Live recording Question 002R

[dsetaro]

Which would be better to do in a live recording? a) record the entire performance as one file (with stops inbetween songs) and then separating the file into separate song files or b) record to a series of files (assuming you have time inbetween songs to save, close and open a new file).
thanks in advance for your help.

[daeron80]

One file. The less you fiddle with the equip during the set, the less chance it will screw up. Use an uninteruptible power supply, so a dip in voltage doesn't shut you down in the middle of a song. Also, track to more than one format at once (e.g., out dig to an ADAT or Mackie HD24), or at least do a decent mix to stereo at the same time so problems won't mean a complete loss. Bring two hard disks, and copy all data to the second one as soon as the set is over.

[JFreak]

Also, track to more than one format at once (e.g., out dig to an ADAT or Mackie HD24)

True, but it's better to split at analog domain, because once you have that power problem, your digitals go out as well.

[GrimmReaperSound]

Ideally one file...but PT has a 2Gb limit PER FILE.
So the max time depends on the sample rate.
You can probably get away with one set per file...but not much more.

[dsetaro]

If you did only one file per set, how would you go about separating the songs into separate files?

[albee1952]

Lots of cutting and exporting. Or open the main file and place cuts at the start/end of each song>delete the rest of the audio and choose File>Save as>New name. Then close and reopen the original session agin and repeat for each song. A better solution might be to rent/borrow and 24 track HD recorder(like Mackie or Alesis) and then transfer songs into PT, one at a time per session.

[JFreak]

Lots of cutting and exporting. Or open the main file and place cuts at the start/end of each song>delete the rest of the audio and choose File>Save as>New name. Then close and reopen the original session agin and repeat for each song. A better solution might be to rent/borrow and 24 track HD recorder(like Mackie or Alesis) and then transfer songs into PT, one at a time per session.

it would be a lot easier to select the song and then consolidate. you remember that consolidating creates new audio files, don't you?

[JFreak]

Ideally one file...but PT has a 2Gb limit PER FILE.
So the max time depends on the sample rate.
You can probably get away with one set per file...but not much more.

24bits/sample*44100samples/sec=1058400bits/sec --> 132300bytes/sec --> 793800bytes/min=7752kB/min --> 465117kB/hour=454MB/hour ...so... 2GB=2048MB --> the ultimate limit of 2048MB and streaming rate of 454MB/hour means that the time limit is 4.5 hours.

to keep it on the safe side, you can always think that it is four hours that you can record before you must change files (stop and re-start recording). usually bands do not last that long without pauses, so it is reasonably safe to say that protools file size limit will not get in the way.

....and if it does, please make a formal feature request that in cases of reaching file size limit, protools would automatically stop recording and restart with another file name. at least i would not care if there was a gap in the recorded region every 4 and a half hours, if the recording would be otherwise intact. having to do it manually always loses many samples that would possibly have been recorded otherwise.

[mrufino1]

I do the whole recording as one session. If it is a live show, chances are that you're mixing all of the songs fairly similarly, since the drummer probably is not changing kits between tunes, etc. I guess that could happen, I just haven't dealt with it yet! But, I do each set as its own set of playlists, so I don't run into any problems with file size. I did this because I couldn't imagine trying to mix 3 hour long sets from one night as individual songs- it would take forever! Not so hard if you are mixing analog and can pretty much leave the board, but to have to set up all of your plugins each time would be tough. When you mix and you decide which songs you're keeping, just bounce that area on its own.

[3JDamon]

Definitely record the whole show as one session with separate files for each set. Most of the mix can be set globally, and for the sake of coherence it's important that the global mix work reasonably well for all songs.

The rest is automation for bringing up solos etc. If you want a separate session for each song you intend to mix, do the global mix first, then for each song save a copy of the session under the name of the song, delete all audio from the session except that song, save again.

If you're mixing the entire performance, it's much easier to divide a stereo file into individual CD tracks than dividing the session into separate sessions for each song. Mix first, cut later.