kaiyen's Tape Generation FAQ

.5 Terms and whatnot.
It sometimes seems like everyone has different definitions for things in taping. For this FAQ, the following terms are defined as follows:

• Tape
  A "tape" refers to a recording of a show. Regardless of whether a show is on DAT, analog, MD, CD, DCC, minicassette, or whatever, I will call all of them "tapes" for simplicity's sake.
• Master
  A Master refers to either the original tape made by the taper or a digital "clone" of that tape. The idea of cloning is described further below.

1. What is a generaion and why is it important?
A "generation" is the number of levels a tape is removed from the master. Basically, the farther, and further, a tape is removed from the master the more likely it is to have noticeable quality degradation. These "degradations" include tape hiss, digital artifacts, and any other items that are not on the a clean master of the show.

Generational information is important because it's one of the components to a good tape. An A+ tape isn't determined by one, or even two or three, things. A quality master isn't made or broken by just the mics, or the preamps, or the location. A copy of that master isn't determined solely by the tape decks or cables used. Similarly, the generation a tape is doesn't guarantee a great tape. However, if you know at least most of these factors, they collectively give a pretty decent picture of what to expect.

Therefore, it's important that the gen info be provided, or it's that much more difficult to know what to expect.

2. What is "mic info" and why is it important?
"Mic Info" refers to more than just what mics were used to record a show. It includes the entire recording "rig." The rig might be as simple as mics into a deck, or as complex as mics into a preamp into an a/d converter into a deck into a second deck with location and mic stand height. Examples, with explanations, follow:

Sound Pro Premium Cardioids(AT853a)>d3

• Pretty straightforward. First item is alwas the mics. Mics are Sound Professionals' Premium Cardioids. The "(AT853a)" refers to these mics actually being AudioTechnica (commonly abbreviated as AT) 853a's. In other words, The Sound Professionals have repackaged these mics as their Premium Cardioid line. This is actually one of the rigs I used to use, and I always included the "(AT853a)" in case people were familiar with the AT but not the Sound Pro mics.
• The last item is always the recording deck. In this case, it's a d3. What's a d3? In my case, it was a sony TCD-D3 portable DAT recorder. To add to the confusion, there is also a d3 analog recorder.

Nak cm300(cp-1)>Inbox>d8

• Another rig I used at one point. The mics are Nakimichi CM300's. The "cp-1" is the capsule used - these mics allow you to switch from one type of capsule to another. The cp-1 happens to be the cardioid one.
• If the first item is the mics, and the last item is the recording deck, the middle stuff includes all the other items in the signal chain. In this case, it was an Inbox, which is a preamp from Zefiro Acoustics. The "d8" refers to a Sony TCD-D8, one of the most common dat portables out there.

Schoeps CMC6/MK4>lunatec>apogee>da-p1>d8>m1 FOB 15' stand

• This is a good example of a complex setup (and pretty much the rig of my dreams). The mics are Schoeps - some of the highest-end mics you'll find. They are CMC6's - that's the model number. The capsules are the MK4's, which, I think, are the cardioid ones. Note that the capsule is signified as /MK4 rather than (MK4). Both are pretty common. As you can see, mic notation is pretty easy to read.
• The next few items are the rest of the signal chain before the recording deck. The "lunatec" is a preamp, and the "apogee" an a/d converter. Notice that the model numbers aren't given. There is no way to know if it's a Lunatec V2, or an Apogee 1000, or whatever.
• The last three items in the chain, da-p1>d8>m1, are all dat decks. Kind of confusing, no? What this means is that the da-p1 is the one directly connected to the mics and preamps. The d8 and the m1 are then "daisy-chained" out of the da-p1. It is usually assumed that they are connected digitally, so the exact same data is being written to each of the three decks. Again, the last item is the recording deck, so the deck from which this copy came from is a Sony PCM-M1 dat portable.
• The other two items describe the taping location. FOB stands for Front Of Board - the mics were located in front of the sound board (though whether that means row 1 or 30 is unclear). That the mics were up 15' on a stand means a greater likelihood of crowd noise rejection, but is otherwise not really crucial.

You'll notice that, in each of these cases, there is some abiguity. Is it a d3 dat or analog deck? Is the cp-1 a cardioid or omni capsule? What about the "lunatec" and "apogee," - what models are they? In a perfect world, all of these questions would be included in the provided information, but there is often something missing. Eventually, you'll often find yourself learning one that the nak cp-1 is a cardioid cap. Or, armed with the knowledge that all lunatec an apogee products are really nice, you won't care that the models aren't specified. At any rate, the really important item is that you get as much information as you can when you get the tape, and you pass it along verbatim when you trade the tape away.

All this information is important for the same reasons why gen info is important - they contribute to an understanding of the tape's quality. For instance - if I have the option of a tape made with a d8 vs. one with an M1, and the rest of the rig was the same, I'd pick the M1 because I know it has a much nicer preamp and a/d than a D8.

3. What is SBD vs AUD?
SBD stands for a recording made directly off of the Soundboard. Basically, the taping rig is plugged right into the board. Since the signal off the board is analog, the rig can still be very complex, with preamps and whatnot.

An AUD recording is, conversely, one made with mics placed somewhere in the audience. The examples for the previous question were all AUD, as there were mics included.

An important point is that SBD's are not always better than an AUD. They often are, but it's not a guarantee. For example - say the venue is small with way too may speakers around and the soundman mixes really loudly. A direct SBD might be just the vocals, since the guitar amps and drums don't need any extra amplification, and you'd get a pretty lousy recording.

4. What does the "D" mean in DSBD or DAUD?
Pretty basic - the "D" stands for a digital recording. If you plug a digital recorder (examples include DAT, MD, DCC, or even CD) into the soundboard, it's a DSBD. Accordingly, using mics with a digital recorder is an DAUD.

5. The big one - when do you increment gen info?
The issue of when to increment the generation when making copies is one of the most important issues in tape trading.

For me, it boils down to a pretty simple rule: If you are making an analog>analog copy OR doing either an analog/digital (A/D) or digital/analog (D/A) conversion, increment the gen.

For example:

• dubbing an analog
  Probably know this already. If you have an analog, and you're making an analog copy of it, then it goes from gen X to gen X+1.
• A/D - Tape to MD, CD, Computer, etc
  You got an analog, and you put it on a digital medium through one way or another. It is converted to digital, right? Then increment the gen from X to X+1.
• D/A - MD, CD, Computer, DAT, etc to Tape
  You got an MD or CD or other digital source and you put it on an analog tape. Gen goes from X to X+1.

Note that the first analog made off a digital Master is gen 1, not 0. At least in my book.

6. What does "daad" mean?

Now, you may be asking: "What if I have two digital machines hooked up with analog cables?" or something along those lines. Common reasons for doing so would be to pump up the levels or to EQ a show. According to the above guidelines, it would go through 2 generations right there. This case is a special exception in my book, the "daad" exception.

"daad" stands for Digital/Analog conversion -> Analog/Digital conversion, from one machine to the next. It just means that you used an analog connection in order to correct some undesirable aspect of the master. For instance:

Core Sound Card>d3>daad>r300

In reality, though, you rarely actually use "daad" since it would be more helpful to put the specific equipment in there to reveal the reasons for the conversions. For example:

Schoeps CMC6/MK4>V2>DA-P1>Rane EQ>SBM>D8

In this case, the "Rane EQ" part implicitly indicates the "daad" segment, and tells us that the show was EQ'ed.