Hello all! I apologize if this is the wrong section. I'm new to this forum and have been out of recording for a few years now.
TL;WR (Too long, won't read): I'm looking at options and advice for a project I'm working on. The project requires the ability to simultaneously record 30 channels of audio to a computer. I need hardware and software advice or direction.
Here's a little bit of background on what we need. We will be digitizing analog tapes that hold 30 tracks of audio each. The tapes are long, up to ~14 hours, so the bandwidth and space requirements are quite high. I have never personally recorded more than 8 or so tracks at once, and definitely not for anything near this amount of time, so I'm looking for some help, direction, and advice regarding the hardware and software we will need to use. It is also important to note that the levels coming off of the tape heads are very low. We performed proof-of-concept testing recording only three tracks through a TASCAM US-2000 into a MacBook Air running REAPER. The available gain wasn't high enough, so we had to send each channel through a separate pre-amp before the TASCAM.
Our initial idea was to just compound the setup we have, picking up another few Tascam US-2000's (or similar 8-track audio interface), and recording on 4 different computers, and worrying about syncing audio later, with the hypothesis being that this would be the cheapest/easiest (initially)/most accessible option. I'm now trying to come up with cost estimates and researching available gear to see if this is the case, or if there is some solution where all 30 tracks can be recorded with a single computer and audio interface?
All of the audio being recorded is speech, so we don't need a high sampling rate.
Does anyone out there have experience recording this many tracks at once? And/Or recordings this long? Does anyone know of standalone pre-amps or audio interfaces with 16 or 30+ channels? Is it possible for a non-dedicated PC to record 30-tracks at once?
So far hardware-wise, I've come across the Apollo Duo as one of the higher-input (18-ch) devices available, but they're quite pricey and we would still require two (and possibly 30 channels of pre-amp, if the built-ins aren't powerful enough). There's also the DiGiGrid IOX, with 12 pre-amped line-ins, but they're even more expensive than the Apollo units and we would need three of them; Ditto for the 12-preamp/input Zen Studio.
As I'm writing this I've discovered the Orion 32, which allows for 32 channels over USB, but has no pre-amps (inputs are D-Sub). From what I've seen so far, the best option seems to be something like this with 32-channels worth of D-Sub-output pre-amps? This should allow us to use a single computer and not have to worry about syncing recordings afterwards (in theory, assuming the computer can handle recording 30 tracks simultaneously). Am I missing a better option?
I'd appreciate any input (heh), and if this is not the appropriate place to ask, any direction to where I might be able to discover such information would be great as well! Thanks in advance!
TL;WR (Too long, won't read): I'm looking at options and advice for a project I'm working on. The project requires the ability to simultaneously record 30 channels of audio to a computer. I need hardware and software advice or direction.
Here's a little bit of background on what we need. We will be digitizing analog tapes that hold 30 tracks of audio each. The tapes are long, up to ~14 hours, so the bandwidth and space requirements are quite high. I have never personally recorded more than 8 or so tracks at once, and definitely not for anything near this amount of time, so I'm looking for some help, direction, and advice regarding the hardware and software we will need to use. It is also important to note that the levels coming off of the tape heads are very low. We performed proof-of-concept testing recording only three tracks through a TASCAM US-2000 into a MacBook Air running REAPER. The available gain wasn't high enough, so we had to send each channel through a separate pre-amp before the TASCAM.
Our initial idea was to just compound the setup we have, picking up another few Tascam US-2000's (or similar 8-track audio interface), and recording on 4 different computers, and worrying about syncing audio later, with the hypothesis being that this would be the cheapest/easiest (initially)/most accessible option. I'm now trying to come up with cost estimates and researching available gear to see if this is the case, or if there is some solution where all 30 tracks can be recorded with a single computer and audio interface?
All of the audio being recorded is speech, so we don't need a high sampling rate.
Does anyone out there have experience recording this many tracks at once? And/Or recordings this long? Does anyone know of standalone pre-amps or audio interfaces with 16 or 30+ channels? Is it possible for a non-dedicated PC to record 30-tracks at once?
So far hardware-wise, I've come across the Apollo Duo as one of the higher-input (18-ch) devices available, but they're quite pricey and we would still require two (and possibly 30 channels of pre-amp, if the built-ins aren't powerful enough). There's also the DiGiGrid IOX, with 12 pre-amped line-ins, but they're even more expensive than the Apollo units and we would need three of them; Ditto for the 12-preamp/input Zen Studio.
As I'm writing this I've discovered the Orion 32, which allows for 32 channels over USB, but has no pre-amps (inputs are D-Sub). From what I've seen so far, the best option seems to be something like this with 32-channels worth of D-Sub-output pre-amps? This should allow us to use a single computer and not have to worry about syncing recordings afterwards (in theory, assuming the computer can handle recording 30 tracks simultaneously). Am I missing a better option?
I'd appreciate any input (heh), and if this is not the appropriate place to ask, any direction to where I might be able to discover such information would be great as well! Thanks in advance!
equals sources with low s/n ratio to beging with, it could be with even decent convters goin in at quite low levels could still have better ('enough?) s/n, and finish with clean (and cheep!) digi gain?