This week, one of the guys in the church asked me to help record his group singing a couple of demo tracks for an event booker to hear. I must say that it did turn out better than I thought, but obviously not up to the standard I desire, as we have nothing close to a recording setup. By some anomoly, I actually could use the faders on the main house board to set the recording mix (while the main and monitors for live reinforcement are fed from aux -- some outputs don't work correctly) but mixing anything on the fly in that environment is challenging.
It did, however, give me an idea of just how close we are to being able to do some "for real" multitrack recording, even in our confined space. Now all I need is a multitrack recorder (sigh).
Many churches, even small ones, can get something basic going. I just took the outputs from the main mixer and ran it through a compressor, then through a mini desktop mixer which served as the interface with the computer and allowed more flexible monitoring options. Then I connected those outputs (compressed and level-matched) to a computer (2.7Ghz Celeron, 384MB of memory, stock audio card) recording with Audacity, which also allowed for editing and and adding basic post-production effects (I can't get enough of that program). That's all there is to it.
I'm excited that technology is moving in such a way that it doesn't take thousands of dollars anymore to create something basic and decent. And let me not forget my greatest find of all, the Epson R220, which lets me print direct-on-disc labels to add a layer of professionalism.
I'll probably start a little sidebar of my favorite gadgets here, now that Blogger has added some cool new features to make it easy. My hope is that if you're looking for ideas on what to use, you can get them here (and if you have ideas, please put them here).
It did, however, give me an idea of just how close we are to being able to do some "for real" multitrack recording, even in our confined space. Now all I need is a multitrack recorder (sigh).
Many churches, even small ones, can get something basic going. I just took the outputs from the main mixer and ran it through a compressor, then through a mini desktop mixer which served as the interface with the computer and allowed more flexible monitoring options. Then I connected those outputs (compressed and level-matched) to a computer (2.7Ghz Celeron, 384MB of memory, stock audio card) recording with Audacity, which also allowed for editing and and adding basic post-production effects (I can't get enough of that program). That's all there is to it.
I'm excited that technology is moving in such a way that it doesn't take thousands of dollars anymore to create something basic and decent. And let me not forget my greatest find of all, the Epson R220, which lets me print direct-on-disc labels to add a layer of professionalism.
I'll probably start a little sidebar of my favorite gadgets here, now that Blogger has added some cool new features to make it easy. My hope is that if you're looking for ideas on what to use, you can get them here (and if you have ideas, please put them here).
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