Device for multichannel live recording

[unclefu]

Hi everyone,

I would like to make multichannel records of my live gigs and I would like to get a tool that can do the job. There's always the option of using computer with other stuff, but I preferred something with its own user interface and storage, thus easier use, smaller size, less stuff to stuck in the back of my amp So far I've found the Zoom R16...

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/r16/

...but it has a lot of functions I don't need (effects, amp simulators), so maybe there's something else out there which doesn't, thus smaller price. Do you guys know of any cheaper device that can do the whole thing?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Trevoire520]

Personally I'd go for a Allen & Heath Ice 16 or a Alesis HD24 so you can get a decent channel count going. 8 seems really limiting for recording a full band, you'd realistically want that many just for the drums!

That being said I have done live recordings for bands on a 4 track tape recorder by getting creative with the groups!
1 - Mono drums
2-3 - Stereo gtrs and bass
4 - Mono vocals

Didn't leave much scope for mixing later though.

 

[unclefu]

Personally I'd go for a Allen & Heath Ice 16 or a Alesis HD24 so you can get a decent channel count going. 8 seems really limiting for recording a full band, you'd realistically want that many just for the drums!

That being said I have done live recordings for bands on a 4 track tape recorder by getting creative with the groups!
1 - Mono drums
2-3 - Stereo gtrs and bass
4 - Mono vocals

Didn't leave much scope for mixing later though.

For the price of the mentioned, I could buy 2 or 3 Zoom R16s and link them together. I'd like to find something cheaper. By the way, 8 channels would be enough for me for now, so any suggestions with 8 channels would be appreciated!

 

[if6was9]

I'd go with the Allen and Heath Ice 16.
I wouldn't be sold on the quality of the Zoom. The A&H unit would be more of a pro unit than the zoom which looks to be more geared at convenience for someone in a band looking to get band jams and ideas down.

The A&H Ice would slot into a proper PA setup at a gig better and would make getting the tracks onto a computer a breeze.

Been looking at one myself to generate so more work recording gigs and with for working with video guys.

 

[unclefu]

I've come up with an idea on how to spare my channels, and I'd like to hear your opinion. Since on every gig there's a limited time to get ready, I don't want to struggle too much with the proper mic setup, so I decided to have my bass drum, snare and toms replaced by samples afterwards. But since sampling doesn't need a trigger signal that takes over the whole frequency spectrum, I can get smart about it: I put a mic on everything and have bandpasses linked after them, but each one set to a different band. Then I can record all of them on one channel, because afterwards I can isolate the different drums by the bands. Then I can use the isolated channels to trigger the sampler plugins for placing the snare, tom, bass hits. This way I can "record" five different drums on one channel. What do you think? I guess the same could be achieved with some sort of pickups, but since bandpasses and really cheap crap mics is a much cheaper solution, it seems like a better choice.

 

[Trevoire520]

That just sounds like far too much messing about to me personally.

 

[if6was9]

That just sounds like far too much messing about to me personally.

Yeah, if you're short on channels then just use groups to have drum, guitar, bass, vocal stems.
If you want to have individual tracks for everything just spend the little bit of extra money and get something with enough tracks to properly record. It'll sound like ass if you have samples on everything.

 

[unclefu]

Yeah, if you're short on channels then just use groups to have drum, guitar, bass, vocal stems.
If you want to have individual tracks for everything just spend the little bit of extra money and get something with enough tracks to properly record. It'll sound like ass if you have samples on everything.

The drums will sneak into the overhead channels as well, so I figured it will give a more natural overall experience, what do you guys think? (using this trick I can have up to 3 overheads)

 

[Sloan]

there's a new box that someone just released that records tracks directly to usb stick/usb2 hdd...

 

[Sloan]

there's a new box that someone just released that records tracks directly to usb stick/usb2 hdd...

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ampaign=none&gclid=CNG0nfaXyrMCFQ2znQodxW0ANw

JoeCo Blackbox...

 

[unclefu]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ampaign=none&gclid=CNG0nfaXyrMCFQ2znQodxW0ANw

JoeCo Blackbox...

Again, a bit too expensive, I could buy the Alesis or the Allen & Heath if I had that amount of cash.

 

[arv_foh]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ampaign=none&gclid=CNG0nfaXyrMCFQ2znQodxW0ANw

JoeCo Blackbox...

That is pretty badass. Crazy though my X32 console was barely more expensive and I can multitrack 32 channels with that

 

[Sloan]

That is pretty badass. Crazy though my X32 console was barely more expensive and I can multitrack 32 channels with that

are you speaking of the Behringer/Midas X32???
Please make a thread about it from an actual real-world user point of view, i am interested...

 

[Drummerrrrr?]

The R16 will be your best bet, you won't find anything cheaper to do the job and is standalone