Recording on a spare channel while playing live

db2 · Post by **db2** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:38 pm

I'm doing a live pa w/ ableton at a small festival in canada tonight and I'd kind of like to record it. In house I did one live recording, just using a spare channel w/ the audio input set to master. I'm going to test tomorrow, but I'm just curious if anyone has any advice from experience. I haven't closely monitored my CPU during the set, I'd say it doesn't go above 80 in extreme moments, maybe more like 65 as an average high. Does anyone know how much overhead I need to record while I'm playing, and also if its known to cause any glitches or hiccups? Any info is much appreciated!

MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE · Post by **MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:15 pm

How about a mini disc player?

wtf · Post by **wtf** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:20 pm

if you're asking about recording the audio from your set, I think it's a really bad idea unless you have external gear that you're trying to record.
If your set is composed entirely inside of ableton, you might want to record the midi from your set and deal with the audio later.

S.D.L · Post by **S.D.L** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:49 pm

Are you using only MIDI and are you inside the box at all times, or you on external harware (mixer) aswell? If you're only using MIDI, you can hit the record button, et voila!

db2 · Post by **db2** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:20 pm

I am inside the box, and I might try this, but I use a handful of plugs that have different outputs every time they're running, and I often 'play into' their output in ways that are not guaranteed to be the same on a subsequent take.

Thanks for the info so far. Any opinions are welcome!

wtf · Post by **wtf** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:36 pm

yeah, that would be a good reason to record it as audio. It would scare me to record an hour of quality audio while playing live. I'd worry about performance but also running out of hard drive space mid set.

db2 · Post by **db2** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:36 pm

well, I am playing off a 2.33 macbook pro and I just installed a new seagate momentus 7200.3 320 gig HD!

But I also use some CPU heavy stuff as well.

I will test tonight before performing.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:25 pm

I think cpu consumption from recording is basically nil. The only thing it will affect is your hard disk, so if you are playing loads and loads of clips it might cause it to choke. but with 7200rpm you should be fine.