Recording A Demo

For seeking technical help with Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS.

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This forum is for seeking solutions to technical problems involving Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS, as well as feature requests, criticisms, comparison to other DAWs.
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ksingh
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:30 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Deer Isle Maine

Recording A Demo

Post by ksingh »

Our band needs CD. I'm a DP (4.12) very basic user, thrilled with the possibilities.
One problem is that my TiBook (os 10.3.2, 1 GHz, 1GB SDRAM, 60 GBHD) is about maxed out. I also do FCP video work.

So I'm shopping. New Mac Powerbook, maybe. Here's the basic question. What would the benefits of Traveler be for us, when recording a demo? Or can I just use the Powerbook's audio in from a mixer? Pro/con?
dmshep
Posts: 116
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: Unspecified

Post by dmshep »

Whether you record on your existing PowerBook or upgrade to a MacBook, you need to get yourself an audio interface. Recording through the direct audio in will net you 16 bit files of very low quality. Unless you're planning to record rough one-mic-in-the-room tracks for your own use (which it doesn't sound like), you need to have something to properly take the sound from the mixer and take it into DP. If you want a better quality demo, one that won't turn off prospective bookers, you'll want to multi-track (ie - record more than one or two tracks at a time). The Traveller gives you 4 pre-amps with 4 more channels you could feed from a mixer, allowing you to record an entire kit by itself, or 4 drum mics, bass, 2 gtrs, and vocals all at once. You'd also have 8 outs you can use for monitoring.

Recording multiple tracks will allow for the most flexibility in mixing. Being able to isolate each part of the drum kit allows for better eq'ing, compression, etc (though great recordings can be made with 2-4 mics on a kit if you have the patience and skill).
ksingh
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:30 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Deer Isle Maine

Thanks

Post by ksingh »

dmshep, great answer.
dmshep
Posts: 116
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: Unspecified

Post by dmshep »

No problem. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any other questions.

david<at>epicsoundstudio.com
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