Recording a live band – what interface to get?

[brianbfw]

I have an opportunity to record a live band at their house. I have never recorded a live band before, normally I just work in my studio by myself.

My main problem right now is what interface to get? Pretty much any interface I look at doesn’t have enough inputs. I’ve looked at PreSonus, Focusrite, RME, and the Apogee Ensemble.

Here my estimated inputs
Drums – 7 or 8 inputs

Guitar – 2 inputs

Bass – Direct

Vocals – 1 input

Doesn’t seem like there’s an interface out there to cover this. Is there a way I could combine 2 PreSonus Fireboxes or Apogee Ensembles? I want to be able to send each musician their own mixing feed. I’m been stumbling around for hours now trying to find a way around this. I’d like to record the whole band all at once.

Thanks in advance
Brian

[Smithcok]

I think the biggest question is - how much do you want to spend?

16 inputs via Presonus gear VS. 16 on Apogee is a big price difference.

[brianbfw]

good point. If this just an occasional gig, then i'm fine with the PreSonus. However, if this turns into a regular gig, then i could justify the extra expense of an ensemble rig. I'm sure the sound quality difference will be huge.

I was pretty impressed with the ensemble demo on the apogee website. Unless they were playing some tricks in the signal chain they didn't reveal, the recording they made with the ensemble sounds just as good as a studio with a real console.

[jpleong]

An RME Fireface 800 + an eight-channel ADAT preamp would get you to twelve mic inputs, no problem.

What about the Presonus Studiolive console? 16 XLR inputs and firewire recording plus all the benefits of a hands-on console experience...

JP

[MichaelWayne]

Another for the PreSonus Console. Read alot on there forums about guys getting rid of lots of gear because it handles a large load. Great for recording and live and both at the same time.

For just local shows Apogee seems like a little bit of overkill. The PreSonus pres and AD/DAs aren't the greatest show on Earth, but if most the bands your doing have run-of-the-mill PAs....you're not going to miss much by not using Apogees. Just my opinion and I've been wrong before. Just thinking about most of the bands I've seen and the setups almost all of them run don't impress me too much. LOL

[russell.mc]

another thing is that for the Presonus Firestudio Mobile (I don't know about the Firebox) you can daisy-chain the firestudios off of one another via firewire to add inputs... Each interface adds 2 preamps and 8 line inputs, I think.

[oldupright222]

I've used a PreSonus Firepod for recording live bands and thought it did really good. The only thing I wished I had was more insert effects in and outs.
I used the meters in Cakewalk Sonar to adjust the volumes so having meters on the interface didn't matter.
Daryl Durand
http://www.durandpiano.com/

[chaplainbob]

I've used Presonus products for many years....great bang for the buck. Their customer service is second to none, in my experience. :)

[scottmo]

one presonus firestudio lightpipe and two presonus firestudios FS or whatever has ADAT send and returns. You can run it through SMUX at a 96KHz since you need less than 16 and you have high quality firewire recording through an ASIO interface with ability for individual mixes. dont care what anyone says presonus is reat quality for the price. it's not like behringer where you get what you pay for.