[evollove]

That's it. I'm done. I don't think I've ever heard a good audience recording of any show, except maybe some spoken word stuff. I'm fucking sick of filling my drive with shit I can't stand to listen to. And hey, trust me, I'm no audiophile.

It's funny when they're FLAC. Great. Crystal clear shit.

I always get conned too. A Dime seeder will say, "For an audience recording, sounds pretty good," which I now know means something like, "For an Andy Dick performance, really funny."

If you plan on recording a show, do us all a favor. Get three or freinds to also record the show from various points in the venue, then mix them together. That would sound less sucky.

[This Is Not Here]

I know the feeling man, the worst audience recording I've ever heard was an SY show in Boston I think, back in the 80s when they were touring Bad Moon Rising. Its absolutely abismal quality, you really have to listen really carefully to hear anything that even resembles Sonic Youth.

[greedrex]

i have listenable audience recordings. But i'm growing tired of actually listening to live stuff.
ask stu666
he's got some good stuff, i guess (although maybe not audience recorded actually)

[This Is Not Here]

Generally speaking, and there are a few exceptions (SY being one of them), I have little or no interest in hearing bands' early demos or crappy live recordings. If it's good, then it'll make me resent the fact I wasn't born 20 years earlier to be there, but usually its just so poorly recorded theres no listening pleasure in there at all. Why waste your time (and possibly money) on this shit, when you can use it to hear other studio recordings, which, if I might mention, is how the artist wants you to hear it.

[greedrex]

Originally Posted by This Is Not Here

Generally speaking, and there are a few exceptions (SY being one of them), I have little or no interest in hearing bands' early demos or crappy live recordings. If it's good, then it'll make me resent the fact I wasn't born 20 years earlier to be there, but usually its just so poorly recorded theres no listening pleasure in there at all. Why waste your time (and possibly money) on this shit, when you can use it to hear other studio recordings, which, if I might mention, is how the artist wants you to hear it.

i validate what you just said entirely.

[nicfit]

Originally Posted by evollove

That would sound less sucky.

well, your post would sound less sucky if you mentioned the fact that's all free stuff you're free not to download .

kiddin'.

I understand what you mean, but honestly most of the times checking the lineage/equipment used and tapers' notes (when there are no samples to check) should give you an idea of the sound quality.
I have some audience recording better sounding than actual albums.
I'm talkin' 'bout a bunch of bands, not specifically SY shows.

[Everyneurotic]

i have heard aud recordings that are amazing, and have heard soundboards that are shittier than the average bad aud recordings.

[atsonicpark]

Yeah, I have a few Captain Beefheart audience recordings that are amazing. I heard a Hot Snakes audience recording once that was totally ridiculously amazing too. As a general rule, soundboard recordings are usually better but who knows. I think they're all interesting to hear, if nothing else.

[king_buzzo]

recordings from soundboards are just better, I haven't heard an audience recording which impressed me in ages.

[Torn Curtain]

Originally Posted by Everyneurotic

i have heard aud recordings that are amazing, and have heard soundboards that are shittier than the average bad aud recordings.

Ditto.

[atsonicpark]

every john fahey audience recording is amazing!

of course, it is just an acoustic guitar..

[gohleekwang]

I have pretty of good audience recording (some Tom Wait's cross my mind). good audience recording coming from good room acoustic, indoor are better then outdoor (in general).

[andrei]

I'm affraid i don't share your point of view. I have audience analog recordings from the early 80's that sounds better than digital soundoards from our era (well, almost, every amateur recording has it's goods and bads, it can not be compared with an official release, in may cases). There are some good, experienced tapers who have done really great audience recordings which i enjoy more than an offical release of the same band.
Of course, there are many shity recordings out there but it's your choice if you want to download it (for free) and listen to it.

I personally think DAT audience recordings capture the sound better than other AUD recordings, even the full-digital new HD recorders, but that's a different thing.

[evollove]

Last night I went through about 50 different bootlegs to see if I was wrong.

Yes, I made a blanket statement. I should have said MOST audience recordings suck. Atsonicpark's right--acoustic shows fare better, though it's amazing how many of those manage to suck as well.

MOST audience recordings are either too muddy or else have no bass at all. Weird.

My frustration comes from not always being able to sample the shows before I download them. The shattered hopes, the fruitless anticipation...it hurts.

Anyone know the source of 1969: VU live? I have the feeling that it's audience. Good counter-example. Great great recording.

[jon boy]

some audience recordings can be awful thats very true but sometimes i kind of like the liveness of the sound because its more raw which i really love and you can get a different version of a song also. its not a clone, its not fake its just fucking live man!

[PAULYBEE2656]

audience recordings are fine as long as the audience shuts the fuck up!

[atari 2600]

Originally Posted by evollove

Anyone know the source of 1969: VU live? I have the feeling that it's audience. Good counter-example. Great great recording.

It's just listed in online infos as an audience recording. And it's purportedly not first generation either. For that, you need the "At the End of Cole Ave." bootleg set.
I did some searching to see if I could find any mic/recording info, and came up with the following tidbits from an active torrent.

Notes: Review:Sometimes archival material which first appeared on a bootleg album will later find authorized release with improved sound quality, but the Velvet Underground's boot Live at End Cole Ave. is a rare example of this process working in reverse.
In 1969, the Velvet Underground played a few dates at a club in Dallas, TX, called the End of Cole Avenue, and a fan who worked as a recording engineer brought a tape machine and mics and recorded two nights of their stand. Years later, some of the End of Cole Avenue's tapes were combined with recordings from 1969 shows in San Francisco for the album 1969: Velvet Underground Live, but by the time Mercury Records got their hands on the Dallas recordings, they were several generations removed from the original source material.
Live at End Cole Ave. (as a grammatically challenged bootlegger has chosen to call it) was mastered from the original first generation tapes of the October 18 & 19 1969, End of Cole Avenue recordings, and the differences in the sound quality are dramatic--louder and clearer, as with the others in this remastered series. Plus the absence of the blanket of hiss which has usually hovered over these performances is more than welcome; this is certainly one of the very best-sounding Velvets live recordings extant (though the levels tend to fluctuate in mid-song).
Also, a number of performances which didn't make the cut for the 1969: Velvet Underground Live album are here, and if these tapes capture the band in relatively subdued form, the performances are committed and emphatic, and add further evidence to the theory that this band never played a song the same way twice. This is a fascinating bit of Velvet Underground arcania and great rock & roll in its own right; now would someone care to dig up the unedited versions of the San Francisco tapes from 1969: Velvet Underground Live and give them an airing as well?
Mark Deming, All Music Guide

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by atari 2600

It's just listed in online infos as an audience recording. And it's purportedly not first generation either. For that, you need the "At the End of Cole Ave." bootleg set.

Was it the Columbus '66 shows that were taped by Robert Quine?

[atari 2600]

Originally Posted by tesla69

Was it the Columbus '66 shows that were taped by Robert Quine?

Seems like the majority of the Quine tapes I've heard are really bad quality from many generations, one supposes.

Quine was the one that taped the show from The Matrix, and also The Family Dog at the Great Highway (w/ Grateful Dead) San Fran '69 show(s) though ...(part of which is included along with the Dallas '69 on 1969)///..recounted in the article below...

Getting back to the question, I do like that Valleydale Ballroom '66 too because it has Cale and Nico.
...from the very first VU boot which was Down for You is Up...it's sometimes mistakenly listed as La Cave, Cleveland '68 (i think).
Maybe you are wondering if Quine taped this one too because he's from Ohio. After a bit of research, I see that he cites that his first recording was from Washington University in St Louis, MO in 1969, so it couldn't have been...hmmm, I've never heard it....

found this
http://www.robertquine.com/notes.html
reprinting because it's nifty

In the late '60s, I was studying law at Washington University in St. Louis. I was a rock & roll fan, playing guitar since 1958 and in various groups since 1961. In 1968, I became a rabid Velvet Underground fan and spent countless hours on headphones learning from them. There were a lot of great things going on from the mid- to late '60s, but my greatest influences were The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, Jeff Beck's work with The Yardbirds and The Velvet Underground. So when they came to play a concert at Washington University on May 11, 1969 (sharing the bill with Taj Mahal), I was ready! I had just bought my first cassette recorder, a Sony with a hand-held microphone. Despite a lousy P.A. system and a very echoey basketball gym, the concert was great, the high point being the performance of 'Sister Ray' included in this set.
Later that year, I moved to San Francisco, staying there two years before ultimately moving to New York City. In early November, The Velvet Underground came to San Francisco and stayed for nearly a month. They started out with three nights at The Family Dog, a large Fillmore-type space. A number of hippies brought tambourines and harmonicas to "do their thing" with the group. But the sound was great for recording - the band was able to play really loud.
After that, they played The Matrix,, a fairly small club, for several weeks, and I taped most of those performances. In the beginning, there weren't many people in the audience. There were a few nights when they started the first set with only four or five people in the club! Under those circumstances, the group couldn't help but notice me and they were very friendly, putting me on the guest list every night and inviting me to hang out with them in the dressing room between sets. They appreciated the fact that I was so serious about recording them, and Lou Reed would occasionally "warn" me when they were going to do something special, like 'Black Angel's Death Song'. Sometimes, backstage, they'd ask me to play back a particular song they¹d done in the previous set.
They also invited me to watch their occasional rehearsals at the club. They'd work on arrangements for new songs, such as 'Ride Into The Sun' and 'New Age'. They got along quite well - there wasn't the slightest hint of whatever problems they would experience recording Loaded a few months later.
I got the opportunity to spend quite a few hours talking with Lou Reed about music. We'd sometimes go to this hot dog place across the street from the club (I think it was called Coney Island Franks) and talk about how incredible it was in 1955 to be a kid and first discover rock & roll - doo wop, rockabilly, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, etc. Regarding contemporary stuff, Lou was especially fond of the Stones. As for guitarists, he was very enthusiastic about a Byrds concert he'd seen at the Village Gate in 1966, where McGuinn took an incredible extended solo on 'Eight Miles High'. And he was rightfully quite proud of his own guitar soloing on songs like 'I Heard Her Call My Name' but was also resigned to the fact that most people weren't ready for it yet. Anyway, the VU gradually built up an enthusiastic following at The Matrix and by the time they left, the place was always packed.
After they left San Francisco, I spent months constantly listening to the cassettes I'd made. But the technology then was relatively primitive - it wasn't uncommon for cassettes to jam in the machine and get "eaten". So I borrowed a 7-inch reel-to-reel Sony machine and copied about four hours of what I considered to be the best performances. I'm glad I did it because the original cassettes became quite worn, damaged and ultimately misplaced. I got a lot of pleasure and inspiration from these performances. As a guitar player, they were an important element in shaping what musical direction I wanted to take.
"In the early 80s, I finally got the chance to play guitar with Lou Reed, an association that lasted nearly four years. Some great things came out of it, and I'm especially proud of the album The Blue Mask."
I'd like to thank my partner in this project, Michael Carlucci of Subterranean Records. Like me, he's a big Velvet Underground fan, and he spent a lot of energy pushing me to dig out these tapes and to take the first steps in trying to get them released. I'd also like to thank Bill Levenson for his enthusiasm and persistence in getting this stuff out in the best possible form. And, of course, the Velvet Underground - for contributing so much to the world of music and for their generosity to a crazed fan a long time ago.
Listening to this stuff all these years later, I'm ultimately the same fan I was in 1969.
-- Robert Quine

Robert Quine (born Dec. 30, 1942; Akron, Ohio) first achieved recognition for his guitar work as a founding member of Richard Hell & the Voidoids, one of the New York "punk" scene groups of the late 70s. From 1981 until 1985, he recorded and toured extensively with Lou Reed. Since then, he has recorded with numerous artists including Brian Eno, John Zorn, Lloyd Cole, Matthew Sweet, Tom Waits and Marianne Faithfull.