Old 11-19-2010, 10:40 AM   #1
Mr Ected
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Default Any tips for real lengthy recordings?

Hey guys,

I'm a new Reaper user and I'm planning on recording a live gig. The total length will probably be about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I'll be going through a mixer, out from the mixer into my recording interface (Firepod), using 2 channels (everything will go through the mixer/PA).

Do you guys have any tips for this? I wont be able to do much as far as post-event mixing because I'll only be recording 2 channels (L and R respectively). I used to use Cubase LE4 and whenever I did lengthy recordings it was almost a guarantee that something screwed up would happen in the middle of the recording (typically it would suddenly just stop recording), does Reaper have any of these issues with super long recordings?

The mix doesn't have to be real high quality, so is it possible to have it record in MP3 format to preserve room while recording?

One more question for recording setup -
I'm the drummer and all I'll be able to use is a couple overheads and a bass drum mic. This is going to be an outdoor event, any tips for getting the best (or at least adequate) drum recording I can with this setup?

Any other tips are greatly welcome and very much appreciated.

Thanks! Oh, and Reaper ROCKS! No more Cubase for me!
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Old 11-19-2010, 10:47 AM   #2
Fran Guidry
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Record .wav, not MP3, assuming any reasonable hard disk.

Over at Gearslutz there are threads about using REAPER as a live recording tool and it's getting a ton of praise for its ability to record for hours without a glitch.

Fran
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Old 11-19-2010, 11:51 AM   #3
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"One hour, that's not long" 'Crocodile' Dundee pulls out a terabyte hard drive "that's long"


I am surprised Cubase had issues.

What I would do:

Make sure the max Record Time (File\Project settings\(project settings tab) is set to off or long enuff to record what you are recording (the default setting is ten hours)

Set your buffer size high so your computer works less

Turn off anything your computer has that could interrupt the recording (wireless Internet)

Test it out before the show by recording pink noise etc. just to be sure (it will only take an hour+)
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Old 11-19-2010, 12:00 PM   #4
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.

I record 8 tracks for 2.5 hours fairly regularly.

I set Reaper to autosave each track at 200Mbyte intervals. This is a convienient size for editing and copying to other media (at roughly 1/3 of a CDR per track per save). Reaper will stagger the saves so that the system is less likely to get too busy during the "save" process. Works great.

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Old 11-19-2010, 12:07 PM   #5
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I use Reaper for board recordings all the time when I'm playing live sound engineer. I typically record to -V5 MP3, upload to the web and give the musicians a link. Never had a glitch. Lately I've been throwing a multiband compressor and a limiter into the chain and recording the output with pretty good results.
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Old 11-19-2010, 12:10 PM   #6
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Thanks for all the tips! Everyone has been very helpful.
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Old 11-19-2010, 12:14 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zappsunzorn View Post
I am surprised Cubase had issues.
It's possible that I'm blaming the wrong guy. Hopefully I don't have some other issue somewhere else that will crop up in Reaper (bad cord, screwy Firepod, computer issue, etc).
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Old 11-20-2010, 04:09 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fran Guidry View Post
Record .wav, not MP3, assuming any reasonable hard disk.

Over at Gearslutz there are threads about using REAPER as a live recording tool and it's getting a ton of praise for its ability to record for hours without a glitch.

Fran
Here's the thread btw.
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Old 11-20-2010, 05:56 AM   #9
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WavePack is a great format for long recording, lossless, stable and if there's silence section will compress to basically zero size. I would never use a lossy format for recording.
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Old 11-20-2010, 06:43 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Ected View Post
One more question for recording setup -
I'm the drummer and all I'll be able to use is a couple overheads and a bass drum mic. This is going to be an outdoor event, any tips for getting the best (or at least adequate) drum recording I can with this setup?
Depends a little on how you play (and of course, which mic (: ), but I've had great results with outdoor recordings done with just 1 mic for the drums! Between snare and kick, pointing down to the kick and away from the hihat.

Maybe you have some time beforehand to test if you really need a 2nd mic, but generally it's a great way to capture a great drum sound.

For the file format: I would go with 24bit wav as well, simply because there's no additional computing required like with compressed formats – so the chances that even a bad puter will fail, are heavily minimized...
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Old 11-20-2010, 09:10 AM   #11
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I accidentally recorded an all-night sleeping house last week. (terabyte drive) Reaper had no problem with it.
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Old 11-20-2010, 10:32 AM   #12
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Quote:
REAPER as a live recording tool and it's getting a ton of praise for its ability to record for hours without a glitch.
I used to record with a glitch but since I started using reaper I found I no longer needed and was able to sell it on EEBAY for a tidy sum..
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Old 11-20-2010, 11:55 AM   #13
Mr Ected
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beingmf View Post
Depends a little on how you play (and of course, which mic (: ), but I've had great results with outdoor recordings done with just 1 mic for the drums! Between snare and kick, pointing down to the kick and away from the hihat.

Maybe you have some time beforehand to test if you really need a 2nd mic, but generally it's a great way to capture a great drum sound.

For the file format: I would go with 24bit wav as well, simply because there's no additional computing required like with compressed formats – so the chances that even a bad puter will fail, are heavily minimized...
Thanks for the tips. I do think I'm going to try a couple overheads though, just so I can have a bigger sound stage, and also to capture the cymbals really well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hopi View Post
I used to record with a glitch but since I started using reaper I found I no longer needed and was able to sell it on EEBAY for a tidy sum..
I think I'm the one who bought your glitch...
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Old 11-20-2010, 02:07 PM   #14
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Hi,

i recommend recording 4 channels to achieve a more balanced result.
- 2 channels from the mixing desk
- 2 room mics @ FOH position (2.5 m or higher) to capture the audience and instruments that might be underrepresented in the PA mix (e.g. electric guitars as they often are loud from stage and therefor not so loud in the PA mix)

hth
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