Renting Recording Equipment

I'm going to a show in a week and i would love to record it but i don't have any equipment, is there any good places to rent?

JOn

 

Honestly i've never tried to rent equipment so i'm not sure where you can do that, i'd start off by trying other tapers, or maybe your local audio equipment shop (if you have one)

 

what kind of taping equipment is commonly used?
where in the venue does one commonly record from?

 

Willy, taping has changed a lot over the last 20 years or so. Originally people would use reel to reel or cassettes. Then DAT (digital audio tape) became the standard for many years.
These days your choices are plentiful. One of the most popular formats now is hard-disk recording.
One of the cheaper ways to get into taping is go and pick up a minidisc recorder, that's how I got started.
As far as mics go, you don't really need them to start, you can always "patch" or plug into someone else with mics or a soundboard hookup. If you want to get a good set of mics, you want a matched pair of condenser mics along with a portable (battery-powered) preamp with phantom power (+48v). A lot of the higher-end hard disk recorders have preamps built in.
Taping in the venue usually is done from the front-of-house position, in front of the soundboard.
If you have any further questions, feel free to message me. I'm an audio engineer who's been taping shows for about 8 years now.