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Who knows the best way to record 8 hours of speech

e-clipse

e-clipse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 28, 2006
270
0
Nashville,TN
I have recently started working for a hotel convention audio/visual company that is responsible for providing and setting up the audio/visual equipment, such as mics, pa's, and powerpoint based projector setups. Most of clients wish to record the whole seminar. Unfortunately, I was using a dual deck cassette deck to capture the speeches and discussions.

I know you can capture up to three hours of audio with Garageband, when you have the BPM set to 40. That would suffice, if I split the audio into sepearate files in between the bathroom breaks or the meal breaks. There are also problems that could arise with using GB. GB could quit unexpectantly, though highly unlikely. Also, there might be a session that could go more than three hours without a break.

Who knows the best way to capture up to 6 or even 8 hours of audio?
If anyone has any product suggestions, please let me know.
 
zimv20

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
e-clipse said:
Most of clients wish to record the whole seminar.
Click to expand...
yikes. any idea how many of them ever get around to doing anything with it?

what's the delivery format?
 
e-clipse

e-clipse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 28, 2006
270
0
Nashville,TN
None of them most likely....it is for record keeping purposes. Or then again, it could be big brother listening in on employees or customers. The format in which they receive has been in cd or cassette format.

Setup is:
3 or more wireless lavaliers
10 or more stationary shure 58's
Mackie 16 track analog mixer
one projector
one screen
2 or more Dell Inspiron notebooks
my MacBook Pro
and for now, a dual cassette deck
 
zimv20

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
so you're doing a mix to two-track? i gotta say, if there's no demand for either separate tracks or digital delivery, cassette seems fine. it's cheap, reliable, doesn't require backup, and is sufficient for the task at hand.
 
scottlinux

scottlinux

macrumors 6502a
Sep 21, 2005
691
1
Ah, scratch my post. I see you are just doing a stereo mix. Anything should work fine. Why not back up the main captured audio onto DVD discs? Almost 4GB/disc, if they want a raw archive of each session. Or just burn the stuff onto several CDs if that is fine with them. Cassette tapes are problematic when you need to make copies later.

As far as software, this is the kind of thing that Pro Tools is made for. Look at Pro-Tools M-powered or LE. Or Logic Express. If possible, record to an external firewire hard drive with journaling disabled. This would be the most stable setup.
 
e-clipse

e-clipse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 28, 2006
270
0
Nashville,TN
scottlinux said:
Ah, scratch my post. I see you are just doing a stereo mix. Anything should work fine. Why not back up the main captured audio onto DVD discs? Almost 4GB, if they want a raw archive. Or just burn the stuff onto a CD if that is fine with them.
Click to expand...

I thought about purchasing my own DVD writer for my gigs. I really don't like flippin' cassettes. Plus, I don't like giving the client a handful of cassettes. If I give the client Cd's, there is a lot of editing work involved. What a waste of time.
 
e-clipse

e-clipse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 28, 2006
270
0
Nashville,TN
There is actually a hack for GB which allows for 99 hours of recording, but I do not wish to try it out. You edit applescript, set the BPM to 40, but the hack causes 40 BPM to equal 1 BPM, which would allow for the measures to play at a slower pace allowing more time. You would also have to change the time signature to 12/8.

I could also use 2 seperate recording software to capture 8 hours(deck 1(gb) deck 2(audacity)), but that is kind of annoying and risky.
 
mkrishnan

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Shouldn't anything like ProTools or even Audacity be able to accomplish this? If you record at even dual channel 48kHz, which should be overkill, you should not have space problems....
 
C

cschreppel

macrumors regular
Jul 17, 2006
248
0
Boston, MA
Yeah, Pro Tools or Logic would be highly capable of doing this as long as you're recording to an external drive as well as using a firewire interface - I'd get a little worried about an mBox running on USB. Although the mBox 2 Pro is using firewire now....
 
lord patton

lord patton

macrumors 65816
Jun 6, 2005
1,052
12
Chicago
If none of the ideas mentioned thus far suit you, you may want to give sweetwater a call (http://www.sweetwater.com).

They have a pro sales staff, and they carry real pro gear (the kind that Guitar Center could never carry). They'd have a few good ideas, I reckon. They also have good prices (and are Mac friendly).

No, I don't work for them.
 
zimv20

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
lord patton said:
they carry real pro gear (the kind that Guitar Center could never carry).
Click to expand...
have you been to the GC on halsted? chandler, ELI, manley, SSL, Great River, Adam, et. al. What real pro gear does sweetwater carry that you can't get from GC?

i'll answer my own question: GC couldn't order me a Heil mic. then again, neither could sweetwater. and gcpro.com has even more brands than the normal GC, like Coleman and Benchmark (which sweetwater do carry, fwiw).

i'd recommend mercenary.com for "real" pro gear purchases. once they went above and beyond with a mic pre that i didn't even buy from them! i was stunned.
 
C

cschreppel

macrumors regular
Jul 17, 2006
248
0
Boston, MA
zimv20 - I've heard nothing but great things about Mercenary. Although, e-clipse, the guys at Sweetwater, in my experience, are far more competant than the guys at GC (can't say anything about GC Pro though - not enough experience).
 
Killyp

Killyp

macrumors 68040
Jun 14, 2006
3,859
7
QuickTime Pro + MPEG-4 encoding (preferences - recording options, encodes on the fly to save disk space). Very stable, very simple, very functional :)
 
zimv20

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
cschreppel said:
the guys at Sweetwater, in my experience, are far more competant than the guys at GC (can't say anything about GC Pro though - not enough experience).
Click to expand...
at SW, i've dealt only with my rep, so it'd be unfair of me to extrapolate that into any kind of average there.

at GC, i do think it's rare to find someone who knows a lot about their area. the guy i deal w/ is gcpro (though he was there before that even started), and he's a good guy. but most spew just unbelievable crap; i've been known to pull a customer aside and let him know what he's just been told is a pile of rubbish.

one of my favorite GC anecdotes:
customer: what's the difference between a flanger and a phaser?
GC dork (in full pompous mode): flangers are analog, but phasers are digital.
 
C

cschreppel

macrumors regular
Jul 17, 2006
248
0
Boston, MA
zimv20 said:
flangers are analog, but phasers are digital.
Click to expand...

Oh man, that's classic! Yeah, my SW rep is fantastic - always on the ball. I had a new mic that I was using in a session in July that was bought from SW and mid-session it crapped out from something that wasn't my fault. It was something related to the phantom power not being distributed properly in the circuitry.

Anyway, called my Rep. Sent me a new mic in two days along with a box for the old one -- and this was a weekend session!

And yes, the GC here in Boston is pretty horrible. The Berklee College of Music - where I'm about to finish my degree - is about a mile from the store. So naturally, students work there. It's hilarious to listen to the utter garbage that it muttered to customers. Almost as bad as a comment I heard once in a studio about someone "flanging the VU meters".
 
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