[linux-audio-user] live recording event advice

Hello,

I have been asked to organize/setup a recording system for a community
event that will involve recording a single session of around three hours
every day. The audio consists of some speaches and some live music and
singing.

It is a volunteer effort and I suppose they do not have much funds to
invest for this recording setup. They already have a 2.5 GHz computer
with 512 MB of arm (I can use the computer in whatever way I deem
necessary), a bunch of older computers (maybe around 500 MHz with 256MB
RAM lying around), a 12 channel mixer which has around 4 or 6 mics
connecteted to it and an amplifier.

Here is my first tentative idea. Split the Sub R and Sub L output of the
audio board (currently they are connected to an amplifier) and take one
part of both of these channels to the Line In of a computer (and the
other parts go to the amplifier). Install Ubuntu (or maybe another
distro) and use Audacity to do the recording (I am more familiar with
Linux, haven't considered Windows yet). I understand that in Audacity I
can specify the duration of the recording. So it appears that it won't
be difficult for anybody to start Audacity, type in the duration in the
"duration window" (say, 3h00m00s) and press "record". Hopefully,
Audacity can be set to record directly to ogg format.

This way, I won't have to be present there all the time to start or stop
the recording and also won't need to post process the audio to get it
into ogg (if it were recorded in Wav to begin with).

I haven't done this kind of a project before. I am assuming:
1. The outputs Sub R and Sub L are can be directly connected to a Line
In of an audio device
2. The PC I mentioned above would be sufficient to do live recording and
encoding without any problems.
3. Audacity is appropriate for this project.
4. The computer's line in would be sufficient for a fine quality recording.

Having said this, I would sure love to have some advice from experienced
users. Also, I need to buy these connectors and cables:
- 1/4 in. mono pins to two RCA connectors (Y connector),
- a two RCA to 1/8 in. connector (Sub RL -> Line In of comp.), and
- RCA-RCA connector(Sub RL RCA -> amp.). Any recommendation for a good
place (I don't want the quality of the audio to suffer just because of
low-quality cables)? Also, any suggestions on how far can I take the
recording computer from the audio board's outputs (cable length
problem). And, if a Line In of a computer is not good enough, which
sound card should I look for?

Thanks,
->HS
Received on Mon Jan 29 04:15:02 2007