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Live "multi-track" recording our practice sessions

J

Just J

Jul 27, 2007
347
3
#1
Forgive me if this has been discussed into the ground, but I searched and couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for, probably because I may be using the wrong terms.

Here's the deal, I'm in your "typical" cover band. One of the issues we have is being able to practice outside of our get togethers. Practicing with the actual track is all well and good, but there are a number of songs we play differently (be it in a different key, higher tempo, or with a different feel) so it's difficult to practice these away from the band.

I'm pretty tech savvy, and have a monster of a laptop, so I had an idea. One of my DJing tools has an external sound card that can double as an ASIO device giving me a number of ins and outs. I was thinking about setting it up to record each channel individually while we're all playing as one.

I know I could just record the whole band as one, then just kill the bass for myself (wouldn't even have to kill anything actually, they plug into the PA, I don't, so I'd be out of the mix regardless), but that doesn't help the guitarists. I'm just wondering about the feasability of recording everyone live on an individual track, software suggestions, alternative ideas, etc.
 
#2
Pretty much every digital audio program can work for you. It'll all just depend on getting the inputs to the level you want and then setting up each individual track in the software. Then you can hit record and jam away. Are you using Windows or Mac OS? If you're using Windows then REAPER is a really good (and cheap) software to use. It's constantly being updated and the price can't be beat. You could also use something like Audacity if you want to get nitty gritty, but REAPER will give you far more options and its interface is more like a "real" DAW.

http://reaper.fm/
 
#3
Great idea.
Welcome to the crazy world of live band, multichannel recording...:)
I multi-track record most of my bands rehearsals and mix-down/burn everyone their own personal practice CD with all parts but their own.

The recorder I use is probably beyond your budget or needs, but this one will record all 24 channels (@24 bit) simultaneously for hours and hours on end:
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Mine is just a standalone recorder, so I also need external mic preamps of some sort, and a way to mix down and burn CDs.
(the rest of my recording gear is listed in my profile)

I'd imagine your also going to get into a fairly expensive setup to do 8 to 24 channels of simultaneous recording with a computer, but that's definitely an option.
I'll let the others comment on multi-track computer recording.

There's some fairly inexpensive (standalone) 8-track recorder/mixers on the market that should work great for your needs.
Here's a bunch:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4DMUS_enUS221US222&q=8+track+recorder
(used ones): http://www.google.com/search?source...US_enUS221US222&q=Craigslist+8+track+recorder
(Note: some will record all channels simultaneously, and some only do two at a time)

For a really cheap price, you could just buy an older used cassette 4 or 8-track recorder (with built in preamps and mixer) that would have 2 stereo outputs to run to your computer for CD burning.
Here's a few:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...lt&cd=1&q=Craigslist+4+track+cassette&spell=1

There's a few different options for ya, good luck.
 

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