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rusty_armor

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I need to set up a very basic computer recording station for my church. We distribute sermon tapes world wide, and will soon be offering them in streaming media.

The station will be manned about 100' from the sound mixing board because we often use volunteers to run the mixer who don't watch the recording levels like they should.

Music is recorded solely for the musicians and dancers benefit, and is not distributed, so the quality doesn't need to be all that high.

Each service will be recorded on a CD master, and tapes and CD's will be either made directly from the hard drive or the master CD.
We already have a tape duplicator and a CD duplicator.

What equuipment do I need to purchase to do this in a cost effective manner?

Thanks
Rusty
 
Rusty,

To be honest, what you're looking for doesn't really require anything special. Just about any new PC with a CD burner will do (except of course, for the 100 ft. cables from the mixer).

You will, however need a basic recording program to record the mix into the computer properly. Although I don't use it, Cool Edit is widely available and recommended. If you're looking for more pro stuff, you can go with Wavelab or Sound Forge, although they're a bit harder to use and you probably won't use most of the features you'd be paying for.

Being that you won't be processing the audio that much and you're not overly concerned about quality, you'll probably be able to use the sound card that's included with the computer. You can always upgrade the sound card later (usually, PC manufacturers don't offer pro sound cards as a purchase option anyway).

You'll find most folks partial to Gateway, Dell, and some that prefer to build their own, but I think you'd be fine with either.
 
Thanks for the info.

Is there a problem with running a 100' cable from the mixer to the computer? Will I need some sort of amplifier installed somewhere inline?

Some of the musicians are asking about kicking the recording system up to the next level. Will this do for a "starter" set up and as time and money become available, upgrade the system?
 
rusty_armor said:
Is there a problem with running a 100' cable from the mixer to the computer? Will I need some sort of amplifier installed somewhere inline?
Click to expand...

You will need to send a balanced line to the computer. Balanced lines are good up to over 1000' but unbalanced lines have noticeable loss after 20'. Balanced is usually 3 Pin XLR or TRS 1/4". The 1/4" cable looks like a stereo cable but you need one for each channel.

You would need a mixer with balanced outs and a sound card with balanced inputs or you can use Direct Boxes to convert the signal back and forth for the cable run.

To be completely honest a home computer/software/sound card would not be my first choice for recording long live sessions. They just aren't that dependable. If you do go with computer make sure you get a professional quality DAW with a very good quality sound card and drivers so it doesn't crash after 15mins of recording.

I would go with a digital tape system like DAT or ADAT and then dump it to the computer afterwards for burning to CD. That would be a much more reliable setup. And of course always have a cassette deck or something on standby just in case.
 
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