Tape Nerd: Adam

[John W.]

Ha! I like Aadam, too. Don't really understand all the hate. He's always been nice and never really bothered me. I think it's cool there's a record of all those shows. I'm pretty sure that some day people will look back and be glad for it.

[benadrian]

i don't care whether this guy is a good guy or bad guy. However, I do care that he is policing people's behavior at shows. If he wants to get an accurate picture of a live show, then hey, people talking are part of THAT show. Trying to control the environment of a public place for your private desire is rude.

However, I do believe the band on stage has the venue. If they're concerned with background noise, excessive dancing, heckling, or anything that bothers them, they can and should do something about it. Personally I hate loud talking at shows, especially at numerous Low shows I've been to. However, me presuming that my desire to have them quiet is more important than their desire to talk is unbecoming behavior.

There are extreme cases, like where only two people in the club seem to be talking, and it is ruining the show for the other 198 people. Hopefully the band or promoter will notice that and take action. But one person imposing their will on another person in a public place just isn't cool.

Besides, I'd rather have a noisy crowd on a tape of a show than some guy going shhush over and over.

Cheers,
Ben Adrian

[John W.]

I could see getting annoyed if he's shushing people as if they were speaking too loudly in church, but I've seen him at a lot of shows and never experienced that.

[Johnny 13]

Seems like there is a perception issue going on. Not like there was going to be a definitive answer anyway. I am glad he asks permission at least.

I am not sure how valuable an audio archive will be to the future. Maybe the future will be desperate to know what Heavy Vegetable at the Czar Bar sounded like. I do know that I don't remember the details of the few shows I taped anywhere near as well as the ones I did not. Listening to those tapes is not much different than listening to shows I did not attend. It would be ironic if Adam's tapes ultimately meant more to the people he was shhsing than they do to him.

I am not extremely social, but what social currency I do have, is usually spent at a show. I don't talk during a set, but I like to look around, hug my friends whom I see less and less. I can listen to the records at home.

[rashiedgarrison]

Was he in the Bidet Boys?

[John W.]

Maybe the future will be desperate to know what Heavy Vegetable at the Czar Bar sounded like.

I am going to leave work with a smile on my face... that's funniest thing I've heard all day. You are a funny man Johnny 13!

Thanks for the laugh.

[BadComrade]

Tim once wouldn't start a Silkworm show until everyone in Lounge Ax shut the fuck up. He told them if they wanted to talk, that they should all go down to "BW3". I think he waited a good 3 minutes before starting the first song...

Ha ha! I did that?

Yeah, and I thought it was great. I think you finally said, "You think I'm kiiiidding.... I'm not kiiiidding" and people slowly quieted down in the same way they did in grade school when the teacher came in.

Ironically, that may have been the same show which happened to be one of the loudest shows I've ever attended, because Andy played through a full Soldano stack. One of my ears decided not to function for about two days after that.

[warmowski]

Aadam used to get under my skin because I did not see how his obsession could possibly be benign. I reasoned that an non-bootlegging archivist with that kind of persistence and love would need to be superhuman, a cross between a saint and a really good librarian. Such was my skepticism.

Then I found out that he collected other stuff. Like he has every Reader from 198-whenever. And he collected obsolete tape machines. These are not the acts of a hustler, they are the acts of a crank.

Then there's the simple fact that if he were bootlegging, there would have to be, you know, the bootlegs showing up at some point in the last 20 years. And they aren't. My god, the stuff he has...

So it took fifteen years, but I turned around. I now think he needs a big fat grant instead of a big fat lip. I predict someday his recordings will mean something akin to what the Folkways series means today. Insane War Tomatoes at Phyllis's notwithstanding.

Sorry if I was mean to you, you crazy, skirt-wearing, pair-erecting, shushing documentarian.

-r

[thesmith]

if aadam came to one my shows, i'd ask him if i could have a copy of our performance - - and he'd GLADLY give me a copy.

give the man a break.... thanks aadam.

[Johnny 13]

if aadam came to one my shows, i'd ask him if i could have a copy of our performance - - and he'd GLADLY give me a copy.

give the man a break.... thanks aadam.

I don't get it. Is it difficult for a band to get a tape of their performance off the board? Is this inferior to a couple microphones on the floor?

How is it generous to give you a copy of your own show? Is that above and beyond somehow? If that is going the extra step, would it be no big deal if he refused to give you a copy?

[scott]

I don't get it. Is it difficult for a band to get a tape of their performance off the board? Is this inferior to a couple microphones on the floor?

It's not terribly difficult to get a sound guy to let you plug some recording media into a line out of the board. The recording you get from that sounds, generally, quite terrible. Assuming you've got amps with any balls at all, there will be very little if any of them going through the house mix. Bass can fall into this same category. The drums will generally be in the house mix. The vocals will be *entirely* coming from the house mix. Hence a board recording is generally a shitload of vocals, and a bit of drums, and next to no bass or guitar.

If you have an awesome sound guy, and a good half hour or hour to fuck around during sound check, he can maybe set up a special mix for you on one of the aux outs. That can sound really nice.

The best live recording is always gonna include (if not be entirely composed of) room mics. The sound in the room is key. Board feeds as a standalone recording are generally total crap.

[Mike Greenlees]

Aadam used to tape my old band, and give us tapes of the show. One night, he informed us that if we expected a tape of the show, we should pony up some cash or a free album, money doesn't grow on trees you know, something like that.

That REALLY frosted my young man's self-important ass. So he was asked to not tape us anymore after that. I don't know if he did or not. It's not like we folowed up on it.

As a side note, compared with almost every other person who ever taped my old band, he is in the 1 or 2 percent who ever came across with ANYTHING despite promises, assurances, etc. I shoulda been flattered. I am now.

[Kayte R.]

I'm getting organized to record a couple local bands, by their request, in a few weeks. It's going to involve much cooperation with the sound guy. I'm recording to a tascam dat deck, and hopefully it will sound decent. 2 room mics will go up near the board as high as we can get them. I'm going to try to be as unobtrusive as possible with this. Any other considerations?

[scott]

I'm getting organized to record a couple local bands, by their request, in a few weeks. It's going to involve much cooperation with the sound guy. I'm recording to a tascam dat deck, and hopefully it will sound decent. 2 room mics will go up near the board as high as we can get them. I'm going to try to be as unobtrusive as possible with this. Any other considerations?

Make sure you bring cables, cables, and more cables. If you can, have two of every cable you think you need. Having one act funky while you're in the field can ruin things if you don't have a spare.

Make sure your mixer/preamp has phantom power, if your mics need it. That's a given, but it's easy stuff like this that's the worst to forget.

If you have a small UPS (the battery-backup type surge protectors frequently used with computers) that can be a good way of making sure your power is reasonably clean and that if there's any momentary issues with it, you'll stay live. This is probably overkill, but really doesn't hurt. I've done it in the past, but not all the time.

As far as setting up the mics as high as possible, this isn't always the greatest idea. If you get too close to the ceiling, you're messing up the sound. As long as you have a good, clear sight-line from the mics to the house speakers/stage, and you're not so low that people's heads are blocking your line, that seems to work well for me.

As crazy as it sounds, bring windscreens. I've run into this a couple times before... a ceiling fan right near where the mics need to be (in front of the sound board). If there is a fan you can't escape, windscreens will help cut down the noise, as will rolling off some of the lows at the mic, if your mic has that capability. The music will suffer a little for it, maybe. Bringing the mics further down, further away from the fan will also help out.

Get there early enough to record the soundcheck, if you can. That'll give you a sense of what things are going to (roughly) sound like during the actual performance. Don't forget though that the acoustics of an empty room and a room full of people are VERY different. People soak up high frequencies extremely well, and even low frequencies but to a lesser extent. If it sounds just right during soundcheck, you might find it to lack high-end when the room's full of people.

If you have headphones with really, really good isolation, you might be able to tell what the mics are hearing while the band is playing. But in general, the levels of a rock concert are such that you're hearing at least the bass from the house system, when you have headphones on.

If you can, get a table or chair set up immediately in front of your mics, to prevent people from standing immediately in front of/ underneath them. The main considerations here, for me, are 1) it sucks when someone is kicking your mic stand because that results in heinous noise being picked up by the mic from the vibration, and 2) it sucks way more when someone knocks your mic stand over. If you wanna play it extra safe, bring duct tape and tape the legs of the mic stands to the floor.

If you have a mixer with at least 3 inputs, and you're willing to take an extra chance, you can ask for a board feed. A stereo pair of mics plus a board feed mixed in at a not-too-high level can make the vocals more clear and the drums more powerful. But it's also risky, in that when you mix the levels, and record to stereo, you get what you get. If you get it right, it's the best. If you get it wrong, it's gonna stay mostly like it is.

If you do go for the board feed, don't forget about cables to connect the board to your mixer. The house guy often has these, but sometimes doesn't, and the less you ask of him the better. Boards generally seem to have a 1/4" output. But if you're prepared for XLR out, 1/4" out, or RCA out, you've got all your bases covered.

If you can record more than just two tracks (stereo) at once, I highly recommend going for the stereo pair AND the board feed, on separate tracks. You can mix them together after the fact, and get the extra vocal clarity and drum power without worry about having not mixed it perfectly before hitting record. I've done a lot of recordings where I only had 2 tracks to work with, and set up one room mic tracked to the left channel and took a board feed to the right channel, and then mixed them after the fact. There's no stereo image there, so depending on how nice the room sounds, the stereo pair might be the best route. If it's an ugly-sounding room, a single mic and a board feed might sound better.

Don't forget and leave shit there at the end of the night. Make a checklist if you're that anal. I'm not, but I've also left a mic stand at a club before, so...

[steve]

Here's how you fuck with a taper, piss him off and get him to leave you alone:

You see the taper setting up his "rig," and you tell him you would rather he didn't tape the show. He will say "I don't do anything with them, and I'll give you a copy. I tape all the shows."

Then you ask why, if he doesn't do anything with them, does he need to tape them at all? Can he not just put a blank tape with the show's name and date on the shelf, if he doesn't intend to do anything with them?

He will say, "I'm documenting all the shows."

You say, how do I know you won't give the tape to other people? He'll say, "I do this all the time, everybody knows I don't give copies out." You ask him who else he has taped, and he'll begin a rote recitation of all the famous shows he's taped.

At some point he'll mention Henry Rollins. They all mention Henry Rollins. Stop him right there, and say, "Wow, I've always wanted to hear that." It's important to wait for Rollins to do this.

He will say, "I can make you a copy of that."

Then you say, "I knew you were lying about not giving copies out. Take this shit down and get out of here or Rollins and I will fuck you up hard, you little turd."

[stewie]

Is his name really "Aadam"?

Does he have a big aadam's aapple or something?

Or is he an aasshole?

[Mayfair]

....Then you say, "I knew you were lying about not giving copies out. Take this shit down and get out of here or Rollins and I will fuck you up hard, you little turd."

Steve...I think it is time you switch to Sanka.

[benadrian]

Here's how you fuck with a taper, piss him off and get him to leave you alone:

edit

Then you say, "I knew you were lying about not giving copies out. Take this shit down and get out of here or Rollins and I will fuck you up hard, you little turd."

Does it help to be Steve Albini when pulling this gambit? I think that being Steve Albini would increase the chances of knowing Mr. Rollins first hand.

Being Ben Adrian, I do not know Mr. Rollins firsthand, so my threat could be interpreted as empty. Of course, by being Ben Adrian, it greatly reduces the chance that anyone would want to tape my band.

Cheers,
Ben Adrian

[Johnny 13]

Being Ben Adrian, I do not know Mr. Rollins firsthand, so my threat could be interpreted as empty. Of course, by being Ben Adrian, it greatly reduces the chance that anyone would want to tape my band.

Rollins will beat anybody up if anybody else tells him to do it. It is both what is great, and what sucks about him.

ROLLINS TRIVIA: He hates cops.

[John W.]

What if you tell him to beat himself up?