Treeing Tapes on Rustby Randy Schechter (wd51rs@sgi45.wwb.noaa.gov)and David Lybrand (reactor@HyperRust.org)
IntroductionBefore starting, you'll probably want to see what Neil has said about taping. Now, what you will find below are our views of things --- not everyone will agree 100% with what we say here and no one is obligated to follow these conventions. Some trees on Rust may not adhere strictly to this --- this is only a guide, NOT an edict.
Definition?Before we begin, let's first look at one person's definition of what Tape Trees are: Tape trees are a little-known deciduous variety in the nightshade family. Various species have been cultivated around the world for years, providing people with the essential tapes for all aspects of their lives. In scotland, for example, farmers have bred tape trees to produce the familiar Scotch Tape with the Transparent, Wide, and 2-Side species.Well, maybe that's NOT what we're talking about. So let's get back on track...
MotivationFirst a little propaganda as to our motivation for running trees... First and foremost it is to share with others quality Neil Young music that we have been lucky enough to obtain. I (Randy) have a rather large tape collection (mostly Grateful Dead) but we remember being beginner collectors. Trees also serve the purpose of helping new tape collectors to get their collections going. People who are new to tape collecting (or to Neil Young's music) are welcome and encouraged to sign up for the tape trees. Another of our motivations for running trees is to try to discourage people from feeling the need to partake of the large commerical bootleg market out there. We won't go into a long tirade against commerical bootlegs here. Let's just say that we personally view commercial bootleg producers to be disrespectful of an artists rights by cashing in on the artist's music without any consideration for the artist. The Tree SeedThe first step in the tree process is finding the seed tape. A seed tape is the tape that will ultimately be used to make everyone's copy. These days recording equipment has gotten so small that almost every show gets taped one way or another. So it's important to seek out a tape worthy to seed the tree. The qualities that are important for a seed tape (aside from the obvious requirement that someone volunteers their copy to be a seed) is that the sound quality be very good to excellent. The sound quality for tapes degrades with each generation as hiss is introduced in the copying process (this is only true for analog tapes --- DAT tapes do not suffer from that kind of degradation). So if we start off with a poor sounding seed tape, the leaf tapes (see below) will be unlistenable. The standards one uses to decide if a seed tape is "tree worthy" are subjective. They might therefore be subjectively lowered if the seed is from an older show, or a show where no other copy exists --- especially if the particular show includes a "rarity" of some kind (for example, an acoustic version of Southern Man).
Branches and LeavesOnce the seed is in hand, the next step is to select the branch leaders. The branch leaders are the folks who volunteer to spin 6-10 copys of the show for the "leaves", as in this inverted tree structure: Seed Tape | +----------+----------+--+--------------- - - - ---+ | | | | | Branch 1 Branch 2 Branch 3 Branch 4 Branch "n" | | | | | | +---------+---- - - --+ | | | Leaf 1 Leaf 2 Leaf "n"The number of branches can be very large on a tree for a long-awaited show (such as the Neil & Pearl Jam show at the Polo Grounds), so the tree leader always has the biggest "workload" by far. On Rust, a tree generally runs anywhere from 20 to 30 branches. Also depending on the size of the tree, the number of leaves on a branch can run anywhere from 5 to 10. So branch leaders must be prepared to handle dealing with that many leaves.
Branch Leader SelectionIt would be nice if a tree only required the tree administator to make branch copies and the branch leaders make the leaf copies. However in practice there's more to it, since the tree administrator has to select the branch leaders. The criteria for branch leader selection is most heavily dependent on the quality of the dubbing equipment. In the best of worlds, all branch leaders would have two top of the line single decks (as opposed to dubbing decks) with 3 heads in the tape transports. This would ensure the best copies for everyone. In practice this is not likely, since most of us are not wealthy. Thus the tree administrator tries to ensure that the branch leaders have at least fairly good recording equipment. Another factor for branch leader selection that sometimes is used is to consider the track record of the branch volunteer in previous trees/trades. Ideally, again, we choose people who take the responsibility of being a branch leader seriously over those who have repeatedly caused delays. In the old days the practice was to find the seed, spin the branch tapes, open up the tree to everyone for sign-up, and THEN select the branch leaders from the general sign-up population. This practice may still be used by some tree administrators. More often these days, there is a separate call for branch leader volunteers BEFORE the tree is opened up for leaf sign-up. This makes the administration a bit easier, and in some cases gives the branch leaders a little breathing room because they can get their copies before the full tree structure gets posted. In theory, this lets them start spinning the leaves' tapes ahead of time.
Distributing Branch TapesOnce the branch leaders are chosen, the tree administator makes arrangements to send the branch tapes to the branch leaders. This can be accomplised by either arranging a tape trade for the branch tapes, sending blanks-plus-return-postage, or in some cases just sending cash for the price of the blank tapes and postage. Please remember the return postage! It seems more and more people forget this little detail...
Gathering LeavesOkay, so now the branch leaders have their tapes. The next step is to open the tree for general sign-up. Trees are run in a spirit of International Cooperation, so we generally have branchs in Canada, Europe, Australia and occasionally Japan. The branch leaders from each nation take care of the leaves from their particular regions, where possible, to simplify mailing and currency transactions (where necessary). However sometimes there will be a Rusty from another nation on a branch. The tree administrator should get the okay from the branch leader before assigning such leaves to them, though. The tree is generally open for sign-up for 1-2 weeks. After the sign-up is closed, the tree structure is designed and then posted to Rust.
The Branch - Leaf ConnectionNote: Leaves are responsible for contacting their branch leader to arrange to get their tapes! If you, the leaf, have something to trade for your tape(s) by all means set up a trade. If you have nothing to trade, just send blanks and return postage. After all, one of the motives for running trees is to help beginners get started. Note that it's not cool to trade for blanks just to save yourself some trouble. If you've got trade material, take the effort to make a trade with the branch leader - after all, that branch leader's got a lot more work to do than you do, so help to make him or her happy (so that they will do it again and again and keep the trees going!) Branch leaders and leaves should arrange recording criteria (i.e. Dolby) amongst themselves. Sometimes the tree administrator will arrange to have certain branches that are "Dolby only" or "No-Dolby only". But generally the Branch leader gets a No-Dolby tape unless special arrangements are made. Depending on the branch leader's recording equipment, they may not be able to dub a tape different than their own. So if you insist on having Dolby, it's probably a good idea to tell the tree administrator at sign-up time. A Note About Dolby: The Dolby circuitry varies from machine to machine, so there's a chance that you're not damping out exactly what was boosted on the recording deck. We'll leave the Dolby debate for elsewhere, but branch leaders should be willing and able to accomodate their leaves if possible. Also see Cherry's guidelines for trading tapes on Rust.
Distributing Leaf TapesIf you have set up a trade with your branch leader, this part is easy. Just mail your trade tape (or whatever you're trading) to the branch leader and then they will mail you the tree tape. Mission accomplished. If you must trade for blanks, send the blank tapes in a padded envelope (suitable for sending your tape back to you) and enough postage to cover the cost of mailing the tape back to you. That's generally about $1.00-$1.25 for a single tape (in the US). Please include your name, address, and email address with any blank tape you send, along with a note specifying what tree the blank tape is for. Since tree administrators and branch leaders have several trees/trades going on at once, this is very important!
Pet Peeves
Caveats
Final WordsAny deviations from the above MUST BE CLEARED WITH THE PERSON YOU ARE DEALING WITH. Many tree administrators are very fussy about deviations from this rule! Suggestions, corrections, etc. are welcome! Thats it!
Postscript From RandyImplicit in all this (for any tree I'm involved in anyhow) is that you will not sell these tapes to anyone --- these tapes are for trading purpose only! If I ever learn that any tapes I tree have found their way into the commercial bootleg market that will end my involvement with tape trees --- it's strictly an ethical question for me. . . . .Randy
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