some fun was had it was one of the roughest experiences of my life! Ah well, it's what we do for bands we love right? |
getting many different sources is definitely the way to go. its bittersweet, though. after the hiatus i was dedicated to getting damn near every source of every show that was available. i was hooking up to the torrents, setting up snail mail trades, ftp trades, etc. in a sick effort to seek out the best recordings of every show.
then, after i had 3 or 4 different sources, i would do the listening tests. it was often very difficult to pick out the best one. its easy to throw out the obvious worst one but after that its another story. some very different sources would sound almost identical. what a pain in the @$$!
It was almost like another full time job. I do not miss that ritual at all, and for that i'm grateful that they're done! |
Ketchup,
I think the same rules apply for live recordings as applies to high-end audio. I have heard some megabuck setups that sound so-so, and very modest setups that are very involving. People see a particular brand name and assume it sounds great without knowing all the variables involved. Schoeps mics are superb to be sure, but in some hands and in some setups.... maybe not as good as can be. When I was taping on a regular basis, I could have used just about whatever mic setup I wished. I happened to prefer the AKGs and Earthworks mics, mated to Audio Magic Presto II cables as the source for my rig. I will say that I have heard lots of Schoeps and Neumann tapes that were gorgeous. My point being, to many end listeners see FOB and Schoeps listed as the source and think this is the be all and end all of live concert event reproduction. I always advised people to try to get a couple of copies of a show, sourced with different mics at different locations within the venue before dismissing those tapes that weren't made with (insert mic brand here) mics. Couple that with the fact that toward the end of the '90s into the early '00s, the taper's section of Phish shows was filling up with rich trustafarian Schoeps snobs. Just one ancient taper's opinion. Hell, I've made tapes on my old Sony D5M cassette deck with a pair of Nak mics that were as emotionally involving as some of my later high-end rig tapes. |
Best Phish Show -11/17/97 McNIchols Arena, Denver. Ghost is incredible and flawless Reba. |
dewinkle,
for simple, quick, and mindless acquisition of lossless good music, the only place you need to visit is http://bt.etree.org/
All you need is a high speed internet conection.
slipknot, i agree totally about the schoeps recordings. why is that? sure, some sound great, but i've heard great recordings done with just about every combination of gear! i have also heard horrible recordings done with every combination of gear! there are just too many variables to say that this piece of gear will always produce great tapes. |
Ketchup & Slipknot1, How do I get some of these recordings?? Most of my bootleg stuff is from Napster/Bearshare in an .mp3 foramt, which for the car is fine. The music is what I have always been after, but now that I have been able to finally afford a decent high end system, I would like to listen to some of my favorites and have the quality be there as well. Thanks |
Ketchup,
My own source tapes from that weekend (AKG 480/61 & Earthworks SR77>Lunatec V2>Apogee a/d1K>Tascam DA P1) are pretty good. IMO, far too many people see Schoeps and think it's everything...And, I think the FOB crowd at some shows were way too in front of the sweet spot.
Give a listen to AUDs from the 7/12 Vernon Downs show if you can. Taper's Section vs. FOB. Taper's Section tapes hold up really well. I think the bigger difference in FOB comes INDOORS. Outdoors, the music has less reflective interference and has a chance to bloom. When yer FOB and right on top of it, your mics can't pick up the gel 'cause you are way in front of it. I think the exact opposite is true indoors.
I need to pick up a CDR setup and get some of these DATS into circulation. After over 15 years of taping, I sold off all my gear, and am listening to the fruits of my labors. |
slipknot, was there a particular source for oswego that you had in mind? i have the FOB schoeps that's going around and its not great. i now see that there's a U89i for the 18th which probably deserves a listen.
Dewinkle, i shy away from the official releases because, to me, they don't sound the way the actual concerts sounded. too sterile or something, not to mention the cost involved in buying all of them.
if you wouldn't mind checking out some audience recordings, you must get Big Cypress (NYE 1999>2000). the neumann u89 of both days and the schoeps of 10-30-99 are so sweet sounding. The music was out of this world, too. |
Thanks guys. I do own the ones mentioned with the exception of Camp Oswego. I need to hunt that one down. |
Jond,
Good call. The Deer Creek came right on the heels of the 3 night stand at Red Rocks. I did all 3 nights there with my tape rig and got some really tasty tapes.
I did the Broome County Arena show as well and really like my live tapes from that too. They stand up pretty well against the commercial release.
Dewinkle,
Not commercially available, but widely traded are the "Camp Oswego" weekend shows 2 nights, six sets, great shows. |
For sound quality I really like 8/13/96 from Deer Creek. One of the best sounding live discs I've heard and two solid jammin sets. In my opiinion Phish was really at their peak from '92-'96 so discs from that time period should really shine. I'm also partial to the "Hampton Comes Alive" box set, but that may be because I was at those shows. |
I am particular to the Broome County Arena 12/14/95 show released on "Live Phish" This disc really shows Phish at their jammin' best. A great mix of some of their best songs, well recorded, quiet crowd noises and the second set is over 1 hour of one song melting into the next, back out, on to something else with no interruption.
Set I
Suzy Greenberg
Llama
Foam
Makisupa Policeman>
Split Open and Melt
Tela
The Fog That Surrounds
My Sweet One
Frankenstein
Set II
The Curtain>
Tweezer>
Timber Ho>
Tweezer reprise>
Keyboard Army>
Halley's Comet>
NICU>
Slave To The Traffic Light |
