Live Recording Setup

ridgeback

ridgeback

New member
Hi folks. Haven't posted for some time but I knew this was the place to go for an answer. I recently did a design-build for a local brew pub that's doing live music. Nothing huge but a nice little system. When I originally ordered the mixer, they were out of stock but sold me the Yamaha MG16USB for the same price (I had ordered the non-usb). The only thing the usb option gives me is a stereo 2 trk mix off the main. We would like to start recording our acts for a bi-yearly compilation CD. The USB out isn't an option for obvious reasons in a live application. This board only has 2 aux sends, one of which I'm using for a send to my stage monitors. There are no directs outs per channel so I'm thinking I'm going to have to do this outboard. My first idea is to pick up a couple of ART 8pre Firewire units and hook my stage snake into those. Then the direct unblanced outs into my unbalanced inputs on my board thus bypassing the Yamaha's pres. That would give me 16 digitals into my laptop. What do you think. Better suggestions?
 
Yeah that should work. You'd need to check that the ARTs can route to their outputs at the same time as the firewire. My firepod only routes to the outs when the firewire is not sync'd. Otherwise you'd need to route out from your sequencer, and risk losing the lot if your laptop goes on the fritz.

If you did use the Arts like this, you wouldn't really need the mixer would you?
 
I'll still need the mixer for the live aspect.

I thought about using the inserts to go into the interface. That way I'm using the Yamahas pres thus making for easier mixing live. (Not tweaking the ARTs pres during mixing.)
 
I would sell the Yamaha and get a Mackie Onyx 1640. That is what I use for live. 16 great mic pre's, usb to laptop or 1/4 outs to hard disc recorder. All gain and eq. pre fader so whatever I do with faders/eq. for front end does not effect signal to laptop. Simple to use and brainless. Between the sale price of the Yamaha and the cost of buying 2 ART pre's that would pay for the Mackie I would think..1400 bucks with fire wire option.
 
I'll post a link to a sample of a project I did last wekend. It is a remote at a bands house so other than the lack of runing FOH speakers its pretty much the same setup. I have been very happy with the performance of the 1640. For smaller recordings I go to laptop, bigger I go to my Alesis hd24.

http://www.livebandrecordings.com/WaveFiles.html
 
There are two really good suggestions here...

If you can afford the Mackie Onyx mixer...that would be the most elegant (and less cluttered) option all around. Decent preamps, firewire direct to your computer, pretty solid solution all around.

If you don't have the excess cash to layout for that solution - using the inserts (plug your TRS jacks only one click into them) is a completely valid solution to tag your signal back to your recording interface. I recently had to do this to record a Christmas program live...the church had a very nice Yamaha board (32 channel/4 buss); however - NO direct outs (I couldn't believe it). I used the insert jacks (again, just one click into them...important tip here) and everything worked like a champ. Of note, some recording interfaces only engage their own preamp if you use an XLR connector (like the Firepod/Firestudio/etc.). If you use just a TRS-TRS 1/4" cable to pull the signal off the board, you will engage the line input of most of the inputs (except perhaps channels 1/2 on the Firepod, for example, which also engage the preamp with the 1/4" option) - that will leave you with only about 10db of gain on each channel.

It worked for me just fine - contact me PM if you'd like some tracks or samples from the CD I cut with that live recording session.

Jay
 
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