What equipment you use to record live concerts will greatly determine the quality of your recordings. Nowadays, the most commonly used equipment is either a DAT or MiniDisc recorder hooked up to some good microphones, although some people still record to analogue cassette tapes.
Cassettes are by far the cheapest option, but of course do not offer the same sound quality that DATs or MDs do.
MiniDisc is an ideal setup for beginners. A good MiniDisc recorder should be reasonably priced, and they are very small. MiniDiscs can hold up to 80 minutes of stereo music (or 160 minutes of mono) with very little quality loss.
DATs are the preferred taping medium, although they are much more expensive than MiniDiscs. They record at 48000 samples per second (better than CD quality) and can last for up to 3 hours non-stop.
Possibly more important is your choice of microphone. There are two main types of microphone — unidirectional and omnidirectional.
Unidirectional microphones are "focussed". If you aim them at the sound source, they should pick that sound source up very well without picking up much surrounding audience noise. They also can help filter out echos, if they acoustics of the venue aren't that great. A popular type of unidirectional microphone is the Cardioid.
Omnidirectional microphones on the other hand pick up sound from all directions and are thus preferred for stereo recordings. These are best used in concerts where there is only a little audience noise.
It is a good idea to have a good set of both type of microphone for different occasions, but if you have to settle on one, unidirectional microphones are more flexible.
Either way, you should check your microphone's sound pressure levels (SPL). If you are going to be recording loud concerts, make sure you get microphones with a SPL of at least 120 decibels.
It is also important to have a "battery box". This will amplify the signal from the microphone, allowing you to plug directly into your recording unit's line in. The line in is preferable to the microphone socket, because most taping units have fairly poor preamps in their microphone sockets.
A bass roll-off is also useful for concerts with a lot of bass, because bass tends to cause distortion on a lot of recordings.
DAT:
MiniDisc:
It is often good to start taping in smaller venues as you will be able to get closer to the source of the sound (speaker stacks, stage, etc). You may also be able to build a friendship with the sound guy this way. (See the question on getting a soundboard patch)
Another advantage of taping in smaller venues is that you will be able to speak to the band before and ask them if they would like you to record them, which brings me to my next point...
A good place to tape is anywhere a taper-friendly band is playing! When getting started it is useful to be able to openly tape without worrying about your shiny new equipment being confiscated, so taper-friendly bands are ideal practice. (See the question on taper-friendly bands)
Assuming the band does not allow taping (otherwise you wouldn't be sneaking your gear in, right?), you may need to be a little cunning.
Various methods include "crotching" (wearing two pairs of under-wear and putting your equipment between them) to creating a false bottom in a girlfriend's handbag. And of course, BIG jackets!
Ask fellow tapers for ideas but be creative, because security guards have often learned about the older tricks.
A usual technique is clipping them to your collar or the rim of your hat. Hats are especially good if you're fairly tall and using Cardioids, because it will get the microphones above the level of the audience and hopefully you'll pick up less audience noise. More importantly... where should you stand?
In every venue, there is a so called "sweet spot" — the point with the best sound in the whole building (other than the stage, that is!). This is often just in front of the soundboard. Another consideration is audience noise. If there's a balcony, a spot right at the front of that (combined with unidirectional microphones) will give you very little audience noise.
If the guy next to you is being noisy, it might be useful to offer him a copy of the tape if he shuts up.
Use the support band to test how good your sound is. Set up your gear how you think will be best, then tape the full set of the support band. Between sets (often over half an hour!), listen to your recording and make the necessary adjustments to your gear to get an even better recording of the evening's main event! It's cool to keep the support band's recording too. One day they may make it big, and you'll have a very rare early recording of them.
DATs have higher error rates at the beginning of the tape.
Don't bring along blank MiniDiscs — bring along discs with about 3 seconds already recorded onto them. This means there is already a table of contents (TOC) on the disc, so when you need to eject the disc to put in a new one, your recorder will be much faster when writing the new TOC.
If a band is taper-friendly, they may allow you to plug directly into the soundboard ("betty board"). If they do:
If the band is not taper-friendly, the sound guy will not let you connect to the soundboard — it's more that his job is worth (unless maybe you're a friend ;)
This depends on the venue. Check the small print on the back of your ticket. They will probably just send you back to your car and tell you to put the gear away and come back in when you've dumped it. In most juristictions, staff should not be able to keep your gear (at least not once the show is over) if they find it, although they may have the right to confiscate any media found on you indefinately.
A good question. The truth of the matter is that your microphones are not likely to be far enough apart to get a good stereo effect.
According to the professionals, to get a good stereo recording, you have to have your microphones three times as far apart as they are back from the sound source. So for example, if you are standing 50 feet back from the stage, your microphones should be 150 foot apart from each other! As you are unlikely to be able to do this, it doesn't really matter if you record in Mono or Stereo — but remember, often your media will allow you to record for longer if you use Mono!
The way to get a truly good stereo recording it to find a taping partner — one of you can stand at the left of the venue and one can stand at the right. Use similar rigs and after the show, mix your tapes together. This is also a useful arrangement if your recorder dies half-way through the gig — at least your partner will probably be getting a recording.
This section has been written by a non-taper! OK, so I've taped one or two shows, but my experience of taping is very limited. I have tried to gather information from a range of experts, but take all this information with a pinch of salt.