Recording live music onto a laptop - quite urgent!

viz

My wife did a recital today that I was supposed to record. I was using this:

http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab217/Vizzage/condensermic_zps4a96eda8.jpg

and this:

http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab217/Vizzage/cakewalk25EXUSB_zpsaac8a98e.png

into software called Sonar.

The sound was excellent but the bloody thing crashed after 15 minutes, so we lost most of it. She's doing it again tomorrow so I'm going to buy some more robust software - any recommendations please???

 

Adam_MD

Which version of sonar were you using?  It's a pretty robust DAW as it is.  The crash is more likely down to how it was setup rather than the software itself.

bertie

what he said

thermionic

A better laptop?

I think Sonar is quite highly regarded, certainly no worse than any comparable recording application. I'd guess the problem is with the OS, or the drivers or something.

viz

OK cheers - it's on a friends laptop so I don't know anything about it, what do you mean, how it was setup?

 

bertie

TBH you could record a single voice  straight into windows

viz

It's piano and voice. But what program would I use to record directly into Windows?

viz

Actually it crashed twice - once during test beforehand the program just froze and I had to close it in task manager; then during the recital it froze and said "audio engine went wrong" or something.

Bidley

Something like Audacity might be what you want? As robust (and simple) as it gets, but would be ideal just for recording minimal tracks.

ToneControl

try reaper too

digitalscream

I'd say grab something like the iRig Pre and download the iRig Recorder (if you have an iPhone or Android device). They work a treat, and they're rock solid.

viz

It's for a 1 hour clip - will audacity and reaper be ok for that?

viz

Aaaargh der-brain. Problem solved. The clip I actually managed to record was exactly 15 minutes long. The hibernation on the laptop was set to 15 minutes!! Bloody microsoft.

maltingsaudio

To be honest use audacity if you use reaper your going to running a hole lot of stuff you don't need which will affect the laps performance and stability. Don't forget to turn off everything on the lap you don't need got a load of rcordings with the bing of an incoming email on it and you don't want it updating half way through Ave Maria!

PS Audacity is free!

viz

wisdom. thanks

thermionic

viz said:

Aaaargh der-brain. Problem solved. The clip I actually managed to record was exactly 15 minutes long. The hibernation on the laptop was set to 15 minutes!! Bloody microsoft.

You'd think that if the computer was actually doing something (recording) it wouldn't hibernate... I've always changed the settings on my Mac if I'm doing something like that just in case. But Windows, ah, I'm not surprised. 

Good luck with the next take. I thought Audacity was a stereo (two track) recorder/editor only but it might be all you need anyway.

viz

Thanks

fretfinder

"Quite urgent"??!!

mudslide73

How'd you get on?

viz

The bastard thing crashed again, this time at 22 minutes. The hibernation problem was a red herring. Never mind, we got it on an ipad, but it's not cd quality Oh well.

mike257

Reaper is great, light on resource usage and can be trialled (fully featured) for free.  I've used it for tracking live shows through a Behringer X32 on a seven year old MacBook without a hitch. Never had it crash on me.