Live recording question

I

ishou

New member
I'm going to be recording a very long live show (5 hours!), and I want to know what the best format to record in is. I was thinking of using my four-track and I'd just keep switching out tapes. I'd like to use as few tapes as possible; is it better to record on longer tapes at double speed or is it better to record on shorter tapes at normal speed?
Or,...should I just rent a DAT recorder? Where can I do this at (what kind of place rents DATs? i'm in chicago...), and if I do rent a DAT, do I need to get tapes or disks or something along with it?
By the way, I'm in charge of this show, so I'm not bootlegging in the audience or something.
Thanks,
--ishou
 
DAT It, Daddy.

I would go with the DAT.
If you have the band miked & hooked up through your board, then you will get a very suprisingly good recording out of it. We did this last month with my band, and everyone cut through, even the drummer's cymbals were crisp. Also remember you will pick minimal crowd noise, and zero hiss because it is recording digitally.
Many reasons to avoid recording live with cassette.
You will pick up considerable hiss. You are putting a good strain on your cassette recorder's motor for 5 straight hours. You'll make make at least 7 trips back & forth to flip the cassete (using a 90 min. tape, 45 per side).
But if you end up using cassette recorder, don't buy a 120 0r even a 90 minute cassette. These size tapes stretch very easy. Go with a bunch of 45 minute cassettes.

Have a great gig! 5 hours? Did the Grateful Dead re-form?
DJ
 
Thanks...my next question...where's the best place to rent a DAT? Are they at music/guitar shops, or where could I find one? (i'm in chicago if that helps). Do I need to buy tapes or something to record 5 hours worth of music, or..?
Oh, and the show is 5 hours because there are 5 bands... :)
 
DAT Is A Good Question...

ISHOU:
You will have to call around, look in the Yellow Pages to find a music store that will rent a DAT machine for you.
But you are in the 3rd largest city in America, you will have no problem renting one.
DAT tapes are relatively inexpensve. You can buy 4
120 minute DAT tapes to cover 5 hours. Total cost of tapes will be around 45-50 dollars.
DJ

Oh Yeah...120 minute DAT tapes are ok, 120 cassettes are not
 
another option

You might want to try to record directly to an Alesis MasterLink. They can record for 310 min stereo 16bit/44.1k. Thats 5.16 hours. You wont have to stop at any point to change dats. The other cool thing is that you can edit right on the Masterlink and burn CD's. Kind of an all in one shop. In LA it cost $40 to rent a DAT recorder and $100 to rent the MasterLink. Food for thought.
Best Wishes,
j.
 
If your mixin board has channel inserts rent an ADAT so U can have 8 tracks at a time, so U can have some control after everthing is done =)

and all U need to do is plus those inserts into the ADAT and go =)

although U would need to rent the ADAT for a couple more days while U mix down, depends on your situation, a dat might just do ya, but U just won't have much control after the recording is done.

Guud Luck,

Sabith
 
i wish i could rent neat stuff,but i live in tulsa oklahoma where we don't have shit for rent here,and when you do finally find it,they want an arm and leg to rent it.if you can't find a dat or anything for rent,use a hi-fi vcr if you have access to one.you can record two hours at a pop on hi speed and the quality is outstanding!
 
ishou if you can't get a DAT how about a minidisc recorder - probably easier to get and definitely second to the DAT in quality.

Cheers
John
 
As far as cost goes, the Hi-Fi vcr is a pretty good idea. You can borrow 2 of them and stagger the recording that way you won't miss anything. When you get home, dump the audio into your computer, edit & burn CD's. Downfall is that you generally don't have any recording level control or metering, but I've not really had much trouble with audio clipping on vcr.
 
Layzboy's suggestion is a great idea. The sound quality from a hi fi vcr is just short of cd quality. By setting your recording speed properly, you can get the whole show on one tape without interuption. Boy do I wish i had thought of this. There were times that I wanted to record live and couldn't figure out how to do it. Lazyboy, U DA MAN.
 
i agree with the two vcr scenerio

I A/Bd a CD against vcr copy on an audiophile system and I couldn't hear any difference.At the time I remember crunching some numbers to get a tape speed equivalency and it was something like 1200 inches per second considering the elliptical path of the rotary head.I did a demo of my band recently with 2 vcr and dumped the tape to n-track for editing and mastering.This is good for live stuff and as an emergency recording system if other gear goes down.
Tom
 
I feel like a big-man because strmkr suggested something, I agreed and got all the credit for the suggestion. Gotta try this with Ed or RE!
 
Wow, guys, thanks for all your input...
I've decided to rent the DAT player, there's a place in Chicago called Andy's music that rents out DATs, so I think that's the way I'm gonna go...I just have to watch them levels. I'm gonna videotape the performances too and later sync the two recordings...it'll be awesome
 
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