Your basic needs (especially if you decide to go stealth) are :
- mics : prices range from $150 to thousands of dollars, and of course the quality varies accordingly. There are omnidirectional and unidirectional mics.
- recording gear : it can be a DAT deck (most expensive), a minidisc recorder (cheapest but a certain loss of quality goes with it), or a hard drive recorder such as the Creative JB3. I'm personnally in favour of the last solution, even though the device is a bit bulky. You can record directly in wav, which means no loss of quality. Recording directly on the hard drive means you don't have to change the disc in the middle of the show, and that's a BIG advantage compared to the MD. And its price is relatively reasonable.
- blank media if you use a DAT deck or a MD.
Then you can add a battery to power up your mics in loud concert setting, preamps..... The possibilities are endless.
I recommend you to check out this message board :
www.taperssection.comIt's full of useful information.