Transferring live recordings from Alesis 24-track to PC

[Guest]

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

Hi,

I wonder if anyone could help me with some things/problems I might be
facing soon...

I will be recording a band in live situation. I will get to borrow
Alesis HD24 Hard Disk 24 Track Recorder, of which I have no previous
experience. The idea is to record the whole 2 hr. gig with appr. 20
mono tracks. It is my belief now that this will result into 20 huge
files in the Alesis's hard disk, right? Then later I will transfer the
whole thing to PC, where I will do the mixing & mastering.

On the hard drive in the PC there is room for the 20-30 GB of files
that I will transfer. However, I think that having one 20 GB project
in Cubase SX isn't the optimal solution, since I'm pretty positive
that while mixing and using various plug-ins, my PC will run out of
resources. My projects have previously been max 7 GB's, and even then
the PC sometimes chokes a bit during mixing.

So I would have to find a way to split the live gig into songs so that
the songs, as well as the mono tracks (instruments) would actually be
separate files. Then I would be able to make one Cubase project per
song and be able to use plugins etc. In the end, I would add the songs
together again, resulting into a complete recording of a gig.

Is there a way to do this 'splitting'? Can I do this with 'markers' in
Alesis before I transfer the files to my PC?

My PC is 1,7 Pentium IV.


Thanks,
Kalle

 

[erick]

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

Kalle L. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wonder if anyone could help me with some things/problems I might be
> facing soon...
>
> I will be recording a band in live situation. I will get to borrow
> Alesis HD24 Hard Disk 24 Track Recorder, of which I have no previous
> experience. The idea is to record the whole 2 hr. gig with appr. 20
> mono tracks. It is my belief now that this will result into 20 huge
> files in the Alesis's hard disk, right? Then later I will transfer the
> whole thing to PC, where I will do the mixing & mastering.
>
> On the hard drive in the PC there is room for the 20-30 GB of files
> that I will transfer. However, I think that having one 20 GB project
> in Cubase SX isn't the optimal solution, since I'm pretty positive
> that while mixing and using various plug-ins, my PC will run out of
> resources. My projects have previously been max 7 GB's, and even then
> the PC sometimes chokes a bit during mixing.
>
> So I would have to find a way to split the live gig into songs so that
> the songs, as well as the mono tracks (instruments) would actually be
> separate files. Then I would be able to make one Cubase project per
> song and be able to use plugins etc. In the end, I would add the songs
> together again, resulting into a complete recording of a gig.
>
> Is there a way to do this 'splitting'? Can I do this with 'markers' in
> Alesis before I transfer the files to my PC?
>
> My PC is 1,7 Pentium IV.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Kalle

I am pretty sure you can split the long tracks into separate songs on
the Alesis hard disc recorder. Download the manual and check it out. How
are you planning on transferring the tracks into your PC? Ethernet?


--
Eric

Practice Your Mixing Skills
Multi-Track Masters on CD-ROM
www.Raw-Tracks.com

 

[Danny]

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

I used a mackie 24 and did exactly what you are talking about and dumped
it into a Mac with cubase. Nothing coughed at all. Everything worked and
there were no backing up or slowing down problems at all.

Don't bother splitting anything. You have two choices. If you need to
edit then dump in the tracks and if not, mix it first then dump in the 2
track. If you need to edit before mixing, dump everything in so the
tracks line up. Splitting them will just make it really hard to get
everything back together and long tracks don't seem to affect
performance of daw's. Once in, treat it like one song at a time and set
your markers so that you are dealing with one song at a time. When you
mix the first song, just move the markers and do the next. You won't
have any problems at all.

Danny

Kalle L. wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I wonder if anyone could help me with some things/problems I might be
> facing soon...
>
> I will be recording a band in live situation. I will get to borrow
> Alesis HD24 Hard Disk 24 Track Recorder, of which I have no previous
> experience. The idea is to record the whole 2 hr. gig with appr. 20
> mono tracks. It is my belief now that this will result into 20 huge
> files in the Alesis's hard disk, right? Then later I will transfer the
> whole thing to PC, where I will do the mixing & mastering.
>
> On the hard drive in the PC there is room for the 20-30 GB of files
> that I will transfer. However, I think that having one 20 GB project
> in Cubase SX isn't the optimal solution, since I'm pretty positive
> that while mixing and using various plug-ins, my PC will run out of
> resources. My projects have previously been max 7 GB's, and even then
> the PC sometimes chokes a bit during mixing.
>
> So I would have to find a way to split the live gig into songs so that
> the songs, as well as the mono tracks (instruments) would actually be
> separate files. Then I would be able to make one Cubase project per
> song and be able to use plugins etc. In the end, I would add the songs
> together again, resulting into a complete recording of a gig.
>
> Is there a way to do this 'splitting'? Can I do this with 'markers' in
> Alesis before I transfer the files to my PC?
>
> My PC is 1,7 Pentium IV.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Kalle

 

[Guest]

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

Kalle L. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wonder if anyone could help me with some things/problems I might be
> facing soon...
>
> I will be recording a band in live situation. I will get to borrow
> Alesis HD24 Hard Disk 24 Track Recorder, of which I have no previous
> experience. The idea is to record the whole 2 hr. gig with appr. 20
> mono tracks. It is my belief now that this will result into 20 huge
> files in the Alesis's hard disk, right? Then later I will transfer the
> whole thing to PC, where I will do the mixing & mastering.
>
> On the hard drive in the PC there is room for the 20-30 GB of files
> that I will transfer. However, I think that having one 20 GB project
> in Cubase SX isn't the optimal solution, since I'm pretty positive
> that while mixing and using various plug-ins, my PC will run out of
> resources. My projects have previously been max 7 GB's, and even then
> the PC sometimes chokes a bit during mixing.
>
> So I would have to find a way to split the live gig into songs so that
> the songs, as well as the mono tracks (instruments) would actually be
> separate files. Then I would be able to make one Cubase project per
> song and be able to use plugins etc. In the end, I would add the songs
> together again, resulting into a complete recording of a gig.
>
> Is there a way to do this 'splitting'? Can I do this with 'markers' in
> Alesis before I transfer the files to my PC?

I do this all the time. I do not split the tracks before mixing. It
may be possible to do so, but it would require a lot of careful
coordination to split all 20 tracks at exactly the right points. I find
it much easier to simply mix the entire set, then split the resulting
finished mix as necessary.

I don't believe that there is any way to get the Alesis to do the
splitting for you. You'd have to do it on the PC after the tracks are
transfered.

I don't think the larger files will cause you any trouble anyway. Your
processing software is going to load them a little at a time as you do
your mixing, not all at once. So a 20GB set of files shouldn't behave
any differently than a 2GB set of files.

How are you going to transfer the files to your PC? You have three
choices: 1) Play them back on the HD24 while recording on the PC,
feeding the digital tracks concurrently to a 24 channel PC audio I/O
card, 2) Transfer them via ethernet (effective but slow), or 3) Add a
"Fireport" to your PC and load the HD24's hard drives directly into it.

 

[Guest]

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

In article <66ce1aff.0408300424.6d43d01a@posting.google.com> email_kalle@yahoo.com writes:

> I will be recording a band in live situation. I will get to borrow
> Alesis HD24 Hard Disk 24 Track Recorder, of which I have no previous
> experience.

You need to borrow it long enough to get some experience.

> The idea is to record the whole 2 hr. gig with appr. 20
> mono tracks. It is my belief now that this will result into 20 huge
> files in the Alesis's hard disk, right?

Right.

> On the hard drive in the PC there is room for the 20-30 GB of files
> that I will transfer. However, I think that having one 20 GB project
> in Cubase SX isn't the optimal solution, since I'm pretty positive
> that while mixing and using various plug-ins, my PC will run out of
> resources.

You're probably right about that, too.

> So I would have to find a way to split the live gig into songs so that
> the songs, as well as the mono tracks (instruments) would actually be
> separate files.

> Is there a way to do this 'splitting'? Can I do this with 'markers' in
> Alesis before I transfer the files to my PC?

See above. I believe that you can edit your long recording to split it
up at song boundaries or some other realistic split points. I believe
that what you'll have to do is copy each chunk into a new project,
then export the tracks in that project (which will be shorter files).
You'll have two copies of your recording, but then everybody needs a
backup. The HD24 has two drives, so you could record on one and put
your chopped up pieces on the other.

You might also be able to dump the long files into Cubase, open the
project (with no plug-ins, and don't worry about mixing) and chop it
up in Cubase, saving each segment as a new project. It might be easier
than doing it on the HD-24.

Either way, though, at least temporarily, you'll have two copies of
the whole project, so you'd better have plenty of disk space
available.

Alesis makes a "Fireport" which is a little lump with a removable
disk drive connector on one side and a Firewire connector on the
other. This allows you to mount an Alesis drive on a commputer that
has a Firewire port for much quicker file transfer. You can use the
recorder's built-in 10BaseT Ethernet port but for a project of that
size, you'd better be able to keep the recorder for a week or so to do
the transfers.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
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 here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

 

[kalle]

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

Thanks to everyone for answers. I think I'm going to dump it all into Cubase
and mix the whole bunch together, and use the markers to tell one song from
another. I did this once with a live recording (which was in one stereo
track), and that was very effective in Cubase once I got the hang of it.

I'm going to use the Ethernet method for transferring, and make sure that I
have week(s) to get the files transferred, so there will be no hurry.

I'm pretty excited about the project...this a Springsteen tribute band, and
we've been playing some years now, always recording via couple of condensers
in the live space, ending up with pretty bad sounding audience type of
recordings. And since the bad is slowly becoming better and better, I know
there's potential that would be heard in a decent recording. Alesis seems
like the perfect solution for that.

Kalle


"Danny" <Keep@Your.com> wrote in message
news:10j6jdrb6731m9d@corp.supernews.com...
> I used a mackie 24 and did exactly what you are talking about and dumped
> it into a Mac with cubase. Nothing coughed at all. Everything worked and
> there were no backing up or slowing down problems at all.
>
> Don't bother splitting anything. You have two choices. If you need to
> edit then dump in the tracks and if not, mix it first then dump in the 2
> track. If you need to edit before mixing, dump everything in so the
> tracks line up. Splitting them will just make it really hard to get
> everything back together and long tracks don't seem to affect
> performance of daw's. Once in, treat it like one song at a time and set
> your markers so that you are dealing with one song at a time. When you
> mix the first song, just move the markers and do the next. You won't
> have any problems at all.
>
> Danny
>
> Kalle L. wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I wonder if anyone could help me with some things/problems I might be
> > facing soon...
> >
> > I will be recording a band in live situation. I will get to borrow
> > Alesis HD24 Hard Disk 24 Track Recorder, of which I have no previous
> > experience. The idea is to record the whole 2 hr. gig with appr. 20
> > mono tracks. It is my belief now that this will result into 20 huge
> > files in the Alesis's hard disk, right? Then later I will transfer the
> > whole thing to PC, where I will do the mixing & mastering.
> >
> > On the hard drive in the PC there is room for the 20-30 GB of files
> > that I will transfer. However, I think that having one 20 GB project
> > in Cubase SX isn't the optimal solution, since I'm pretty positive
> > that while mixing and using various plug-ins, my PC will run out of
> > resources. My projects have previously been max 7 GB's, and even then
> > the PC sometimes chokes a bit during mixing.
> >
> > So I would have to find a way to split the live gig into songs so that
> > the songs, as well as the mono tracks (instruments) would actually be
> > separate files. Then I would be able to make one Cubase project per
> > song and be able to use plugins etc. In the end, I would add the songs
> > together again, resulting into a complete recording of a gig.
> >
> > Is there a way to do this 'splitting'? Can I do this with 'markers' in
> > Alesis before I transfer the files to my PC?
> >
> > My PC is 1,7 Pentium IV.
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Kalle
>