Recording a conference (no music, just voice)

[pkbarbiedoll]

Hi,
I'm recording several upcoming conferences for work and wanted to ask for your opinions.

Nine mics are in play, but there will generally only be one person talking at a time. The center's AV group uses mixers that have digital outs for each channel, and I have a firewire mixer that can take all 9 channels as inputs.

This has to be a very professional sounding recording, so I am leery of using stereo outs in case whoever is running sound has terrible levels.

My question is, would you go through the trouble of separation, or use the stereo outs anyway? It almost seems like the stereo outs would be fine, as long as two people didn't talk at once (which is likely to occur over a 8 hour period).

Again, this has to be a better than perfect recording.

 

[Cosmic]

If you don't trust the in-house mixer implicitly,
I think you have answered your own question already.

To get 'perfection' in a conference recording, you need all the control you can get.
Depending on the conference system in use, it can have more than one mic open for a short period, even if noone is talking anymore. There is plenty of potential for noise, even with 'intelli-mixers' and such.

For starters, take the independent outs so you can run it yourself. If it were at all possible, you should record it on an 8-track digital, which could receive each mic separately for a later mix, but I realize this may not be realistic due to money or time.

Take the channels independently, and keep an ear on the mix yourself as you send it to 2 tracks. That's your best bet for a clean recording.

Best,
C.