An Ounce of Prevention

[billroper]

I got to Capricon this year with the recording hardware ready to slurp up the concerts at the con. Then I discovered that I'd left the dongle at home that provides the licensing for WaveLab, which is what I've been using for field recording. (Yes, this is something akin to killing a fly with an elephant gun, but it's a very dead fly, which is a good thing.)

I quickly downloaded a copy of Audacity, because it's free and I needed something to record with right then. Unfortunately, the default metering setup in Audacity is pretty thoroughly inadequate and we ended up with clipping on a lot of the recordings, because the resolution of the meters was set too low for us to see the clips. I wasn't thrilled by this.

Ok, we could adjust the scale on the meters, which is probably a pretty good idea. But before I got around to playing with that, I got an offer from Steinberg for the cut down versions of both WaveLab and Cubase for $179. And it seemed like it would be really nice to have the software that I was using in the studio available in the field, even if missing a few features, without having to worry about taking the dongles out of the studio. So I downloaded it.

Tonight, I've gotten it installed and set up on the laptop. This greatly improves my chances of recording Seanan and Wild Mercy's concerts without incident.

We'll see how this goes.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nice. How many inputs do you have on that? (I may be asking for emergency backup recording help with TomBoat II at Windy. I am not taking any damn chances this year.) I understand that Audacity (and WaveLab and Sound Forge) does multitrack recording, technically, but I can't imagine using anything besides an actual DAW to do the basic recording. Just seems easier, is all.

[billroper]

The Firebox only has four inputs (and WaveLab will only use two at a time, although Cubase will handle a lot), but I've got a M-Audio Project Mix with 8 ins and a Octopre that should be able to come in through the Project Mix via light pipe to provide another 8 ins. I haven't tried that configuration yet. :)

OTOH, Dave's got a couple of nice MOTU units that he picked up on eBay that have been working fine for him, so they should be able to interface into whatever he's using for multitrack recording. He field tested the setup at Musecon, so it's actually been through one round...

The problem at this point is more one of getting all of the tracks out of the Mackie 1604 safely. Fortunately, Dave and I independently figured out how to use the insert points to get all 16 channels, since the 1604 only has eight direct outs.

I lust after one of Mackie's Onyx mixers, but that's going to stay a lust item for a while. :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That Mackie unit looks gorgeous. Although it doesn't look automated. My only inputs that I trust are on my M-Audio Audio Buddy -- never got the FastTrack USB input thingie to work -- and my only board is an adorable li'l Korg nanoKONTROL2... which, granted, is all I really need right now. :)

[billroper]

Yeah, the Onyx mixers are mixers, not controllers, so automation isn't an option there.

On the other hand, there are some demented souls out there who are working on their own software to turn the d8b into a 24-track DAW controller. :) Whee!

Right now, it looks like the best option for a wide controller is to buy a Mackie Universal control and then add two extra pods to get to 24 tracks. And that's not cheap...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yep. The Onyx looks road-sturdy, lots of inputs, not a studio piece. In my dreams, I can get an automated controller... but I've realized that, for the most part, I don't need one, at least not now. Just not riding the controls that hard.

[dave-ifversen.livejournal.com]

I'm using Mixcraft 5 by Acoustica - a true DAW solution that does multi-track recording, among other things. I've got 2 MOTU 8 Pre units (24-bit 96KHz recording/playback, 8 analog inputs, 2 ADAT connectors that will handle another 8 channels of digital in/out) and 1 MOTU 896 (also 8 analog inputs, 2 ADAT connectors, 24-bit 96KHz recording/playback). All of these also supply a Firewire interface to the computer doing the recording.

The 896 had its first trial by fire recording the concerts at DucKon (I loaned it to Xap), and the results I've been getting with the mastering are phenomenal. I used one of the 8 Pre units to record Sooj and Betsey at MuseCon - I haven't started mastering that one yet, but I did give the raw files a listen, and things sounded very good.

I wish I could afford one of the Mackie Onyx mixers :-). Of course, what I'd really like is one of the Allen & Heath mixers with digital controls - there's an IPad app to control the mixer via wireless (called MixPad, by the theorem of least surprise) which works really well from what I've been told.

[billroper]

BTW, what we might do is to take the single track outputs from the 1604 out to Dave's MOTU units and from there to his recorder, while I can take the L/R outs from the mixer (because we're going to use the mono feed for the house) into my Firebox and get a two-track recording. In that case, you're living with the house mix, but my house mix is usually pretty good.

And it's another option in case something goes wrong with either recording...