Newbie Question: How to reasearch

[attheshow]

Please forgive me if this is answered elsewhere, I couldn't find it in the FAQ and wasn't sure what terms to search under here.

Aside from searching here and on etree (and googling) is there any reliable way to determine if a particular show has ever been released as a boot? I want to make sure that there aren't better quality boots of the same show out there before going through the trouble of transferring and encoding a master of an amature attempt at an AUD recording.

Thanks in advance.

[U2Lynne]

One of the things I do as a Mod is look to see if the artist has an official website and then if they have a discography on it. That is a really easy way to find out if something is released. I also go to amazon.com (but make sure when you search that you aren't coming up with used items because those could be bootlegs).

[attheshow]

I'm sorry, I don't think my question was clear. What I want to find out is if there are existing (better quality) boots of the same show circulating, so that I don't duplicate the effort just to produce produce an inferior rendition of the same material.

So... I have access to a master which has never been released. It is not of great quality. If there are no better boots of the same show I will transfer and encode it and contribute it here. If there are better copies my efforts would be better spent on a different project.

Other than etree and the messages here, is there an archive of known boots somewhere that I can check?

Thanks again.

[U2Lynne]

I don't think there is some great bootleg database that covers all artists. However, there are some bootleg databases that are specific for bands. What artist is it that you have a tape of?

[attheshow]

AUD recordings of Barenaked Ladies and Warren Zevon as well as an FM (mono, some static in the intro) recording of U2.

[U2Lynne]

Well, I'm not sure about databases for the first two, but for U2 there is FLOM: http://www.u2news.de/flom/ However, flom hasn't been updated in almost ten years, so there is nothing from their last two tours on there. Also, regarding U2, you can go to the forums at u2torrents.com and ask there and see if anyone knows about that particular FM recording.

[attheshow]

Thanks!

[Five]

for the aud recordings, if they are different from what's out there they are worth putting out, if only for the possibility of being used to fill small gaps from tape flips on a better source or just for another persepective. It is a nice touch to find out if your source sounds better/worse than what's out there by contacting somebody who has a copy of the circulating version (if there is one) and getting a short sample for comparison (via rapidshare.com or similar). Then you can put something in the notes of the txt file about this.

with the U2 FM broadcast, it is probably already out there but it is possible that your version could be used to bridge a gap from tape flip on a better-sounding version or that yours is the better-sounding version. If you find somebody who has these shows on their list it is my experience that they are usually happy to help with a potential upgrade.