For years, many churches have understood the ministry opportunities that come with having a “tape ministry.” These include helping shut-ins feel included in their church, giving members a way to experience worship and special services when they cannot be there in person, and outreach to their community. Churches broadcasting services often respond to requests for recordings of their services each week.
“Tape” ministries really began with the overwhelming popularity of the audio cassette. Today, the cassette is rapidly losing its pre-eminence with consumers. While most people have at least a cheap portable cassette player in their homes, newer cars have CD players instead. Since it is often during a commute that people listen to service recordings, many churches are switching from a tape ministry to a CD ministry. While this change is not difficult, pastors, worship leaders, music ministers, and audio technicians need to know a few basics in order to select a recording system that truly meets the needs of their churches.
Recording Medium
Let’s start with the heart of a system – the device you will record to. Running a tape ministry entails recording onto a cassette tape then using a duplicator to make copies. With digital recording, there are more options: stand-alone CD recorders, Minidisc recorders, single-unit hard disk recorders, and computer recording systems. The stand-alone CD recorder is the least expensive choice, and is perhaps the easiest to operate. It also produces a master recording that can immediately be used in a duplicator. However, it does not provide the ability to edit the recording. The nature of this disadvantage is not obvious. Few cassette recordings ever got edited, so why would a CD be any different? The reason lies in people’s expectations. People expect to listen to a whole tape in the order the original service progressed. But they expect to be able to directly access a specific track on a CD - especially if they only want to hear a certain segment of a program. While most stand-alone CD recorders do provide the ability to begin new tracks on the fl y, it is difficult for a technician to always press the button at just the right time, since the tech is often controlling the sanctuary sound system at the same time. If the recording system supports editing, the recording can be formatted into tracks at a later time.
Hard disk recorders (HDRs) are available from a number of manufacturers. These are really just specialized computers designed for (and only for) audio recording and playback. HDRs are very popular with performing groups, because they permit multitrack recording (a separate recorded track for each instrument). This feature can be useful for churches, especially those doing contemporary worship, although they also add a layer of complexity for the novice recordist. If one records in a multitrack format, they require editing in the form of a mixdown session. This is the process of mixing the several individual instrumental, vocal, and speech tracks into the left and right channels of the final CD. Doing a decent mixdown requires a good audio monitoring environment, a certain amount of experience, an excellent ear, and extra time. For this last reason especially, multitrack recording does not find a great deal of use in churches that merely wish to provide weekly recordings of the service to the congregation. And HDRs have a disadvantage – their editing can be less user-friendly than one would like, which is to say that there is a significant learning curve.
Alternatively, a computer dedicated to recording can offer two distinct advantages. First, editing audio files on a computer is much more intuitive than on a HDR because the environment is already familiar to most users. Audio file editors for both the PC and Mac are available from a number of software companies; these visually display the audio file as a line from left to right on the computer screen. Editing can be done by selecting a portion of the wave file using a mouse or trackball, and then selecting the operation to be performed from a menu. Both HDRs and computer wave editors support non-destructive editing, meaning that if you don’t like the results of an edit, you can undo it. Besides the graphical user interface, computer wave editors also provide effects that can be applied to the audio, such as reverb, equalization and compression. Depending on the software package chosen, computers can also record in a multitrack mode.
CD Media
Your choice of recording device also affects the type of mastering CD-Rs you will need. Stand-alone CD recorders require audio CDs whereas computers use data CDs. A CD recorder designed for audio CDs will not record on data CDs. Remembering to verify that you are using the correct media will avoid frustrating “invalid media” error messages.
Input Signal Processing
Irrespective of the type of recorder you use, input signal level control is critical in digital recording. If you overdrive a digital recorder, the resulting effect on the audio is horrendous, causing gross distortion. Cassette tape recorders respond more gradually to being overdriven, and the onset of distortion is gradual. It could be compared to punching one’s fist into a mattress. As a result, occasional mild overdriving may not be noticeable. But in a digital system, the effect is like hitting a brick wall: it doesn’t take much of a punch to hurt a lot. To avoid this problem, a compressor/ limiter is usually employed. A compressor/limiter can be thought of as a very fast electronic sound engineer who can sense when the signal is too loud and turn down the volume control quickly enough so that no signal over a specified level will reach the recording device.
Digital Audio Interfaces
Once the signal emerges from the compressor/limiter, it then needs to get into the recording device. Both stand-alone CD recorders and HDRs are designed for connection to the analog electronic world of audio. However, computer audio interfaces often are not up to the task. The quality of your recording is ultimately limited by the quality of your sound card. While it is certainly not necessary for most churches to buy the high-end cards, it is essential that the sound card have stereo line inputs (if you want to support stereo recording) and excellent frequency response and signal-to-noise ratio. Some sound cards, especially on notebook computers, have only a single line input (mono), or nothing but microphone inputs. These are not suitable for digital recording. Laptop sound cards as well as those built in to motherboards often have very poor sonic performance, and a significant amount of noise can be introduced in the audio signal. If your computer doesn’t have a good sound card built in to it, look into an add-on card or an external USB or FireWire audio interface. External interfaces are available with balanced XLR input connectors, which would be ideal for interfacing with your sound reinforcement system.
Computer Performance
If you decide on a computerized digital recording system, what kind of computer do you need? As with most other computer applications, a faster machine will usually perform better than a slow one. Check the minimum system requirements on the software you intend to use and equip your system to exceed those requirements. Audio file work requires a lot of disk space, so a large, fast (7,200 RPM or better) hard disk is important. A stereo wave file requires almost ten megabytes of storage per minute of the recording: 680 MB for a 72-minute CD. If you are planning to archive originals on the hard drive, even for a short time, a great deal of drive space can be used up in a hurry. Consider an 80 GB drive as the minimum for serious recording. Lastly, in addressing the “Mac or PC” question, the answer is “yes.” Good wave editors are available for either, so follow your general preference.
Richard Honeycutt is a freelance audio/electro acoustical engineer and writer. His work includes writing for numerous audio publications, and assisting consultants and contractors with audio system design, specializing in worship centers. He lives in Lexington, NC with his wife, Betty Jane, and can be contacted at postmaster@edcsound.com..
