4 Replies Latest reply: Jan 24, 2012 4:26 AM by Bob Howes RSS

    Is Audition Stable Enough for Live Sound Recording?

    J.Deel Community Member

      Greetings Adobe community! So I have an upcoming gig running location sound for a poker tournament shoot. My setup will involve 6 wireless lav units and 2 overhead choir mics. My plan is to run those into a PreSonus Firestudio 8 channel interface and run that into my MacBook Pro. Now my plan has been to record the 8 tracks into Audition CS 5.5, however, I consulted with another location sound friend of mine and he questioned the stability of going that route and he recommended Boom Recorder instead. I know there's never any guarantees with software stability, but I suppose my question to the community is this: Is Audition CS 5.5 realistically stable enough to handle recording 8 tracks consistently for 6-8 hours without causing drama or would something like Boom Recorder be a better option? Thanks!

       

      - Jeff Deel

        • 1. Re: Is Audition Stable Enough for Live Sound Recording?
          SteveG(AudioMasters) Community Member

          Well, it should be good enough, and a lot of people use it like that. The one thing I can tell you is that Audition makes a major effort when recording to ensure that what's coming from your sound device gets routed sensibly to your designated hard drive - doesn't let anything in the OS get in the way at all, all other things being equal. The only times I've ever done it, it hasn't faltered once. How many times is that? Well precisely twice now on live gigs using it as the main recording device (the only device on one of them).

           

          That's because normally I use a hard disk recorder on locations for this purpose - mainly because it's easier to control. And I've had a bit of trouble with that in the past, due to power brown-outs. This has been solved entirely by using a portable UPS. So if I'm honest, I'd have to say that it's no worse than using the HD recorder, and that I wouldn't want to use either now without the UPS, unless you are only recording to an internal drive on your MacBook.

           

          As for Boom Recorder - well, I've never heard of it. Doesn't mean that it wouldn't work fine, but I don't see how it could actually be any better than using Audition, quite frankly. And if you're going to play safe, I would suggest the odd break in recording, and starting new sets of files at these points unless that's impossible. If you don't do this, you'll end up with enourmous files that you'll be able to load into Audition's MV, but that will almost inevitably be too big to store as legitimate wav files - so you'd have to reload them, split them and save them as smaller (less than 4GB) files anyway.

           

          But I do like the idea of a choir at a poker tournament!

          • 2. Re: Is Audition Stable Enough for Live Sound Recording?
            Bob Howes Community Member

            Does 4 Aces merit the Hallelujah Chorus from the choir?

             

            I guess the other thing to mention is that Audition is only as stable as the rest of the computer you're working on.  Audition itself is very stable (and I have used it for live recording) but it's still at the mercy of everything else going on in your computer.  You can greatly increase the reliability by getting rid of every unnecessary programme and process running in background,  Pay special attention to anything to do with networking and internet.  Also, get rid of powersavers, screensavers, automatic hibernation, etc. etc.  If the installation of Audition you're running is nice and clean, stability shouldn't be an issue--but if your computer is checking emails every five minutes and receiving Tweets then all bets are off.

             

            I've just Googled Boom Recorder and see that it's just another recording app for Mac computers.  This being the case, I'd say that all the above concerns apply equally to Boom as to Audition.  Given the choice of the two I'd stick with Audition just because I know it well.  Or, if I wanted more security than any computer can offer, I'd go to a dedicated recorder--I've borrowed/rented Alesis HD24s in the past with good results (although their disk caddy system is a pain when you want to transfer the results).

             

            Finally, all SteveG's points about using a UPS are good if reliability is critical.  Don't forget that everything needs protection--not much point in having your Macbook keep going if your audio interface quits.

            • 3. Re: Is Audition Stable Enough for Live Sound Recording?
              SteveG(AudioMasters) Community Member

              Bob Howes wrote:

               

              Or, if I wanted more security than any computer can offer, I'd go to a dedicated recorder--I've borrowed/rented Alesis HD24s in the past with good results (although their disk caddy system is a pain when you want to transfer the results).

               

              That's probably because you didn't borrow or rent a Fireport! I have one for my HD24XR, and it solves all of the transfer issues completely. Just unplug the drive, plug it into the Fireport, and it's just like any other drive on your system - as long as you use the right app, of which there are two - the genuine Alesis FST Connect, and the rather improved HD24 Connect.

              • 4. Re: Is Audition Stable Enough for Live Sound Recording?
                Bob Howes Community Member

                Good tip....if I can persuade the guy I borrow/rent the HD24 from to invest in a Fireport!