Board tapes: how might I go digital?

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Scott Dorsey wrote:

> < ...snip.. >
>
> Microboards makes a standalone recorder with two transports that can swap
> in the middle of recording. A friend who tried it said that it was not ready
> for prime time but that the idea was a good one.
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Hmmm, didn't see that unit on the Microboards page but I did see
a Fostex multi-track hard drive box with a DVD burner option.

maybe one of those and a standalone CD box for the musician's
and I'd be set ...maybe.

Gotta check on the Fostex details.

Later...

Ron Capik
--

 

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> For years my venue has been archiving performances ( we are
> a cultural preservation and historical society) via a sequential
> cassette recorder. We also have been providing musician tapes
> by request. [ I have 4 cassette wells; two for the archive sequence,
> and two reserved for musician tapes.]
>
> We are (finally) looking to upgrade the system but I haven't
> been able to find any digital solutions as simple as our current
> "load tapes and push record" solution.
>
> Our total show is about 4 hours, sets are about 30 min, and
> setup is typically festival style/sound check on the fly.
> I'd like to find a way to switch over to CD-R format for both
> the archive and musician "tapes" with minimal extra work
> for the sound booth. Are there any sequential CD recorders
> out there (or other solutions) that might fit our needs? I'd like
> to have a hard copy [CDs] at the end of the night without
> the added step(s) of dumping a hard drive output to CD
> or downloading to a computer (heck, the venue doesn't even
> have a computer) etc.

A $200 Nomad Jukebox 3 is worth considering. It's the size of a discman and
records to a 20GB hard drive with DAT sound quality and has proven to be
very reliable. The stock drive holds 33 hours of 16/44.1 audio, but can be
swapped out for any 2.5" laptop drive, currently 80GB drives are available,
in time 120GB will eventually be available. The recordings are transfered
to a PC over Firewire at 32x (5MB/s), so one of your 4 hour shows takes
about 10 minutes to transfer, then you can easily process the audio onto
CD's and DVD archives. The resulting files are even time-stamped for easy
organization.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>
>I'm starting to build up a nice list of potential solutions. Though I've
>burned
>many CDs on my computers I've never used a standalone CD burner and thus
>am not familiar with the start, stop, finalize procedure, but get the
>feeling it's
>similar to loading cassettes and pushing record.
>
>I do have next to zero time between sets. One act enters stage right as
>the other
>exits stage left. I get the final set list at the beginning of the night
>but never know
>how many people will be in the group 'till the wander on stage. :-{
>Try as I will, I can't seem to get the host/MC to check in the acts and
>communicate
>that information to me. Very much a down side of the casual atmosphere of
>our venue.
>...but I digress.
>
>Thanks for the added input.
>
>Later....
>
>Ron Capik
>--

The standalone CDR recorders are not quite as simple or fast as a cassette
deck.

First, on my HHB 830, (and I am pretty sure that this is typical) it takes 18
seconds for the machine to recognize a new disc.

Second, it takes at least another 10-12 seconds for the machine to setup for
recording the disc.

When finished recording, you could set up the machine for self finalizing
(about 4-1/2 minutes) or manually finalize the disc, which the machine says
will take 2 minutes, but in reality is at least three minutes unless it decides
to hang during finalizing, in which case, it may be a little longer.

My solution would be to use two machines and rotate them, having one always
recording.

I use a single HHB 830 for documentation of high school bands at our festival
days at the University, but I have a fair amount of time between bands.

CDR recorders, unlike DAT machines and Hard Drive recorders are extremely
sensitive to physical shock. Mount them solidly and there is no problem, but
one bump will kill a disc. For this reason, plus the longer recording time, I
use a DAT on concert recording.
Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty