Help making live recordings from mackie board

E

EZchair Pickin

New member
We recently upgraded the soundboard at our church to a mackie vlz3 3204. It has a USB out for recording to the computer. If I understand the manual correctly, you can simlutaneously record the 4 subgroups as individual tracks to the computer.

My questions are #1) what recording software should I be looking at to do this? #2) Do I need a special interface or can I just run the USB cable from the board straight to the computer?

I would especially love to hear from anyone who has experience using these particular boards or who have recorded in similar situations.

Thanks!
 
I have a lot of experience with Mackies, though not with that particular board. I'm sure you don't need any special interface, that's what the USB connection is for.

I would route the main mix instead of group 1/2 to the record bus so the effects are captured. Then I'd put a stereo mic in channels 27 and 28 and route that to group 3/4 only and not route that group to the main mix. The mic would be placed in the room (probably near the mixer) dead center between the speaker stacks. If you get it sounding good in the room you can reconstruct it with the board mix plus the room mic.

Software options range from Audacity for free through Reaper for $60 (or just live with the delayed startup for a while) to any of the big name expensive programs. Really, for this job it doesn't require a complex program.

For mixdown you'll want to slide the direct track a bit to the right to time align it with the mic in the room. This is why you want the mic dead center, so the arrival times from the two stack are in perfect alignment at the mic.
 
Thanks so much for the reply! I will look at Audacity and Reaper to see which one I like best. We had discussed before whether to put a mic back by the board or take the signals straight from the board and liven it up with software....but never thought of combining both! Given that we're a church and are considerate of our volume, any suggestions on whether to use a dynamic or condensor mic? I have a SM57 and also a MXL 990 condensor.
 
I'd probably use the MXL. But if you can get yourself a pair of the same (like another SM57 to go with the first) I would do a pair in X/Y configuration.

The nice things about this setup are that it's simple so you don't get too distracted from the live sound, and it picks up the audience plus anything that's low in the board mix, like amps and drums.

I would get Reaper. It's way better for this than Audacity and you can use it as "nagware" until you get around to paying for it.
 
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