Pro Tools for live concert multitrack recording?

[flymax]

I'm thinking of setting myself up to start doing this and was wondering what others experiences have been. I'm somewhat concerned about a freeze or crash of some sort and "missing" some of the show. Do you all keep a dat going or something else just in case.
Thanks,
Pete

[Daniel_Dettwiler]

I did several Liverecordings with either Prottols or DA/88/Adat. To be honest, a ProTools crash or freeze on a good computer with stable system is very rare. And during record or only playback I never had one crash I could remember. On the other side I can not really remember Adat/DA88 Liverecordings, where no problems occured. With ADAT I had often dropouts, or one machine thought that humidity is to high and stopped or what erver. This is better on a DA 88, but once I had the problem that the tapes the operater in a mobile Studio choosed had not played back on my machine. I had drive 300 km to make the transfer at the machines which we recordet it.

Go for ProTools.

d.

[Vaphoron]

I have been so happy with my Pro Tools rig that I would only hesitate taking it out for a live show because of the cost of it. As long as it is insured you are safe but you still want to protect it so you need some good road cases.

Jason

[snoopy]

I do a lot of remote recording with Protools. I didnt have any problems until a video company insisted on me going through ADATs as a backup measure. The ADATs were far too unreliable compared to protools. They would not sync, they would send out wrong clock signal. The end result was that it cost thouusands of dollars to reshoot the concert because of the problems (which would have been circumvented had the video crew provided enough time to compensate for problems.

My point is that I have yet to have a problem with protools live, and I will never rely on MDM medium. What I do is run my inputs off a splitter on the iso transformer side, then feed ADATs from the direct outs of the FOH console.

TIP: Because of the large sessions/file sizes of live recordings, make sure to have plenty of ram and allocate a lot to PT/DAE (I allocate about 200mb to each, 100 and under has caused PT to close due to lack of memory).

TIP: If you have to send a live feed to video DAT for backup, make sure to insert compressors and EQ on every channel (even if bypassed) because once you're rolling, you cant change anything and you also cant solo anything.

TIP: LCD monitors will help your back muscles

[Doctor Rudolf]

Hi,

You gave the answer yourself... I would hire a external mixer (advantage : you'll have phantomed mic inputs etcetera) and hire two or more DA88 or ADAT recorders and redo the trick by redigitizing it in the comforts of your own studio. Its more reliable, that moving around a PC and all the problems that come with rewiring a protools-setup. Hiring a mixer and recorders for a day isn't that expensive anymore. Then go to your studio, digitize the stuff and profit from the slipping around in protools.

[Jules]

Chums of mine did a hour long concert at Londons premier jazz Club, Ronnie Scotts, no problems, client was very happy that they could cheat a bit on overdubs later...

[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Jules

P.S run any backups you feel nessary,

old tick is to run a second track of the lead vocal at reduced level, this is good in case there is a very loud part that causes an over on the regular track...

[ July 23, 2001: Message edited by: Jules ]

[redman]

I am also interested in recording live rock/pop shows straight into protools. My question for those of you who have done this successfully is, did you use your own stage mic's and mic pre's, take a feed from the board, or a combination of the two?
I only own one 888, so I was thinking I could rent a 1622, or an ADAT bridge to acheive 24 track input?

Any advice for this novice would be greatly appreciated.

[snoopy]

I bring my own mics and cables whenever possible. For instance I will bring a U-47fet for kick which most venues wouldn't dream of keeping on hand. But to me the single most important aspect of the recording is the room mics. I bring a pair of U87s for this as well as some mounting brackets which let me mount them on walls or underneith balconys, etc. I bring my own Canare star quad mic cable because many venues have pretty low grade cable.

If you must use a combination of interfaces, amke sure to prioritize your inputs, pluggins the more important ones into the better interfaces. Toms are easy to trigger or replace, but room mics aren't.

I also use a splitter because who knows the quality of the inhouse mixing board and if it will have direct outs or a compitent engineer.

Again, I try to avoid ADATs because I have had nothing but bad experiences, but if it's what you need to do to get inputs, its what you need to do.

[dstagl]

When Pearl Jam recorded all their US shows on the last tour, then went right into Pro Tools every night. I think it worked out fine for them because they did release every show off the tour.

Dave

[flymax]

Thanks for all the input. I do have a laptop/001/digimax/magma rig so I'll give it a try. I think 14 direct outs from the board and a pair of audience mics is the way to go, as well as running a dat with a feed of the FOH mix . I like the idea of recording two lead vox with one trimmed back for protection.
-Pete