What exactly is a Soundboard Recording?

[riffsofpage]

As opposed to an audience recording with I guess a recorder and cassette?

Thanks

[juxtiphi]

A soundboard recording is when a taper is able to jack into the soundboard used by the band to run the sound.

[Glyn]

Exactly. An audience recording is done with a mic and recorder somewhere out in the audience.

Soundboard recordings are captured from the soundboard - the sound is (more or less) directly from the instruments/mics on stage.

[riffsofpage]

Thanks for the clarification.

So then is it from microphones on stage, at the sounboard, or is it entirely from a jack. Or can it be any one of these possibilities?

I have this concert LZ Destroyer , 4/27/77 which is suppose to be soundboard but it sounds more like an audience recording.

[Glyn]

So then is it from microphones on stage, at the sounboard, or is it entirely from a jack. Or can it be any one of these possibilities?

Both. Examples of the mics on stage are the ones that capture the drums. The sound you get is pretty much directly from the instruments.

I have this concert LZ Destroyer , 4/27/77 which is suppose to be soundboard but it sounds more like an audience recording.

Destroyer is a soundbaord, and its one of the best sounding ones. Some of the crowd noise is picked up through Plants mic.

I'm not sure if there is one for that show, but sometimes people will mix the audience and soundboard recordings. This gives the sound quality of a soundboard with the ambiance of an audience recording.

[riffsofpage]

Thanks Juxt and Glyn for answering my main question about the soundboard. :-)

Just my first time listening to it(Destroyer) but it seems to have that harsh(high frequency) sound I associate with audience recordings as well as inconsistency(i.e. mic moves or someone moves in front of it). Also RP's vocals seem to overwhelm everything else at times which I don't think I wouldn't expect from a properly mixed soundboard. Just to clarify, this is Cleveland, 4/27/77(Swingin Pig Records)

I know there is another thread for this, but 3/5/75 Dallas seemed like a much better recording(Empress) IMO.