Recording Live with my Macbook pro and logic studio

[FightFireCCFD]

Ok, this is the deal. I am trying to record my band (worship team at church) on my pro. We have a brand new 96 channel roland fully digital board. all new sound system. i want good quality and be able to mix on my macbook if possible, without it effecting my mix in the house speakers by my board. what stuff do i need, hardware wise and software. let me know whats best.

Thomas Dixon

 

[DJJONES]

how many channels will you be recording?
do you have a link to the board?
does the board have usb connections so you can connect the mac up to the board and record into logic?

well the only way i could see this working is if the board has a usb connection or firewire connection that would connect up to the mac to allow it to show up as an interface in logic. then in logic you can select the tracks and channels accordingly and recording each track as separate audio instead of 1 mix.

 

[zimv20]

i want good quality and be able to mix on my macbook if possible, without it effecting my mix in the house

you're planning on doing a live 2-mix to your mac, or do you want to record multi-track and mix it later?

 

[ashjamben]

whats the specific model of the mixing desk? i tried finding one on the roland website to help you out abit more but couldn't find it anywhere

 

[Killyp]

We'll need to know the model of the mixing desk/and/or whether it has a Firewire connection.

 

[FightFireCCFD]

Im going to have to look at what the exact model is. But iwant to record individual channels and mix later, if possible. But i wanted to know what would be better. Live or mix later. But im going to have to look at my board tommorow. Ill let you know asap.

 

[zimv20]

mixing at your leisure is easier, since you get re-do's. if you want to take in individual tracks, you'll need an interface that offers as many channels as you need.

hope you're ready to spend some money...

 

[FightFireCCFD]

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/mixers/dm2000/index.html Theres a link to my board. Sorry... its a yamaha. Our old board was a roland. DM2000v2

 

[DJJONES]

there is a usb connection on that board!!!
connect it up to the mac and see if its a selectable interface in logic.
make sure you have any cds it came with maybe you might have to install some drivers to get it to run as an interface.

then i would assume onece its a selectable interface you need to create the number of tracks youll need to record then assign the tracks from the interface/ yahmaha board to tracks in logic so it can be recorded.

do not monitor out of the mac it will have some latency i wouldnt doubt it especically if your recording a few tracks.

also make sure you know what format logic is recording these tracks too.
wav 24 96 im asssuming should be default.

i could be wrong with this but i have a motu at home and technically this is how it works. so the yahmaha board is just more hands on should work similar to it.

good luck post your findings.

 

[zimv20]

you need to create the number of tracks youll need to record then assign the tracks from the interface/ yahmaha board to tracks in logic so it can be recorded.

given its USB, it can handle only a few tracks. good enough for stereo, but not much else.

 

[DJJONES]

given its USB, it can handle only a few tracks. good enough for stereo, but not much else.

ehh well then hell need to see if they have a firewire card.
or hes a bit screwed???

that board looks expensive and since in todays world most audio productions are recored directly to a hd based daw this is one thing i wouldve looked into before buying that board.

 

[zimv20]

according to this page, it's got a couple AES stereo outs. i saw mention somewhere of an ADAT interface option, which would provide 8 outs if it's even an output option (it looked more like an input option).

 

[CanadaRAM]

The USB is not going to help you in this application.

Ideally what you would have is one or more of the MiniYGDAI cards to provide a multichannel digital output from the board (In a variety of formats - Tascam, AES/EBU, ADAT Lightpipe, etc). Then you would need a digital audio interface card for the Mac with inputs capable of handling the number and type of outputs that the YGDAI cards are presenting.

Then you would control routing of the signals to the outputs through the boards software/interface. Since you are not likely to want to record every input discretely, you would do some grouping or submixes, and record, say 8 tracks or stems, each of which may have from one to many inputs.

Some sketchy examples here

This will cost at a guess $2 K - $3 K to set up

The other way is to split the inputs as they go into the board, with a direct box or similar on each input, and take the split inputs to the computer's interface. Advantage of this is that the computer tracks are unaffected by the house mix. Disadvantage is that you will need as many inputs to the computer as there are inputs going into the main board, meaning either a ferociously expensive interface (once you get beyond 8 simultaneous analog inputs), or a second mixer to do a submix for the computer.

The third way is to dive into the documentation for the Yamaha board and see if there are submix or group outs that will allow you to take analog outs of 8 or so subs without affecting the house. Whether you can do this will vary with the design of the board.

 

[FightFireCCFD]

we didn't buy the board with recording in mind. we actually have a studio we use for that. I just wanted to see if i could mess around with it when they play live.