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In article writes:

OK, which is it, a recording board or a live sound board?

I share your concerns, Mike. I now do the same thing for my church. Live
mixing takes so much of my attention that even punching in the cassette
machine for the sermon isn't as reliable as I'd like it to be.

I've been there (though not at church, but at festivals) where in the
heat of getting the console set up while the band is still deciding
where the players will stand) I've forgotten to press the Record
button until half a minute into the first song - probaby just as well
since it usually takes that long to get something resembling a musical
mix when you don't have any idea what it's going to sound like. My
policy has been "tape is cheap (at least DAT tape was cheap) so just
let it run during the setup."

If I'm serious about getting a quality recording, I remix the individual
tracks from a digital recording where one mic equals one track. In essence I
redo the whole job from scratch.

That's reasonable, too. The question is just how serious do you want
(or need) to be? Often people take these routine jobs too seriously to
have fun at it. But that's between you, your congregation, and your
conscience.

All of the folk festivals I do are "documentary" recordings, all
straight to 2-track from the live console. Sometimes it's just the
same mono mix that feeds the speakers - which works just fine for all
acoustic acts. Sometimes if the mixer allows, we'll bus the channels
so that the pan pots can spread the recorded mix out in stereo which
helps sort things out when you're listening and not watching. And
sometimes, particularly when there are amplifiers on stage, I'll feed
the tape (always in mono in this instance) from a pre-fade, post-EQ
auxilary send so I can up things in the recording that are essentially
off in the house mix because the amps are too loud on stage.

IME live sound mixing is a way different game than mixing for recording.
Similar tools, but a different game. Yes, you can kinda throw together a
static mix for a recording of a live event that's often not too grim. But
for best results...

Yup. If I'm being paid to record a concert, I let someone else do the
live sound. I can make the decision (sometimes dictated by budget) as
to wheter to mix on the fly or record multitrack - and even then I'll
do a stereo mix just so I can hear what I'm recording.

Other details Ron posted suggested yes, this is going to be traditional
church work. Also it sounds like a very traditional form of worship which
favors simplicity.

In which case, a straightforward console is probalby the best bet.

In live sound applications, analog really doesn't seem to be that bad.

I know that, and you know that, and so do all the companies who still
make live sound analog consoles, but today's generation wants to go
digital as early in the chain as possible and stay digital until the
bitter end. For sure you can get more featues for less money with a
digital console than with an analog console. This often equates to
more features than you will ever use, for about the same amount of
money as you'd spend on an analog console where you'd use everything,
because it's easy and intuitive.

The Mackies fell off my short list because they don't seem to have a lot of
aux outs. 4, right? I'm currently using 6 of the 8 on my SR32, and can see
a nearly-immediate need for the other two.

The initial Onyx models were pretty close parallels to the VLZ compact
series - "compact" being the operative word. You couldn't use a
1604VLZ Pro for your gig either. At the AES show, Mackie showed an
Onyx replacement for their large format 8-bus live sound boards with 8
auxilary sends per channel. But those are a way off yet. The OP
wouldn't get 8 aux sends out of an 01V either.

I've never had my hands on an 01V, but it seems more like the shell in which
you build the mixer of your dreams, not the mixer of your dreams.

An old time music friend of mine wanted to experiemnt with 8-track
recording at home a few years back. This is a guy who knows his way
around audio and has been recording at home, in the studio, and in the
field with analog recorders for close to 50 years, so he's no dummy.
He decided on a TASCAM DA38 for his recorder, and when I suggested
that he look at the 01V as a mixer, he bought one. I spent a day with
him trying to come up with what seemed perfectly reasonable and
possible routings for different recording situations and there were a
few that just confounded me - I couldn't find any way to do it. (I
don't remember what "it" was at the time but it was something that
would be simple on even a 4-bus straightforward analog console) I
suspect that it had to do with not having enough outputs or inputs
routable to where they needed to go.

In any case, after a week of frustration, he returned the 01V, got a
Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro to replace it, and was a happy camper. Would his
recordings sound any better had they been made through the Yamaha A/D
converters rather than the TASCAM's? I doubt it. Would the Yamaha EQ
sound better than that on the Mackie? Probably, but he gets pure
sounds with good mics and good placement and about the only reason why
he uses EQ is to treat breath pops or foot taps, the knobs rarely
leave their 0 position. But if he were recording hip-hop music I'm
sure he would have been better off with the Yamaha - but then he
wouldn't have been needing to record several tracks live, then overdub
several others live.

It takes all kinds.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

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