1/28/2008 7:01:21 AM

A tangent question since many of us are involved with the audio aspect of the service too..

How do you record your service?

We have recently switched from cassette to CD recordings using a  Marantz CDR-632 - Rackmount Professional CD Recorder.

I am thinking that we should switch again to use a computer to record the service.

Right now, we only record the message for several reasons:
  + The entire service often goes over 74 minutes
  + There is a lot of stuff in the service that just would not record well (e.g., when someone from the congregation, with a loud voice, stands up and makes an announcement, it would not be picked up well)

And yesterday, we ended up with no recording of the second half of the message (it was a split message) because the sound tech had hit "finalize" on the CD recorder after the first half.  Once that was done, there was no easy way to make one CD for the entire service (without a computer)

I am thinking about taking a feed off of the sound board, into a dedicated computer, where I can record the worship time and the message and edit that onto a CD.  Using software, I could edit out music if the service runs long, and still guarantee the entire message was captured.  I could also put the message first on the CD to appease the folks that think: only the message should be on the recording.

So I was wondering.. What are others doing to record the service and is it working for you?

1/28/2008 7:12:34 AM

We are still going to cassettes for our main recording and they sound awful.

Just this week, we started experimenting with some borrowed equipment. One guy broght in an M-Audio analog to digital converter and another guy brought in his Mac Book. But no matter where we plugged the M-Audio in on our 15 year old sound board, they got too much buzz. So they plugged into the back of the receiver for the pastor's countryman mike.

The receiver has an XLR out that runs to the board and a 1/4 phono out that they plugged the m-audio device into. Then we just had to remember to hit Start Record in garageband when the pastor started speaking.

This, of course, is not what we want long term. We want the entire service. But it may work as a stop gap.

I haven't heard how it turned out. I could probably check our web site and see if they have the sermon audio up there and how it sounds.

I have been adamant about not using the projection computer as the audio capture device. It's just one more thing that can go wrong and detract from the service. It makes it cramped in the sound booth with that extra laptop, but we'll deal with it for now.

We may get another desktop and KVM switch between the projeciton computer (monitor 1 only!) and the capture computer.

Long term, we want to upgrade our entire sound system. When we do that, we will probably end up with a digital board with a USB jack and we'll be able to send an AUX out audio directly to a memory key / jump drive / thumb drive (whatever you call them). Then, after a service has been recorded, we can take the jump drive to whatever computer we want to master the CD.

That's our longer term goal.

1/28/2008 5:21:50 PM

The last church I was at, used a PC to record the service by running a feed from the sound board. They used a program called Audiograbber, which is freeware, I think. Anyway, It can be set to start on a schedule and record for certain amounts of time. Themn it can be set to normalize, etc. So, on Sunday morning when we cam in we could simply push the power button on the PC at 8, it would start to record a 10:55 for about 1 hour 45, then normalize. The guy who made up the CD's would simply grab the file after coffee and edit it at home on his PC. He said it was very easy to edit.

Simon

1/28/2008 8:21:05 PM

We also use a Marantz CDR. I only mess with it occasionally. Our service are only about 60 minutes, and we pause it during portions that will not be picked up by a MIC.

1/28/2008 9:08:45 PM

We record our services by running two separate cables from the sound board Aux channels to the sound card on our pc that does SSP projection. We use Goldwave to capture the audio and to edit after it is over. I have learned the hard way that there are three different types of sound mixes. You have the live mix that the congregation hears out in the sanctuary, the monitor mix on the stage that the musicians and singers hear and the soundboard mix that picks up everything. Listening to the live mix out in the sanctuary always sounds much better than the soundboard mix. The soundboard mix and Goldwave pickes up every single imperfection from each channel. I am still trying to learn how to edit the soundboard mix to where it sounds halfway descent.

1/29/2008 2:06:10 PM

Yea the recorded sound is never as good as the live mix. Things naturally sound louder in the house and don't need as much amplification (like a grand piano) and they sometimes get lost in the mix or they feed back too much in the house (like choir mics) and they get lost in the mix. We use a main mix from the board rather than an aux because it is eaiser to regulate but it is still not that great. When we have more than a few channels I record directly to a multi channel device and then mix that after the service. That is about the only way to get a really solid mix other than having a dedicated recording mixer in another room.

1/29/2008 4:40:03 PM

Since we don't record anything but the message, adjusting the 'record mix' to to be more like the 'live mix' (which goes to the speakers) is something that I failed to consider.

Right now, the record mix is set to only pick up the pastor's mic... It produces really good sound with very little echo that way. BTW.. the pastor also does not go through the stage monitors - so that too helps keep him crisp on the recording and the live mix.

My current thought is to keep the current CD recorder as a primary recording of the service that we can provide imediatly after the service.  But also take another feed into the PC that includes music and can be used as a backup.

Our sound board is pretty good (outputs mixes include LiveMIx, AuxA, AuxB, AuxC and AuxD and Mix B). 3 of the Aux Mixes go to the stage and choir monitors, one goes to the CD recorder. We had plans to use MixB as an additional monitor mix, but I might grab that and feed it to the PC. MixB is controlled with knobs, not sliders, but it shouldn't be too hard to get it close to the LiveMix. I agree about the piano.. we mic it, but, because it is very loud on its own, it is set very low in the live mix -- I'd have to boost it when recording. We don't amplify the bass guitar at all through the board -- his stage monitor (which he controls) is plenty loud -- that would be another difference in the record mix from live.

Thanks for the responses!

2/21/2008 2:14:21 AM

We've got a nice mackie board (Analog 32.8), but we no longer take a stream off of it.

We hook the pastor's lav and/or a secondary mic into a channel splitter.  2 inputs feed 3 identical outputs apiece.  Ours are passive, and they don't introduce color or noise.  Then the sound guy can mix whatever he wants.  I hook up a little mixer with decent eq, and mix the signal to my taste.  If I have to make an adjustment or the soundguy does, we don't need to worry about affecting anyone's mix.

My little mixer is hooked into a firewire interface, and recorded using Audacity, a great, FREE, multi-platform audio recorder/editor.  Then, we burn the audio to CD (our sermons are rarely over 50 minutes) for duplication and create mp3s to post on our website.  The editing computer, dedicated to the task as is our projection machine, is only a 2.4gig P4 with 2 gigs of ram. It was very inexpensive to build.  Also, it is *not* networked, just like our projection machine.  This keeps nasties off of the computers!!!  With big flash drives, external drives and whatnot, we're not too worried.  (yes, we do have an internet machine for getting stuff off the net, but we prefer our production machines to be isolated.)

If we are only creating mp3's, then the editing process and encoding process take a combine 10-15 minutes.  Very nice for us volunteers!  Actually, we're doing less cd's now, because most of our congregation gets the mp3 for use in their ipod type devices!  We don't charge for cds or mp3s.

Oh, and this system has worked flawlessly for about 2.5 years!!!

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A word about audacity: If you haven't tried it out, do so.  It is free, very small, very powerful, easy to use.  You can use it on a mac, windows, or linux box. (they make a portable version too that you can use on any machine period...portableapps.com)

It has it's own file format, but it dumps out wavs and mp3s and whateverelse you feel like.  It'll use vst plugins, nyquist, all kinds of good stuff!
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Blessings!

Kevin Maurer
Redmond Assembly of God

3/30/2008 12:29:26 PM

We also use a live CD recorder at our sound desk, which our sound opperator runs to record our pastor's sermon only. (Sorry I don't know what kind of recorder since I'm in our Media room right now during a service and can't go look.) They also create tracks every 5-10 minutes or so when the pastor pauses, so when people order CDs they can easily skip forward or back throughout the sermon.

Then, during the week, I take that CD, rip it into iTunes (joining all the tracks together) and edit it into an MP3 with Audacity. I check volume, edit out little bits we may not want and upload it to our website and podcast.
I've learned a lot about audio editing and podcasting through research and trial and error and I also agree that Audacity is a great free program.

My 2 cents.
~ Kirsten B.

4/1/2008 3:17:55 AM

We record from the desk to a program called Total Recorder. The advantage of using Total Recorder over Goldwave is that TR can split as it goes (and do a good job of it)... meaning when we burn the master CD after the sermon, we have all the tracks already done, at five minutes each. TR also names the sermon and tracks according to the date, or time... or whatever you like.