We're going to build a recording studio in our theater so that we'll be
able to mix & record all the bands that play at puppethouse.org with an
eye towards both studio albums and live recordings. We've got 16
channels (on an old unbalanced board) and about 2kw total amps, so what
kind of equipment should we buy? Also, if anyone's in the Branford/New
Haven CT area who wants to donate their time to our nonprofit theater
in helping us set it all up, please respond.

Andrew -
Sound system amplifier power doesn't really have anything to do with
recording.

What do you mean by "serious"? In my opinion, it's probably best for
the theater to hire a reputable location recordist/mobile recording
company to handle all of the details...no investment required, except
for paying their bill.

In your situation, you'd need to have the following things for
multitrack recording:
- an acoustically isolated control room, for the recording personnel to
work in during the presumably live performance
- a splitter snake, to send mic signals to both the recording setup you
decide on and the house sound mixer
- a DAW (you pick what fits your needs and budget)
- a recording console/mic preamps
all of this is assuming you have mics, stands and cables suitable for
master recording

Another option here is to have the live sound mixer act as recording
engineer. If this is the situation, then you'll need to upgrade the
audio mixer to a more professional console that has direct recording
outputs on each channel. By going this route, you eliminate the need
for additional personnel, a control room and a splitter snake

If this is still too much, then buy a small audio interface for a less
than state of the art computer to record the mix straight off the
mixer. Or perhaps a standalone CD burner.

This should be enough to get ya started...have fun.



wrote:
We're going to build a recording studio in our theater so that we'll be
able to mix & record all the bands that play at puppethouse.org with an
eye towards both studio albums and live recordings. We've got 16
channels (on an old unbalanced board) and about 2kw total amps, so what
kind of equipment should we buy? Also, if anyone's in the Branford/New
Haven CT area who wants to donate their time to our nonprofit theater
in helping us set it all up, please respond.

Go DAW or die on the vine. Get the Swee****er catalog and go crazy.

Rick
Bass Players Drink Bass