Cubase location record

[Sounds.is]

I have been asked to do two nights of location record for a band that I have produced in the past. I will be recording 20 inputs transformer split from the stage into Cubase on my G5 mac (the Power Mac doesn't get to leave the studio).

I would like to break up each nights recordings into the individual songs as I record them, without any audio dropouts in between. In theory I could go back and edit the regions between each song, but I am weary about having 20 tracks of continuously recorded audio over 60 minutes :/

Any insight would be appreciated.

Yes I have tried the search function to no avail ..........

[Matti]

Hit stop between the songs and then record but have the audio pre-record function in use ( preferences >record ) -Might work, I´ve never tested

Matti

[matt2525]

What MATTI says might just work - but test it thoroughly before you're at the gig!!

Why are you wary of having the audio over 60 minutes?

I have recorded a few live gigs on my cubase system (PC), running 26 tracks for well over an hour on an RME 9652 card with no issues . I generally hit ctrl-alt-S periodically to save the project as it records, then if there is a power outage or similar, at least the project is safe up to that save point. Ideally I have a backup recorder as a safety measure, plus backup the hard drive to an external drive at the end of the gig before moving anything.

I did just think of a workaround if you really did want to split the tracks as you go : bit convoluted but it will work!

set up all your tracks ready to go, then put them all inside a folder track .
Now duplicate all the tracks, and put these inside another folder track, making sure the same inputs are routed to the duplicate tracks.

Now, when you set up to record the opening number, click on the record enable for folder track #1 - all the tracks in that folder will now be enabled, hit record and the audio will start recording. The second the band finishes their first track, click the record enable for folder track #2 - you'll now be recording two simultaneous identical takes on mulitple tracks. Click on record enable for folder track #1 again, to stop the recording on the first lot of tracks, and repeat this, flipping between the two tracks as you go through the show .

You'll end up with a seperate bunch of wavs for each track, but they'll overlap and be in sync, so you won;t miss any audio at all - just don't get mixed up and disable record on both folder tracks at the same time!!!!!

[Matti]

Originally Posted by MATTI

Hit stop between the songs and then record but have the audio pre-record function in use ( preferences >record ) -Might work, I´ve never tested

Matti

Did some testing, and this works. The only thing is you´ll have to sync the files to the previous take afterwards but thats pretty easy in groups / takes. I used 10s pre-record but it could be whatever reasonable.
I like this because it´s so hasslefree at the location

Matti

[Sounds.is]

You guys are awesome, both great ideas. I will test them both out today, my gut says the prerecord @ 10 seconds would be the most straight forward and foolproof, and as we all know foolproof is the key!

[Matti]

[Sounds.is]

The main reason I would prefer to have many sequential audio files is purely for safety reasons. I am not very confident in using a DAW for location recording, but I do not have access to another more secure format for the job. I am much more confident in having many individual takes and constantly saving then getting 90% of the way through a performance and possibly losing it all.

[Sounds.is]

Originally Posted by MATTI

Did some testing, and this works. The only thing is you´ll have to sync the files to the previous take afterwards but thats pretty easy in groups / takes. I used 10s pre-record but it could be whatever reasonable.
I like this because it´s so hasslefree at the location

Matti

Why does the sync of the takes shift? Would the audio not just show up in sync but then have an additional 10 second handle available at the beginning?

[Matti]

The time difference between stop and rec, the pre-record doesn´t get recorded before you hit rec. My quess is if you used an outside timecode generator in free run and recorded in broadcast wave they would find their place.

Matti