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With an ever-growing number of options, manufacturers are making it easier to produce high-quality recordings at your church. However, the easiest choice may not yield the best results. We survey a wide range of recording systems currently on the market.
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Yamaha’s M7CL offers plug-in network cards for linking to compatible digital audio workstations.
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The Presonus StudioLive 24.4.2 has a Firewire connection that allows up to 32 channels of recording and up to 26 channels of simultaneous playback. Just add your own computer.
When it comes to adding multi-track recording capability, we have good news and bad news.
Good news first. Thanks to accelerating digital technologies, now you can make high-quality multi-track audio recordings with relative ease. Cost per track has plummeted, and you can choose from a veritable smorgasbord of system options. More options than you ever dreamed of. Perhaps more than you'd prefer to deal with.
Aha, there's the down side. Determining how to capture multi-track recordings in your church could involve a tangled decision-making process. For better or worse, the make and type of your front-of-house mixing console will heavily influence your options-which means you must incorporate any future console upgrades into your decision. That said, there's no reason to wait. Just about any quality console, analog or digital, will leave some routes open for reaching your multi-track destination.
Why Multi-track?
Before proceeding, let's review the advantages of multi-tracking, whether for Sunday services or for special events like concerts, Christmas programs, music workshops, or even weddings.
You can improve your mix for CD/DVD or archived webcast distribution. When mixing live, you're under the gun, and often you must compensate for the acoustics of the room you're in. The best balance in your church auditorium may not sound the best on a home theater system or in iPod earbuds.
You can fix things later. If selected musicians and/or singers can come back, you can un-do those little boo-boos with overdubs.
You can use the discrete tracks as a "phantom band" for virtual sound checks and operator training.
You can pre-record multiple tracks for mixing in live during worship or concerts.
Assuming these are desirable goals for your church, let's map out a route to get you there.
Job One: Understand Connectivity
Although it is still possible to make an analog connection between your FOH console and recording device, it is becoming less likely that you will do so. That makes it very important to understand the trade-offs-in cost, speed, upgradability, and flexibility-of the various ways you can connect a console to a stand-alone recorder or computer-based digital audio workstation (DAW). See the sidebar for a basic introduction, but further investigation is recommended before you buy.
From here, we'll take a look at four fuzzy-edged categories of multi-track recording systems. As we proceed, we'll look at the up-sides and down-sides of each option. Audio quality won't be specifically addressed, because there are so many variables within each category. It's true that some low-budget systems are capable of 24-bit/192 kHz recording, but realize that the higher-cost options will normally deliver audible differences because of more accurate system clocking (complicated topic), premium A/D and D/A converters, and better front-end analog circuits.
Category A: Integrated, No Computer
Don't like messing with a mouse or re-booting the OS? Fear not, with these systems your multi-track recording is fully integrated into your digital console, with no computer required. It's a one-stop shop, with the same manufacturer supplying your FOH board and the optional recording package. (The recording gear comes as a separate rack-mount unit, except with Innovason, which has it built in.) All the interfacing is a done deal, and you can record up to 128 tracks at pristine 24-bit/192 kHz resolution-if you can afford the terabytes of hard disk storage space. Systems of this type also are available from Avid, Midas and Roland Systems Group.
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Bruce Borgerson networks around the industry via Wavelength Communications while monitoring technologies at the First United Methodist Church of Ashland, Ore.
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Posted by Matt Lampard on 02/16/2012 report abuse