An Interview With NYC Taper: New York’s Live Music Archivist

LOWER MANHATTAN: We meet Dan Lynch aka NYC Taper downtown near City Hall at lunchtime. This is Dan Lynch by day — a criminal defense and civil rights attorney with offices near the city courthouses. By night, his scenery changes a bit. The very next night, for example, he’ll be recording MGMT at Radio City Music Hall.

Dan Lynch aka NYC Taper at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg

On the scene since ’07, NYC Taper is a beloved resource amongst indie rock bloggers like Brooklyn Vegan, Large Hearted Boy and Pitchfork and music fans worldwide. The intrepid recordist, Lynch and his four-track recorder and mic array capture an estimated 150 shows a year, capturing some of the best (mostly indie-rock) shows going down in our fair city. Through his website — http://www.nyctaper.com — he then provides show reviews, streaming recorded highlights and the entire concert as a free download.

Did you hear that Spoon played Cake Shop in the middle of the day this week? NYC Taper was there. Did you, like us, regretfully miss the Rocks Off Concert Cruise with Built To Spill a couple weeks back? Worry not, NYC Taper was on board. And when you just can’t swing a super-late-weeknight at Monster Island Basement, tune into NYC Taper — he may have you covered.

A sampling of NYC Taper’s summer ’10 recordings include Deerhunter and Real Estate at Pier 54, Franz Nicolay in Backyard Brunch Sessions, The National at Terminal Five, Flaming Lips at Central Park Summerstage and Holly Miranda at Vivo in Vino.

When Lynch or one of his three contributing tapers post the recordings, mixed in their respective home studios, they include the full recording details, i.e. Built To Spill on Rocks Off Concert Cruise: “This set was recorded with the Neumann microphones pointed at the stacks from about twenty feet, and mixed with feed from the soundboard. Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Sound Forge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac.”

Stream “Carry The Zero,” and we guarantee you’ll want the whole recording — it’s completely exhilarating. You feel like you’re there, getting swept away and out to sea, singing along with all the enraptured fans. And always chief among them is Lynch, who does this purely for the love of it — really, read all about it here:

Where did the concept for NYC Taper come from, and how long have you been recording live shows?

The site started in May of ’07. But, I’ve been recording concerts for a couple decades, though never with this regularity or at this quality. There are actually a few of my nineties recordings on the site. [i.e. Black ’47 @ Paddy Reilly’s in ’96]. I’ve also been collecting music since the late 70s and going to concerts in the city since I was a kid, growing up on Long Island.

Prior to starting the site, I’d been recording shows and posting them up on whatever Bit Torrent site, and it just seemed like there was nothing to it. And then one day someone took one of my recordings and posted it on their blog, without giving any credit. Plus, they’d down-sampled it to MP3 at a really crappy bit rate, and it sounded awful. And I just thought why don’t I do this? Why don’t I set up my own blog?

Tell us about how you got started…

For the first two or three months, I didn’t really have a vision for where it was going. It was just about putting up recordings and having that control over where and how they be posted. But then, about three weeks after I started the site, I recorded Dinosaur Jr. and that was big. And then Wilco at Hammerstein Ballroom and — wow — I was getting all these hits!

Those were both bands that allow fans to record their shows. But ultimately, I began reaching out to get permission to record bands and building my contacts there. And the big switch was when I started to realize that it’s not all that rewarding to record bands that everyone already knows. I love Wilco and I’ll go see them whenever they’re in NYC and record the show, and it gets big traffic for the site, but it’s more rewarding to find the band nobody really knows and help them get out there, and then see them playing bigger and bigger venues and feel like you had a part in that.

Awesome. And so it really took off. Why do you think it was the right time for something like this?

Setting up at Glasslands for the Prince Rama and Deakin show 9/13

Well, there are two different ways to record a concert. There’s what I do — actually getting the artist’s permission and recording with high-quality equipment to produce something everyone can be proud of. And then there’s the other subculture of fans bringing in their tiny recorders and tiny clip-on microphones and recording concerts. Some of those sound okay but most sound pretty thin.

This whole subculture has helped me in some ways because artists accept the concept that whenever they play out, people can’t really be stopped from recording the show. And if you can’t stop people from recording, then you — the artist — want to turn that into something you can control. They know I do good work, so it makes sense for them to give me the access and I’ll go in and do it right.

What criteria do you have when deciding which shows to record?

Well, I don’t go to see stuff I don’t like. NYC Taper is also a live music blog, giving people information, links and generally a good review — creating a buzz around music I think deserves it. In some cases, my recordings have given bands more exposure, which has led to more success. And that is my ultimate goal with this.

People reach out to me all the time now, and sometimes the bands are really good. So it’s definitely ballooned. There’s also a social element to it — I put on a CMJ show every year and an anniversary show every May. I’m not trying to be a concert promoter, but it’s just something I can do now because I have this vehicle to promote and all these artist and venue contacts.

Did you start out thinking about NYC Taper as something you might build into a business?

No, it’s not a business. I’m not making any money and I don’t want to make any money. I also don’t want to lose my shirt though. I’ve invested a lot of money into equipment, tickets and travel, etc. but occasionally people donate some money. I was able to pay for about half of the server fees last year with donations. I also get a lot of invites and get on a lot of guest lists.

And as far as the actual recording — how do you typically set up? Do you have different configurations or methods?

It depends on the venue. I generally like venues that are going to let me plug into the soundboard any way that I can. And then I’ve got the 4-track recorder so I’m going to put two high-end mics somewhere in a good spot in the room. I’ll get 4 channels, and then mix it down however it needs to be mixed down.

I’m using the Edirol R-44 recorder. It’s really small, which is great. I have external battery power, an 8GB SD card and I can get about 4 hours of music in 4 channels at 24/48. And then I’ll pull it into the computer, and I’m using Sound Forge to edit and mix.

OK, and where do you like to place the microphones, using a recent show as an example.

NYC Taper's Neumanns setup aimed at the stacks on the Glasslands stage

Sure, I was just at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn, and I set up the microphone pole right in front of the soundboard, and then I set up my recorder and took a line out from the board. At the Rock Shop that’s literally 20 feet from the stage and so I used my Neumanns.

But it really depends — I record in so many different venues in the city. I’d only been to the Rock Shop like twice, but it’s easy. Other venues aren’t as easy — I might have to run extra cable and figure out a different setup. A lot of it is haphazard too, so I’m going in there and figuring out what I need to do right away. And I want it to be quick in and out because I’m doing 150 shows a year.

What’s the biggest venue you’ll record in?

I was in Terminal 5 for The National the end of July. In a lot of the big rooms, you can’t get a board feed unless you pay for it. Sometimes it’s $200 or more. One place asked me for $3,000! In those cases, I’ll just run mics in the room. So a lot of the recordings are just that — mics in the room. And if that’s what it is, I’m doing four mics to a four-track recorder.

Where have you gotten the best results? What’s the best room in NYC?

The best room, sound quality wise, is probably Bowery Ballroom, where I don’t get a sound board feed very often, but I have a couple times in cases where the bands went out of their way to talk to the sound guy on my behalf. But the sound in that room is so good that just running four mics from the balcony sometimes produces amazing recordings.

And how exactly to you place the microphones in that case, where you’re capturing the room, no board feed?

A pair of Neumann KM-150s, which are the hyper-cardioids, are pointing straight into the stacks, and a pair of DPA 4021s are going out (sideways) to get a rounder feel. They’re cardioids too, but they have a wider spectrum. All four are mounted on a microphone pole.

Ooh, I also really like the Bell House — the setup is really good for me there. The board is raised and I get to be up there too, so I’m raised above the crowd with a straight line at the stacks. I’ve had a board feed there a bunch of times, and the people working are always good.

What about a DIY-type venue, like Monster Island Basement?

Todd rents a small system for these shows and there are limitations, but I’ve been really happy with some of these recordings, like the Akron/Family show there in July.

And what about post-production? What’s your philosophy about the end product?

NYC Taper gets a board feed from Glasslands FOH Derek Maxwell (left)

I want it to sound as close to the experience as possible. I do not normalize. I don’t want a wall of sound. If you look at my wave files, I want life and breathing room in between the peaks. I want it to have some natural dynamics.

So, I’m pretty conservative in the field in terms of recording. I don’t want peaks because I know when something peaks out and brickwalls then I can’t even use it. When I go back to mix — let’s say it’s a four channel and I’ve got soundboard and audience — the audience is going to be pretty basic. I’m just going to bring it up to 0.1 on the peaks. A lot of times I’ll get heavy drumbeats or claps that I’ll have to soften but I want most of it to be in that range — the real peaks at like 0.1.

And then on the board, it depends because a lot of boards are vocal heavy or keyboard heavy, so I’ll have to figure out the percentages of what I want to do. If the board is well-balanced, and the audience is loud, it’s going to be 75% board; if the board is poorly balanced and the audience is really nice and clean, it’ll be 75% audience.

You go to more shows than anyone I know — which have been your favorites this year?

My favorite show so far this year was Holly Miranda at Vivo In Vino. This happens one Sunday a month, they bring in an artist and team them up with a boutique winery at In Vino in the East Village. She was solo for this show. It was like she was playing in someone’s living room. I also saw her at Bowery Ballroom in May and that was one of the better shows I’ve seen this year as well.

And are you available for hire?

Yeah, I do a few shows here and there. But it’s not that much fun for me necessarily. If I’m going just to make some extra money, and the band doesn’t do much for me and I wouldn’t record them otherwise, then it’s like a job. And I have a job — I don’t need another one. (laughs) But it’s nice to get paid to go out to a show and sometimes you make good contacts with the venues and sound guys.

NYC Taper has caught on fast — what do you think that says about the market for live concert recordings?

The fact is that there are other people and companies doing this because fans want these recordings. That company Aderra records concerts to flash drives and there’s another site called PlayedLastNight. But I like to think I’m doing more than just recording these shows. There’s the social element as well.

You see yourself as more of a blogger and recordist.

Exactly. And in that sense, it gives people more of a feel of the experience. And if they don’t agree, they can comment! I’ve also become, in some ways, kind of a tastemaker by choosing to record bands that I think are good. I get comments on the site where people say ‘I loved this recording and band — I went out and bought the CD. Or, I’m glad you recorded this because this band didn’t come to my town. That’s the goal — when that happens, I really feel like I’ve done something good.

Indeed, and on the tastemaker tip, tell us about some of the artists you’re excited about right now!

Well, I’ve been plugging Sharon Van Etten for a couple years now. She’s headlining Mercury Lounge in October. I also like Common Prayer (led by Jason Russo of Hopewell), who played Rock Shop this week. I really like their album. I’ve always been a fan of The Loom, and they have a new album that’s really good. And I think Diamond Rings is going to hit it big pretty soon.

I’ll do my CMJ Show on Thursday at Cake Shop and we’ll have like nine bands, including Unicycle Loves You, Keepaway, ArpLine. Every band is a band I believe in.

Cool! And where do you go from here? Do you have plans to build out the site in any way?

One of the things I want to start doing is streaming. My first streaming show is going to be a venue that’s reopening and it’s going to be a pretty big deal. That may not happen for a few months.

I also want to get more people involved in the site. Right now, it’s three regular tapers. Down the road, I want it to be 20 people, so we’re doing one or two shows a night. I want it to be like Brooklyn Vegan, with their photo coverage, but for recording. I can only do so much, I need to get some other people involved.

I also want to redesign the site — and I’ve been looking for a white knight for a server. It’d be awesome to have a humongous server — everything could become more comprehensive and I could expand the reach, so more people know who I am and what the site is all about!

Visit the NYC Taper site at http://www.nyctaper.com and check out the huge archive of shows, including Spoon at Cake Shop on Monday afternoon. It’s already up! And follow NYC Taper on Twitter @nyctaper.

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