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Author Topic: Best DAW for Live Recordings  (Read 29955 times)

Tommy Peel

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #20 on: March 15, 2013, 02:54:24 AM »

Thought I'd update this thread, just finished mixing my first track in Reaper. Great piece of software, much more user friendly than Ardour; I really like it's the work flow. I've still got some work to do on this track, but I thought I'd post it to see what you think. I'm pretty sure I need to go and redo the lead vocal automation. Disclaimer: this was mixed on some not very good Senhieser HD201s because that's all I have at the moment; it's too late here to listen to it on my home or car stereo tonight but I will be in the morning. Anyway advice/criticism is welcome.

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wr0gfld8473e50/Blessed%20Be%20Your%20Name%2001.m4a
(file is in 256kbps AAC)

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Neale Watson

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #21 on: March 15, 2013, 07:48:54 AM »

Ok ... I get that Reaper is good.  I would appreciate if you recording gurus would tell me how  I get 4 to 6 simultaneous tracks from my analog mixer into Reaper, where I can edit, add effects, etc.  I'm guessing I need some sort of multi-track A/D device.  Something like a Fast Track Ultra 8R??  Love to hear what is good, and cost-effective.

Thanks
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Tommy Peel

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Re: Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #22 on: March 15, 2013, 01:07:03 PM »

Ok ... I get that Reaper is good.  I would appreciate if you recording gurus would tell me how  I get 4 to 6 simultaneous tracks from my analog mixer into Reaper, where I can edit, add effects, etc.  I'm guessing I need some sort of multi-track A/D device.  Something like a Fast Track Ultra 8R??  Love to hear what is good, and cost-effective.

Thanks

I used the firewire card built into my Mackie Onyx 1640 mixer to do this recording. It let's me record all 16 channels into my Daw. For a stand alone device I've heard good things about the Motu and Focusrite products; they both have devices that can handle 8 channels that are fairly reasonably priced. You might look at Presonus too.

I'm sure one of the people on here that knows much more that me can tell you more.

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Patrick Tracy

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #23 on: March 15, 2013, 02:39:09 PM »

Ok ... I get that Reaper is good.  I would appreciate if you recording gurus would tell me how  I get 4 to 6 simultaneous tracks from my analog mixer into Reaper, where I can edit, add effects, etc.  I'm guessing I need some sort of multi-track A/D device.  Something like a Fast Track Ultra 8R??  Love to hear what is good, and cost-effective.

Thanks

Yes, you're going to need an audio interface with the needed channel count. Beware some of the smaller combo mixer/interfaces that only send 2 channels (usually the main mix) to the computer.

Using a mixer with an interface has advantages and disadvantages. Do lots of reading before buying anything. Normally I would consider it poor form to send you to another forum, but you may want to check out the Newbies forum on homerecording.com. There's a ton of info for someone with your type of question.

Loren Aguey

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #24 on: March 15, 2013, 02:56:19 PM »

Ok ... I get that Reaper is good.  I would appreciate if you recording gurus would tell me how  I get 4 to 6 simultaneous tracks from my analog mixer into Reaper, where I can edit, add effects, etc.  I'm guessing I need some sort of multi-track A/D device.  Something like a Fast Track Ultra 8R??  Love to hear what is good, and cost-effective.

Thanks

The fast track will work for you, as will any audio interface with enough I/O.

After that you decide whether you want USB or firewire. If you have a mac you might as well go firefire. If you have a PC laptop chances are it doesn't have firewire, and in my experience I wouldn't bother putting with an external firewire card on a laptop. Just use USB. If you have a PC desktop, I'd throw a PCI firewire card in there and go firewire.

I've had great luck with the Focusrite saffire pro 40 (8 preamps) and the pro 24 (2 preamps). Both are reasonably priced. There are plenty of options just read some reviews. Other brands like Presonus, M-Audio etc...all have usable interfaces.

Thought I'd update this thread, just finished mixing my first track in Reaper. Great piece of software, much more user friendly than Ardour; I really like it's the work flow. I've still got some work to do on this track, but I thought I'd post it to see what you think. I'm pretty sure I need to go and redo the lead vocal automation. Disclaimer: this was mixed on some not very good Senhieser HD201s because that's all I have at the moment; it's too late here to listen to it on my home or car stereo tonight but I will be in the morning. Anyway advice/criticism is welcome.

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wr0gfld8473e50/Blessed%20Be%20Your%20Name%2001.m4a
(file is in 256kbps AAC)

Sent from my Milestone X using Tapatalk 2

I'd say the mix could benefit from more compression, particularly  on the acoustic and bass, to help even out the levels and give it a more controlled dynamic, while being careful not to over squash everything.

Also, you can achieve better separation with a little panning, like the acoustic a bit to one side and the other stringed instrument that's low in the mix (uke or mandolin?) a bit to the other side. And perhaps throw the backup vocal to one side a bit if you're so inclined.

And if by chance you had an overhead mic, I'd throw some more of that in the mix.

Oh and I'll add to the chorus of praise to Reaper. It's what I use to record and mix on. It's rock solid, and VERY lightweight, which is critical for stability especially in mobile recording applications. And don't be fooled by the price. It's just as powerful as the other big DAWs. All have their strengths and weaknesses (MIDI not being one of Reapers strong points), but for straight recording and mixing Reaper is just as good, if not better in certain regards, than anything on the market.
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Bradford "BJ" James

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #25 on: March 15, 2013, 03:18:54 PM »

+ another for Reaper. The users forum is one of the best too.
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Tommy Peel

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Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #26 on: March 15, 2013, 03:34:34 PM »

I'd say the mix could benefit from more compression, particularly  on the acoustic and bass, to help even out the levels and give it a more controlled dynamic, while being careful not to over squash everything.

Also, you can achieve better separation with a little panning, like the acoustic a bit to one side and the other stringed instrument that's low in the mix (uke or mandolin?) a bit to the other side. And perhaps throw the backup vocal to one side a bit if you're so inclined.

And if by chance you had an overhead mic, I'd throw some more of that in the mix.

Oh and I'll add to the chorus of praise to Reaper. It's what I use to record and mix on. It's rock solid, and VERY lightweight, which is critical for stability especially in mobile recording applications. And don't be fooled by the price. It's just as powerful as the other big DAWs. All have their strengths and weaknesses (MIDI not being one of Reapers strong points), but for straight recording and mixing Reaper is just as good, if not better in certain regards, than anything on the market.

Thanks, I'll work on it some more; I had a little panning on the acoustic guitar and ukulele but I'll give them more. I'll also boost the compression on the acoustic and bass and try some panning on the bg vocal.

Unfortunately I didn't think to put an overhead up but I'll try it in the future. I've got a pair of CAD SDCs but they're normally used for drums. Would a regular handheld dynamic work for getting some room "sound"? Where would be the best place to put it?

Also I got the iPad app "AC-7 Core" to control Reaper and really like it too. Makes a nice substitute for not having any "real" faders. 


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Tommy Peel

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #27 on: March 15, 2013, 05:48:16 PM »

Here's round 2.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xq12n53aghj84c2/Blessed%20Be%20Your%20Name%2002.m4a

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George Dougherty

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #28 on: March 15, 2013, 07:31:16 PM »

Here's round 2.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xq12n53aghj84c2/Blessed%20Be%20Your%20Name%2002.m4a

Sent from my Milestone X using Tapatalk 2

Ouch, something's out of tune.  Can't decide if it's the guitar, bass or both.
Lead vox is a little too wet for my taste, puts it back where it should be forward.  Not sure if the chorus/delay on the acoustic is helping or hurting the intonation.  It's okay with the whole group, not a big fan when it's solo.  At least not so much of it.
A metronome would be a huge help too.  If they can play with it.  There's playing without a metronome to let things breathe and move a little, then there's this track.  The first is good, the latter not so much.
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Tommy Peel

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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #29 on: March 15, 2013, 08:25:58 PM »

Ouch, something's out of tune.  Can't decide if it's the guitar, bass or both.
Lead vox is a little too wet for my taste, puts it back where it should be forward.  Not sure if the chorus/delay on the acoustic is helping or hurting the intonation.  It's okay with the whole group, not a big fan when it's solo.  At least not so much of it.
A metronome would be a huge help too.  If they can play with it.  There's playing without a metronome to let things breathe and move a little, then there's this track.  The first is good, the latter not so much.

The acoustic doesn't sound very good dry, I don't have a chorus or delay on it I think it's just a reverb(which I'll try removing/changing); I'll have to work with it some more although I think it's a GIGO situation....

I'll take some of the effect off of the lead vocals to see if it helps; I could tell something is wrong with it. Do you have a particular effect/chain of effects that works good for lead vocals? I'm using the AUMultiband compressor>ReaEq>ReaDelay(vocal fattener)>ReaComp(just to keep the overall level in check; I tried just one comp but found having two worked better).

As for the out of tune, I suspect the bass but really don't know; I'm not a guitar player(or anything else) and have a hard time telling if something is out of tune. This was recorded live at our weekly tuesday night church service so there's not much I can do except try to make next time be better. Usually we have a full band(fully mic'd drum kit, acoustic guitar, keys, electric guitar, bass, and vocals); I'm very new to the whole mixing a recording thing so the smaller setup from the week before last makes for easier mixing.

One thing I've had trouble with is having enough gain on each channel to make the recording happy while getting it to work live; the acoustic guitar doesn't seem to sound very good in the recordings(though it seems fine live). I don't know if it's the cheap DI I'm using or a gain issue on the mixer but so far I haven't managed to make it sound very good.

Heres a dry piece of the recording: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vz9auqj08ydknev/Acoustic%20Guitar.mp3

Thanks for the advise so far and keep it coming. I'm hoping someday in the future to do a demo album or use the recording with a video to put on YouTube. For this we'd probably end up recording the band and re-tracking anything that needed help later(mainly vocals) and having an ambiance mic to get some "crowd" noise. We are planning a youth rally in a couple of months(no set date yet) and I'd like to get a decent recording of it to use and maybe get someone to video.
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Re: Best DAW for Live Recordings
« Reply #29 on: March 15, 2013, 08:25:58 PM »


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