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I recorded eight singers in a small church. The acoustic was wonderful and I did it with two condenser microphones and on my favorite machine REVOX A77MKII. I did have some problems with level adjustment -- it's hard to set a level where a fortissimo by the singers didn't red-line the VU meters. When I listened to the recorded material at home, I was very suprised. The quality was superb. I still have that tape and from time to time, I put it on and enjoy it.

Recently, I ran sound for a local concert. Some good friends, who do not currently have a CD, are in the group, so I told them I would record their set and burn it onto CD for them. The end result was simple and straightforward (by no means a studio-quality recording), and I would have changed a few things, but it turned out very well, considering all the equipment being used.

In this quantity over quality world, most live music is far too loud. At home you have a volume control.

I started recording Grateful Dead shows seven years ago. I still tape concerts. At first, my tapes were not so good, but I make excellent tapes now (usually).

I never did ,but when I listen the way they mix and put music onto a compact disc, the only thing that comes into my mind is that I should try some recording myself, with a DAT and a good microphone!

No-one has yet mentioned UpSampling as the resurrection symphony for the listeners of ye olde RB CD ? Just like digital processing for photography has redefined the medium, why not expect both vinyl and RB CD to be "onboarded" to a PC and then "photoshopped" into a decent digital audiophile experience ... I remember being perfectly happy with HDCD as a compromise (10 years ago!), but would it be fair to say it was castrated by the big-end of town, not wishing an public-domain upstart removing a $5,000/box + $30 a disk sonic difference opportunity for affluent consumers. Why not work with "RB" HDCD, Upsampling and best of breed PC/DAC technology and skip paying the $5,000 + new catalogue software entrance fee ? We can live quite well without DVD-A and SACD!

Almost as expesive a proposition as the playback gear, recording a live performance is as equally rewarding...no more and no less. You could actually gain a significant reguard for a recording engineer after tring it for your self! Highly reccomended!

I worked as house sound man at a club in Chapel Hill NC for many years. Taped live to cassette from the mixing board. Quite primitive & lo-fi. BUT still captured that special live feeling and energy. It's the content, not the medium to me . . . although, more power to all you highbrows that really believe you can hear a mouse walking on the Moon with your megabuck systems. Go out & see a live show soon !

St. Louis Riverport in 1995. Second to last concert by the Grateful Dead in St. Louis. Not a stellar performance by any stretch of the imagination. About 40 of us squeezed in to the sancturary "tapers" area. Unfortunately it rained, and I haven't attempted it since! Still, any half-assed attempt of recording a live Dead concert is better than no recording at all.

Naturalistic, minimalistic, and studiofied recording of extreme rock. Frustrating yet satisfying. BTW, regarding last week, the ultimate format exists: WAV, or any other media-independent format. Unregulatable. (#1 priority! -- LEARN!)

It was pitiful, disgraceful, shameful, deplorable, humiliating, sad, sorry, and opprobrious. I will leave it to those with better equipment, facilities, skill, and more experience than I have. With this experience I believe I enjoy even more the work of first-rate recording engineers and all others in the process of creating source material for my stereo. They have my admiration.

Since the Grateful Dead allowed us to tape, I taped a LOT of shows. Most commonly using a pair of AKG 460's into a Marantz DAT or Sony TCD-D5M. I've also used a set of Neumann KM_140's and AKG 414's in the ORTF arrangement. The best I've heard was from a set of Neumann U-87 mics run as spaced Omnis - full bass, great sound stage. Truly amazing! It's interesting that the best tapes were made at outside venues, since there're no room reflections.

As a U of Miami student in th '50s, I got to know the stage management at the Dade County Auditoroum in Miami, Florida. They allowed me to record, backstage, the Grand Old Opry shows. I used a big, but portable, Webcor reel-to-reel recorder for such singers as Webb Pierce, Feron Young, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ernest Tubbs, Hank Snow, and many others. I got some great tapes and got to know most of them. It was primitive, compared to today's standards, but what fun!

Actually, I have been recording live music at reasonalby high resolution for several years. Using a pair of AKG C414B/ULSs, a Focusrite Green mic pre and a 20 bit (SBM) Sony DAT and high end interconnects and cable I have been able to get recordings of sufficient quality to release commercially. Using my background as an electrical engineer and extensive reading on the history of ambient recording techniques I have been very successful at recording live acoustic music.

I'm a "taper." Old style. I use a single mono mic, preamp, and analog cassette deck and I transfer to CD-R for convenience and trading. I trade the music nationwide. I listen to "live" recordings almost exclusively, specializing in the incredible music of Jerry Joseph and his incredible band The Jackmormons. Jerry and the "bootleggers " (strictly non-commercial) have changed my life.

I've done recordings of my church choir on several occasions. My equipment was nothing terribly special -- a modified Radio Shack single-point stereo microphone, a 30-year-old Akai 250D open-reel deck, and a fresh 7" reel of Maxell tape -- but the results were surprisingly good. Makes me wonder how much better I could do with a pair of real microphones ...

We recorded a Roger Waters show with a Sony portable minidisc and used Grado SR60's as a microphone. We were in the 4th row in an outdoor arena so there was hardly any echo. It turned out extremely well, everyone that hears that "Comfortably Numb" solo wants a copy of it.

Cheap microphones aren't too good and good stands aren't too cheap.

I volunteer for a community music programme in San Francisco. I record about 60 chamber music concerts a year. and have recorded over 100 world premieres. My pleasure is being able to 'capture' the joy of the musicians, the composers and the audience in the making of music. I use previous generation top of the line equipment. Now that I make CDs the musicians are very pleased to have a 'document' of their concert. Many have used my recordings to get positions or overseas tours. Its still fun.