Recording Live with 003, advice?

[ian Bourgal]

I'm getting ready to record a live performance for a local band. I've recorded a full track count with this rig before, but had a few problems. What I'd like to know is how to best prepare the computer to handle a full track count at 24bit 48k for about 3 - 60 minute live sets.

my rig: Mac Mini core 2 duo, 2gb Ram - Glyph 250gb fw HD - 003 Rack - Focusrite octopre (for adat in)

if anyone can help me get the computer to its full strength I'd really appreciate it. should i get a defrag program first? are there free ones?

thanks!
ian

[DrFord]

Well, typically Macs don't have a huge process to prepare and streamline, however I would recommend that you turn off a few things in your settings control panel.

Make sure "Put Hard Drives to Sleep Whenever possible." is OFF.
Turn off all of your screen savers, turn off your sleep settings. Turn off your bluetooth, your airport, and make sure you have a good solid power source if you are using an external hard drive. Surge protector and whatnot.

Also, make sure you have a limit in pro Tools for your recording time allotment. As in don't have it set to record unlimited. Make it 60 minutes, or whatever you need. People have reported problems with record until out of space.

Live recording is an infinitely different beast than studio, so keep your ears sharp.

GL

[ian Bourgal]

Thanks!

What about buffer settings, cpu usage and things like that? Should I run some sort of defrag/optimize to make sure the cpu is at it's best?

thanks for the help.

ian

[albee1952]

Since its live and you don't care about latency, set the buffer to the highest setting available(1024 or higher) to take strain off the cpu. Don't use any plugins either.

[ian Bourgal]

Thanks.