Old 01-24-2019, 06:15 PM   #1
Cranky Emu
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Default Recording Live

This might be an easy question for most of you seasoned campaigners of the forum.

Recently I have been asked to record a band live, the plan was to record the tracks live to whatever medium to be mixed/processed later in my home studio.

The roadblock I am hitting is how do I get audio into Reaper? Would like the capability of being able to have 16 in / 16 out at the bare minimum.

I did contact a music shop, to their credit they gave me some options - from the likes of the Zoom L20 all the way through to high-end MOTU boxes costing in the order of $4000.

At this point, from what I have found the L20 is looking like the only real viable option, it can record 22 tracks to SD on discrete tracks 20+stereo master bus. I don't really need the mixer and other capabilities this machine offers, so I am paying a lot of money just to get audio onto digital media.

Anyone got any ideas for a reasonable inexpensive way (sub 2000) of getting 16 discrete tracks of audio (simultaneously) onto a HDD etc?
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Old 01-24-2019, 06:29 PM   #2
Judders
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Get a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 and an Octopre and take your computer to the recording session?
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Old 01-24-2019, 07:16 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Judders View Post
Get a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 and an Octopre and take your computer to the recording session?
Forgive me if I am wrong, but both of them only have 8 inputs from what I can make out. I don't want to be doing any mixing or sub-grouping etc during the recording, definitely want separate tracks for each instrument etc.

Or am I missing something here?
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Old 01-24-2019, 07:24 PM   #4
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Are you using (or have access to) a MAC? You can take two devices and make an Aggregate Device, allowing you to use inputs from both as if they were one device.
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Old 01-24-2019, 08:25 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by citizenkeith View Post
Are you using (or have access to) a MAC?
No mate PC only here. I was considering getting a mac when I was first looking at Pro Tools before I came across Reaper, obviously Reaper won the battle.
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Old 01-24-2019, 07:28 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cranky Emu View Post
Forgive me if I am wrong, but both of them only have 8 inputs from what I can make out. I don't want to be doing any mixing or sub-grouping etc during the recording, definitely want separate tracks for each instrument etc.

Or am I missing something here?
The 18i20 has 8 preamps but you can plug the Octopre into it via ADAT, giving you 16 channels: https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-...face-via-ADAT-
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Old 01-24-2019, 08:30 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Judders View Post
The 18i20 has 8 preamps but you can plug the Octopre into it via ADAT, giving you 16 channels
Okie dokie sounds like an option, but for the same price bracket I can get the Zoom L20 - it can double as a mixer should I ever need such and also a separate interface.

I know I am sorta answering my own question here, just wanted to put it out there and see what others think and what they may use, as there seems to be a lot of people using Reaper in a live scenario.
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Old 01-24-2019, 10:15 PM   #8
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In most cases a Live performance features a Mixer. Nowadays such mixers mostly are digital and feature a (USB) multi channel output you can plug your PC to and run Reaper for recording.

A friend of mine uses a Behringer X32 for Live mixing and USB recording works perfectly with this.

For small Live jobs, I use a Behringer XR18 for mixing (with a tablet as a remote control). This is not really nice for mixing, but USB recording works perfectly. Normally I use the XR18 as the center of my tiny recording studio driving the monitors for the musicians and for multi channel recording via USB (up to 18 channels). In fact the XR18 is a very decently priced audio interface with additional mixing features.

Do you want to take a computer with you just for recording ? Many digital mixers (AFAIK, e.g. the X32) are able to do multi track recording recording on a USB stick (or external drive) without additional equipment.

-Michael

Last edited by mschnell; 01-25-2019 at 06:19 AM.
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