Members KeysMan Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 I currently have a Mackie VLZ3 1604 board, but have been considering getting a board with 16 direct outs for live recording. What recommendations do you have? I have been looking at the MixWizard3 and Soundcraft FX16ii to go into a couple of MAudio Profire 2626. Another option may be to sell the Macki and MAudio and purchase a Presonus Studio Live. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LewnWorx Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 It certainly doesn't get any less painless than the SL 16.4.2 in terms of recording. Jack in FW, fire up capture, name your tracks, arm em and hit record. While you can do it even easier (hit arm all and then hit record), I manually arm the tracks I'm actually recording. No sense in wasting a bunch of disk space to record tracks with nothing on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soul-x Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 What about just using the inserts on your Mackie for direct outs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dogoth Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 What about just using the inserts on your Mackie for direct outs? Agreed. It takes a custom made harness (R&T shorted) and doesn't allow for any inserts (at least not easily anyway). It does however work fine. I actualy sometimes prefer it over a direct out because it's (usualy) pre everything. Some Soundcraft boards allow the direct out to be switched pre or post (I believe some A&H mixers offer this as well). Just some thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soul-x Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 Agreed. It takes a custom made harness (R&T shorted) and doesn't allow for any inserts (at least not easily anyway). It does however work fine. I actualy sometimes prefer it over a direct out because it's (usualy) pre everything.. And the first 8 channels on the Mackie do have Direct Outs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KeysMan Posted April 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 We often have 8-10 people in the band, plus drums. I had considered trying to use the inserts, but was trying to avoid making custom cables. The Mackie is pretty clean, but I was thinking the A&H or Soundcraft may be a little better. Not like it would be noticed in a live recording, but if we ever did some studio recording on them ourselves it may make a small difference. The thing on the Presonus is I'm not sure about is the firewire recording solution, as firewire seems to be on the way out, so it's another additional PCIe board or USB converter. I know it's a great board though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IsildursBane Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 The thing on the Presonus is I'm not sure about is the firewire recording solution, as firewire seems to be on the way out, so it's another additional PCIe board or USB converter. The Profire you were looking at is a firewire interface. Also, it's got 8 preamps, so you wouldn't need direct outputs off the board; you could just get a splitter. But before you go that route, investigate how well they work in multiples - not all budget interfaces like to play nice with others. -Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Axisplayer Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 New 01v96i has 16 channel in and out on USB2.0 at 96kHz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reson8tor Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 We often have 8-10 people in the band, plus drums. I had considered trying to use the inserts, but was trying to avoid making custom cables. Hosa (yes... I know) makes 1/4" cables pre-shorted for doing this. Look for them at Sweetwater and the other usual suspects. I've used these Hosa cables as an 8-channel loom from the inserts of my Soundcraft mixer to a hardware recorder. Works fine. I prefer this to doing it through a Presonus board, because that involves a Firewire connection to a laptop computer, and my hardware recorder is more reliable and quicker to use (I'm in laptop-avoidance mode, these days). My hardware recorder probably has better A/D conversion than the Presonus too, and it can record at a higher sample rate. That's a fine point that may not matter for some live recordings, but I like having the option of 96kHz for acoustic music. Mainly I just like the robust, trouble-free nature of an external hardware recorder and tapping into the mixer inserts, or direct outs if there are enough of them. It's simple, and it works. I'm usually playing in the band as well as running all this stuff, so "simple" is important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 It certainly doesn't get any less painless than the SL 16.4.2 in terms of recording. Jack in FW, fire up capture, name your tracks, arm em and hit record. While you can do it even easier (hit arm all and then hit record), I manually arm the tracks I'm actually recording. No sense in wasting a bunch of disk space to record tracks with nothing on them. Can you explain some of this a bit more for a noob? One of our sound guys routinely brings his own SL 16.4.2 to mix my band through. I would love to be able to record the gigs onto 16 tracks, transfer those tracks to a thumbdrive or something similar, take them home with me and then mix them down on my home computer. Is this possible and what would I need to do this, including what software would I need on my home computer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soul-x Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 Can you explain some of this a bit more for a noob? One of our sound guys routinely brings his own SL 16.4.2 to mix my band through. I would love to be able to record the gigs onto 16 tracks, transfer those tracks to a thumbdrive or something similar, take them home with me and then mix them down on my home computer.Is this possible and what would I need to do this, including what software would I need on my home computer? Do you (or your soundman) have a laptop? You need a computer to capture the recording. The SL just functions as an interface. And then for the at home mix portion, you need a DAW software of some sort to do the mix on. There's many of them (The studiolive even comes with Presonus' own) and everyone has their personal preference as to which they use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 Do you (or your soundman) have a laptop? You need a computer to capture the files. Yes, I could bring a laptop. Again, I'm a total noob on this. what do I need to connect the laptop. I don't have firewire on the laptop. Will it connect via USB? And what will I need on the laptop to capture it? Does it need specific software for that? And what format will the files be in once they are captured? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soul-x Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 It will not connect via USB. You need a firewire card (and I understand that the SL is picky about chipsets) You can then install the proper ASIO drivers for the SL, at which point it will appear as a ASIO device in your DAW, and it's channels can be armed as recording inputs. I believe Presonus may also ship the SL with a specific capture utility of some kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 It will not connect via USB. You need a firewire card (and I understand that the SL is picky about chipsets) You can then install the proper ASIO drivers for the SL, at which point it will appear as a ASIO device in your DAW, and it's channels can be armed as recording inputs.I believe Presonus may also ship the SL with a specific capture utility of some kind. OK. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheDoctorMo Posted April 25, 2012 Members Share Posted April 25, 2012 I believe Presonus may also ship the SL with a specific capture utility of some kind. Actually, it is called "Capture." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted April 25, 2012 Members Share Posted April 25, 2012 Buy a used Mac mini ($375), screen mouse keyboard etc. Install the newest software, connect via FireWire, good to go. Better yet, talk him into springing for a Mac mini etc. Once it's installed, load VSL (virtual studio live) Load capture Click once: arm all tracks Click record. Is saves all the individual tracks as wav files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mutha Goose Posted April 25, 2012 Members Share Posted April 25, 2012 Can you explain some of this a bit more for a noob? One of our sound guys routinely brings his own SL 16.4.2 to mix my band through. I would love to be able to record the gigs onto 16 tracks, transfer those tracks to a thumbdrive or something similar, take them home with me and then mix them down on my home computer.Is this possible and what would I need to do this, including what software would I need on my home computer? Is your sound guy using a laptop? If so, you could use a portable drive to copy the files from his computer (a thumb drive wouldn't be large enough). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6Imzadi Posted April 26, 2012 Members Share Posted April 26, 2012 In fact, just record to the portable drive instead of the laptop drive. This is accomplished with the dialog box you get when starting Capture. The best bet is the mac mini that StratGuy recommended above. This eliminates all the chipset problems that you may encounter with a PC based machine. Your sound guy should have a copy of Capture and VSL and Studio One that came with the mixer. All of which you need in the mini to make it work. If you need help with the installation, let us know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twostone Posted April 26, 2012 Members Share Posted April 26, 2012 We often have 8-10 people in the band, plus drums. I had considered trying to use the inserts, but was trying to avoid making custom cables. The Mackie is pretty clean, but I was thinking the A&H or Soundcraft may be a little better. Not like it would be noticed in a live recording, but if we ever did some studio recording on them ourselves it may make a small difference. The thing on the Presonus is I'm not sure about is the firewire recording solution, as firewire seems to be on the way out, so it's another additional PCIe board or USB converter. I know it's a great board though. Firewire may be losing ground to Thunderbolt technology but they developed Thunderbolt Firewire adaptor cards which can stream FW 400/800 thru the Thunderbolt port and for the record it's not a Mac only thing since Intel own the Light Peak (thunderbolt) technology since PC is releasing all their Thunderbolt machines this mos. Sony already has Thunderbolt port in one of their machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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