FAQ
Who are you and why do you have this site?
I am someone that goes to concerts regularly and I started recording them to keep them exciting. My wife and I both like going to concerts and generally make the extra effort to get on the barrier so we can get the most out of the excessive ticket cost and handling fee. We have done this very successfully for a few years, and recording the concerts was the next logical step in getting the most out of it.
Isn't bootlegging illegal?
It depends, if I were selling these recordings I would definitely be breaking the law. However, because they were made by me or someone who gave them to me, and no profit is made I am not. It is not my intention to steal music or to rip off artists in any way, I want to share the live experience of their music to other fans. I have bought many albums of bands whose performances are on this site.
What equipment do you use?
I record using an 80GB iPod, an XtremeMac Micromemo adapter, and a Sony ECM-MS907 microphone. I do not know what the current standard is for amateur music recording, but started using my iPod when I noticed that iPod voice memo recorders could record CD quality. I originally tried using the stock microphone that came with it but found it was inadequate for the intensity of the sound so I bought the sony one (this is evident from My Chemical Romance 05-08-2007 and Smashing Pumpkins 06-26-2007 that were recorded with the stock microphone).
How do you process the music after it's recorded?
The music I record is a single wav that is downloaded from my iPod by iTunes. I listen to that wav and write down the start and stop time of each track and enter the track name if available in a text file that has tags identifying the artist, year, and album (I put the venue and date in the album slot). I then run a Perl script I wrote on an Ubuntu platform that reads the file and runs shell commands that splits the wav by the times, renames them with the track names, encodes them as flac and mp3, and tags the flac with metaflac and mp3 with id3 tags. I originally did all that by hand but it took a lot more time and was prone to mistakes. I believe that the script is working fine, there were some problems earlier necessitating reencoding and reuploading files but I think that the kinks are gone. I am thinking of starting a sourceforge project for the script, but I probably want to add some more features and improve the debug statements. If you would like a pre-beta release email me and I will send it to you with some instructions on how it works.
I do not do any audio processing on the music because I have no knowledge on how to do so. If any kind audiophile could tell me the basics on cleaning up the sound and doing various things like getting rid of nearby chatter please email me and I will be greatly appreciative.
Do you record concerts when it is against the rules?
Yes I do, I like recording concerts and I do not think I am doing anything wrong other than breaking the venues rules. Venues have the prerogative to make any rules they like and risk losing business, fans have the prerogative to break the rules and risk getting thrown out.
How do you avoid getting caught?
I would rather not discuss my tactics since it might hamper my ability to use them. If you happen to meet me in person though I will probably tell you.
Have you been caught?
Do you make any money from this site?
No, I bought the equipment and I pay to host this site. No other money has been exchanged.
I want to record concerts, what advice can you give me?
First get a good microphone, crap recordings are not worth the effort. Second be discrete, do not be overly elaborate in muling the equipment, and always act casual and cool. Security at large scale events are usually underpaid and untrained people who use appearance as 90% of their detection. Never try and request/negotiate with security no matter how cool they appear, they will usually err on the conservative side. Third, find a good place to record. Being way off to the side or in front of an amp will ruin the recording.
Can I link to your site?
Go right ahead, this site is for fans so any exposure is fine with me. I would appriciate an email, though, telling me that you have linked to it.