Man, this is so silly. Arguing over a live recording? C'mon. You can take 4 sources from the same show and compare and yes, they will sound different. Location, source, mics and anything in the middle of the chain (like a battery module, preamp, mixer, etc etc) can affect a recording. Do i expect a pat on the back? Nah, i don't do it for pride or ego, i do it because its a hobby i enjoy, that's why i invested in a minidisc recorder, dat recorder, mics, two battery modules and boxes of blank dat tapes. I get a kick out of hearing how a recording of mine sounds. It's all trial and error for me.
As for Minidisc, well, the format uses compression for recording practices, so i personally don't look up to MD as the best medium (it's a matter of convenience), especially a recorder that uses a older version of Atrac (like Mark's R37 model), such as 4.0 (url:
http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-R37.html), which did hack off some bass and treble, Atrac 4.5 sounds quite stellar however as does Type R. Dat, on the other hand, is lossless, like a wav file. So the recorder isn't limiting sound quality at all, but there's a price to pay for it. I personally have used a Sharp DR-7 minidisc recorder (type R) with great results but found the damned unit to be finicky (abruptly turning off if jostled, etc etc).
As for fiddling with audio after the fact, no, the only thing i ever do is raise the db if needed in Adobe audition, i don't believe in fiddling with any frequencies, like lowering midbass or rasing upper frequencies. Am i some sort of nutty audiophile? Not really, but i don't like fudging around with a recording because it can always give a distorted opinion on the gear i use.
Guys, put your pride aside and enjoy the fact that you can jump on a computer and download a recording someone made several hundred or thousands of miles away from where you live.
