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[Dan Lange]

Dear Church Sound,
  I got put to the task a couple months ago of running the mixer in a local church. This is a Peavey Unity Series 2002-16RQ board. It is set up as a multichannel setup: No special effects so nothing on the returns, but the output sliders are going places:

EFX A -> tape deck
EFX B -> was unused
MON A -> wedge monitors for choir
MON B -> personal wireless listening devices
Master (L) -> House
Master (R) -> Basement PA
and entryway speakers with their own volume controls.

Since there was some question about obsoleting the tape deck I tapped EFX B and ran it into the mic jack on my laptop and used a program called Free Sound Recorder that gave me a VU, a "too loud" warning, and direct-to-MP3 recording.

Well since I learned the board by setting the levels just below feedback to get the singers above the guitars in the contemporary service, between keeping ahead of feedback and the major drop in volume between the band and the pastor's lapel mic, I stay pretty busy. The gains start at 5 but end up somewhere around 6.5 for singers, 7.5 to 9 for guitars, and the output knobs on EFX A/B go really low (1 to 2) for avoiding clipping and keeping between +1 and +3 to get the pastor loud enough to hear on the tape. The personal assisted listening has its own VU meter too, as does the computer and the board.

But that doesn't give me proper time to make good mix recordings. Either I need to know a better way to run the mixer or I should be looking for a digital recorder that can record the individual raw channels (about 8 channels or so) via usb to my laptop. Basically I want to tap the mics and guitars before the mixer and route them out of my recording unit and into the mixer. This would allow me to remix the recordings later for a much better end result.

Is there such a multi-track recorder, or can you recommend better techniques for running the board? Thanks!

[Tom Young]

If you search here at the Church Sound section and elsewhere at PSW, there are numerous threads on recording from a FOH mixer.

In a nutshell; this is extremely difficult to do under any circumstances. I suggest that, before you look into another recording system, you read some of these threads and perhaps this will allow you to improve what you're doing now or lead you in the right direction.

[Jonathan Johnson]

If your main task is to mix the live performance, adequately mixing for a recording will be very difficult to achieve. It's kind of like trying to ride two bicycles at once -- it can be done but don't expect good results. Recording individual channels later to a multitrack recorder does allow you to create a better mix for the recording, BUT remember that you will spend time after the service to finalize the recording. That time will be at least as long as the service.

You may want to enlist someone to be a recording engineer, who will use a separate mixer to create a recording mix. Then you'll be able to distribute recordings shortly after the service.

Laptop mic inputs just aren't designed for line-level signals. There are ways to make it work, but laptop sound cards usually give mediocre sound quality. If you wish to digitally record a live mix, I highly recommend getting a USB audio interface.

[ProSoundWeb Community]