Just because we can?

[thommyboy]

I am looking into improving my students current recording capabilities/knowledge base. As of right now we are running a Soundcraft Spirit 24.4.2 and taking two of the aux feeds into a mackie satellite to be recorded into Adobe Audition.
The majority of the recording is via two KSM44's Boomed in the House, 3 goose neck MX202's hanging over the stage, with the occasional SM58 for Soloist from our choir.
My question is: would you recommend to upgrade the recording interface? Simply because we can, does that mean we should?

I have looked into the Presonus Studiolive as well as their firestudio. Ideally I would like to see a smaller board dedicated to recording,living with our current FOH board. Something the students can work (which is never the more challenging aspect) but also be something I can train some of our less technically inclined staff to work.

 

[Sony]

Check out a Fostex VF-16, VF-160 (Old!) or MR-16, they can be had for pretty cheap on ebay and I've used them several times. They work great!

 

[museav]

A lot of people are anxious to hear more about the Presonus StudioLive, it has come up one several forums but no one seems to have any hands-on experience yet. I have also heard rumors from some fairly reliable sources that Allen & Heath is working on versions of the new ZED series mixers that include an integrated FireWire connection for multi-channel recording and playback.

 

[DaveySimps]

I would say you are going in the right direction. I have a presonus Firepod interface (8 channel) and love it. If you had a firewire interface to get the mics directly into the computer digitally, that would probably get you what you want.

~Dave

 

[thommyboy]

If you had a firewire interface to get the mics directly into the computer digitally, that would probably get you what you want.
~Dave

That is my hope. I would like to see my students have an actual control surface to work on, which is why I would rank the Firestudio lower.

 

[SHARYNF]

Don't overlook the protools digi002. while all of us have our own favorites re audio recording software, protools still is the most common
Sharyn

 

[TimmyP1955]

Don't overlook the protools digi002. while all of us have our own favorites re audio recording software, protools still is the most common
Sharyn

But neither the most user friendly or best sounding.


Get something better than the SM58. EV767a is a nice compromise between gain-before-feedback and performance. If GBF is not a problem in your venue(s), the AE5400 and Heil PR22 are very nice sounding mics.

 

[WayneTrain]

Hi Thommyboy, I've had about 3 months hands on with the Studiolive 16.4.2 and I can tell you without a doubt this is the perfect board for your situation. It takes a little familiarization to get to know this thing, mostly the routing of the signal and assigning your signal path, but it's a very powerful board that will bring a smile to your face. It's real easy to track to your computer with the tracking program (Capture) that comes with it. You can send those tracks with or without any processing (wet or dry) to your computer through one single firewire 400 connection, save it, then send it back to the board to mix and add dynamics and EQ and effects (all built in) then send that finished song back to Capture's stereo track, save, then burn onto a CD. It sounds like a lot of trouble but it's not really. Way easier, and way, way cheaper than ProTools. It also comes with a lite version of Studio One DAW that you can do more on, but really I've done a lot just with Capture. You can do all that for less than 2K. Try that with ProTools.