5 replies to this topic

[timshell]

Hey guys gunna be playing a 4 hour set soon in a club and was wondering whats the best way to record it?
I would do it at home but i'd rather record it from 1000s and a good mixer than my mobile behringer mixer.
I have a laptop and was just wondering what to use...
Thanks in advance guys

[Jester_Fu]

Audacity should do the trick. Free, easy to use and you can change the gains and EQ the mix later if you want to using it. Onboard soundcard in your laptop will be fine for a first recording - just make sure you set it all up and test it before the gig. Also have a read over the Audacity wiki about file size to make sure you have enough free disk space.

[timshell]

cheers mate thanks for that i have an external soundcard via usb would that be better?

[Sid]

timshell, on 18 June 2011 - 12:25 AM, said:

cheers mate thanks for that i have an external soundcard via usb would that be better?

You need to make friends with a sound tech with a location recorder - that's how I do it hehe

As said above it's really important to think about how big your file size is going to be. You need to choose sampling size, bit depth, no. of channels (stereo is two) and length of recording. Ask one of the current VU students for the calculation or use an online one.

Don't forget to factor in the possibility of going over 4 hours - you don't want to miss the encore!
And don't forget you should never fill a hard-drive beyond 90% capacity.

Make sure you have stable power too. You have to be careful with laptops they can have power saving options that can leave you with little clicks and pops in the recording. Turn those off and any fancy CPU power saving options too. Don't ask me how I've never had a laptop.

[Jester_Fu]

^Good tips Sid - forgot about a lot of that stuff as i just do it as second nature now!

And yes, using an external USB card will generally give you better sound quality. Drivers may be better for it as well - don't forget about trying Asio4All as your drive if your onboard card (if you choose to use it) doesn't have specific Asio drivers. Can make a big difference to performance of the recording/card with pops/clicks etc.

Sid's also right about set length - if you've already got 4 hours and you're ripping it, expect it to turn into 5 or 6 or 7 unless there's someone on after you. Some of the chillout parties we did back in my youth had friends DJ'ing continuously for 11+ hours as the party went up and down and up and up and down and up and then we...

[timshell]

Thanks guys. Good tips about the power saving.
I have more than a TB on the laptop so with 320Kbs bit depth it shouldnt be much over 6 Gb (i think )
so hopefully it fill up too much and i'll have plenty of room.
Yeah I don't know about their license and how long they will let me play on for don't really mind if if it goes till morning
to be honest.
Cheers for the help guys!