Taping Etiquette — Rule #1

A Little Empathy
Put yourself in this position: you're psyched for the concert of your favorite artist, you've paid a premium price for the best seats in the house, and your evening is off to a great start.

Then, out of nowhere, some guy with a backpack full of recording gear sets up a microphone stand directly in front of you. A real buzzkill, right?

Here's a simple and sad (for us tapers, at least) fact: the majority of the crowd around you won't understand what you're doing, so it's in your best interest to make them happy if an issue arises. The crowd around you can be a blessing, or a curse. It's up to you how it goes.

If you find that you're blocking somebody's view, the first diplomatic thing to do is offer them a copy. Chances are they'll forget about your mic stand once the show gets going, and they'll be jazzed about getting a copy of the show on CD. Everybody wins, and you've at the very least made a new friend for the show. Now, what if that person is a little more upset than you can handle by offering to spin a copy?

Dealing With Security
The thing to remember is that you do NOT want a confrontation with security. Keeping your neighbor from calling concert security serves two purposes: you personally don't want to get shut down, especially if you're the only taper, and all it takes is one person complaining and all the tapers could get shut down or moved together to a less-than-prime location, depending on how angry any particular security officer is.

Solving The Problem
So what happens if, no matter how diplomatic you've been, your neighbor still has a problem? The first thing to do is ask if he'd be interested in switching seats, asking first if the people behind him care about your microphone stand. One row back won't ruin your recording, and if noone else complains, you're home free. The second approach would be to ask another taper if you can clamp to his microphone stand. Always, always, always bring a mic clamp. In situations where there are too many mic stands in one location in a crowded room, being able to contribute to the solution by sharing one stand with someone else can be a fantastic way to keep things organized. Your last resort can always be to run at head-height so the stand is not in anybody's way, and if the show is a quieter one, this won't be much of a problem.

Now let's look at another scenario: dealing with other tapers.