Oh, Lord.... I must be nuts

  • Thread starter Thread starter wheelema
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wheelema

wheelema

Boner-obo
I just 'assumed' the role of 'media pastor' for my church (i.e., I donated a new P4 2.8ghz 800mhz FSB w/512MB, 80GB HDD, DVD, and two monitors run off of a pretty sweet ASUS GeForce card) and the church bought a copy of MediaShout to display song lyrics off of a Dell projector. I run the whole shebang. This replaced an elderly lady with transparencies on a overhead projector.

The sound is managed off a Mackie.

It's been three weeks now and the pastor is starting to see more of the possiblities. He isn't ready to replace the Mackie with a control surface (though there are rumblings), but he does want the PC to record the performers and the sermons on CD (instead recording to cassette), and he wants the PC to play CDs and DVDs instead of the dedicated machines in the sound booth.

Though the PC has a motherboard soundcard, I want to be able to monitor audio tracks independent of what the speakers are playing as well as monitor the person leading the worship team (so I don't get caught with my pants down), so at least three outs. Right now there is only a need for two in, but only God knows how fast that will change.

I want to conserve the Chruch's money (I lost my job, am now on welfare, so my donating days are on hold), but I do not want to buy something relatively cheap that I may toss in six months.

So.

What I have come up with (feel free to suggest otherwise) is...
  • Audiophile 2496
  • M-Audio 1010LT
  • RME Digiface Light

Actually, off the top of my head, I am not too sure that the Audiophile would even work.... hmm....

Well, please help. Thanks!!
 
all the sound will be running through your mixer, right? why not monitor through the control room or headphones?

i would go with the 1010lt.....your going to need a snake though or do you already have that?
 
I've had an Audiophile for about a year and a half now, and I'm still happy with it. It gets along very nicely with the onboard sound hardware.

I would be concerned about making the computer do to many things at once, particularly in a live/real-time situation. The probability of a single failure bringing down the whole system increases with each added task. I'd suggest keeping the dedicated CD/DVD playback hardware unless using the computer gives other advantages that make it worth the additional risk.
 
distortedrumble said:
all the sound will be running through your mixer, right? why not monitor through the control room or headphones?
Click to expand...
Well.... we are a little space constrained right now. The computer is about twenty-five feet from the Mackie.

Originally posted by DonF
I would be concerned about making the computer do to many things at once, particularly in a live/real-time situation...
Click to expand...
Well, we'll push the envelope to see how far we get. At 2.8ghz and half a meg I don't think we'll see the wall in the near future.
 
Wheelema,

I'm in agreement with DonF on this. You're going to be doing a whole lotta stuff with that one machine. Trying to advance slides for the projectors, adjusting record levels, playing back music tracks; that's gonna be one busy machine not to mention the operator.
I'm the Media Ministry Deacon for our church and you have to always live with the fact that Murphy is an everpresent member of the congregation. Who knows when Windows will decide to take a vacation right in the middle of your service? I've just begun recording sermons to CD but I'm still running a cassette tape as a backup. It's saved my butt more than once in the 4 months we've been recording to CD. I'm planning on adding HD recording soon and I haven't decided yet whether or not to quit recording the cassette. I still get requests for them so I probably won't.
We've got 2 projectors too, running SongShow Plus and fortunately they are run by a different crew. They are situated in our balconey while the sound equipement is on the main level of the auditorium.
Only you know the flow of your service to know whether this is do-able or not though. It's gonna get real intense real fast for you, and if something goes south what all will it take with it? We're still taking the separates route and I want to separate it even more splitting house sound and recording of the service into separate functions.

Good Luck with your new position!

Mike
 
Wheelema,

I'm in agreement with DonF on this. You're going to be doing a whole lotta stuff with that one machine. Trying to advance slides for the projectors, adjusting record levels, playing back music tracks; that's gonna be one busy machine not to mention the operator.
I'm the Media Ministry Deacon for our church and you have to always live with the fact that Murphy is an everpresent member of the congregation. Who knows when Windows will decide to take a vacation right in the middle of your service? I've just begun recording sermons to CD but I'm still running a cassette tape as a backup. It's saved my butt more than once in the 4 months we've been recording to CD. I'm planning on adding HD recording soon and I haven't decided yet whether or not to quit recording the cassette. I still get requests for them so I probably won't.
We've got 2 projectors too, running SongShow Plus and fortunately they are run by a different crew. They are situated in our balconey while the sound equipement is on the main level of the auditorium.
Only you know the flow of your service to know whether this is do-able or not though. It's gonna get real intense real fast for you, and if something goes south what all will it take with it? We're still taking the separates route and I want to separate it even more splitting house sound and recording of the service into separate functions.

Good Luck with your new position!

Mike
 
elevate said:
A whole half a meg? Whoa.

;)
Click to expand...
Okay, okay. Ya bum. Half a gig.

By the way, have SEEN how cheap a gig is going for now!! Whoa!
 
wheelema said:
Well.... we are a little space constrained right now. The computer is about twenty-five feet from the Mackie.
Click to expand...

How is that going to work? Is there one person on the board and one on the computer?

The board will already do exactly what you want monitoring wise. I would do everything within my power to NOT rely on a computer for live sound. It's a big, embarrassing mistake just waiting to happen.
 
TexRoadkill said:
How is that going to work? Is there one person on the board and one on the computer?
Click to expand...
Yes.

TexRoadkill said:
I would do everything within my power to NOT rely on a computer for live sound. It's a big, embarrassing mistake just waiting to happen.
Click to expand...
You sound as if you speak from experience. Can you share?
 
...and you're collecting interns out of the youth group right? If you are the only person running the rig then you are the only person who _knows how_ to run the rig. What happens when you go on vacation or die?

I used to record the services for my church (I also play drums in the PW band) the computer was "generally" reliable but if you want it to run live sound then it has to always work and computes disagree with that work ethic. Boards are more intuitive to replacement soundguys.

I would have the computer run slideshows and maybe HD/CD recording ... nothing else. If it's recording then it really can't be used for anything else bcause the harddrive needle will need to be exclusivly available and can't be bothered with powerpoint, etc.

Personally I think the church may need to be reminded that it's a church and not a media center.
 
murphy's law in church!? thats the devil playing with the equipment! the pastor might want to look into getting another computer for safety's sake. dont let spiritual good deeds cloud your realistic gut feeling. we dont want you getting burned at the stake or anything if it overheats and cuts off :)
 
zekthedeadcow said:
Personally I think the church may need to be reminded that it's a church and not a media center.
Click to expand...
You would not believe how hard it is to engage today's jaded youth.
 
lol... I can relate with the last statement. I'm in that "transitioning stage", aka college, and our youth group is... well... reluctant is a nice way of putting it. :) I used to help lead worship with them, but since our band got so busy (up to 3 gigs a weekend every weekend since February... but we're finally off) I went ahead and dropped out of the youth P&W and only play in the main P&W upstairs.

I definitely agree with the others. Running the sound through the computer is probably not the best way of doing things at all. Latency comes to mind amongst reliability issues. You may also want to suggest to your pastor a dual proc machine. This would help the reliability issue TREMENDOUSLY because when one CPU hangs up, the other is free to continue processing and everything runs until the other CPU un-hangs, I guess you could say... lol. If both seize up? Well, take out a tremendous loan and buy a quad RISC. :D Just some thoughts. :)

Brandon <><
 
Well, thanks to one and all.

Purchased the 1010lt from MF (price matched to Bayview Pro Audio @ $260), but we will be taking it slow. The sound will continue to run through the Mackie, the computer will be used only for displaying lyrics, and verses on the screen, capturing audio, and cutting CDs (after the service) for those who had to serve in the nursery or missed for other reasons. Will also see about capturing practice sessions during the week.

Should be fun!
 
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