Recording audio to Laptop? Boom Recorder....

Transmission2

Transmission2

Active member
Im trying to figure out how I can run four channels of audio into my macbook pro laptop using either an MBox and a Digi 001 and possibly Boom Recorder. Im shooting a documentary and would love to send all my audio into the Boom Recorder and then send it back to my camera (JVC HD-100). Is this possible? And how would I do it? Does Boom recorder allow a sort of mixdown where i could send those four channels to the two channels on the camera? If that was possible then I can have all the channels recorded seperately to mix later in post, but for the most part I could have decent audio mixed and sent back to camera and tape. That would be amazing!

Can I utilize both the mbox and Digi001 in this way? Im trying to cut costs on my doc and a friend said I could use these two pieces of gear. Anyone with experience with this, please shed some light!!!

thank you thank you thank you
 
I don't know anything about those two pieces of gear, but you can see my comments in my other thread on BR - I hooked up mine to an Alesis Firewire mixer. I got the 16 channel version for about $500 or so, there is a smaller version that is less. American Musical Supply has the 8 channel version for $300 - and they have the free split it into 3 payments option.

Phil
 
The Alesis Firewire mixer sounds like a good idea. Do you know if I can run a line out from the mixer back to one of my channels on the camera, so as to use for reference?

And is boom recorder a solid enough app that I could use for many hours each day?

thanks for your input.
 
Digi 001? Do you mean Digi002? Digi001 uses a PCI card and won't work with a laptop... if you have a Digi002, that'll give you all you need (8 channels of analog input; 10 channels of digital input; 4 preamps; and monitoring outputs to feed back to the camera).

The Alesis mixer sould provide a monitor mix, but it depends on the doftware... I don't know Boom Recorder!
 
The Digi002 would give you enough inputs to run 4 channels.
Unfamiliar with BR, but I'm sure the program that you use to record in will let you send out the master audio out into your Digi002 and out into the camera.
The Alesis mixer will also work.
 
I believe the Alesis Firewire mixer and Boom recorder will be your lower cost easier to use option. Most mix boards have several outputs.

If you use the 16 Alesis you have 4 buss channels and you can send 4 channels out to a recorder such as the Sound Devices 744, or directly to the camera. You can mix down to 2 channels as you were speaking about
 
I use Pro Tools a LOT and while the Digi 002 would probably work fine I would go with the Alesis, unless you need to use Protools at some point. Digidesign is a bit notorious for f&*()ng around in the OS which can make the system unstable. That is the main reason that though I use PT everyday and like it a lot I would never use it to record on location where there isn't a second chance. That said there are those who do live recording with it all the time so???

I still think the Alisis will be abetter fit. You can down load a demo of Boom Recorder and try it out, everyone who has used it that I have talked to has really liked it.
 
thanks a lot for the info. yeah i was aware that the digi products are finickey with macs and having the right protools is a pain. so i will most likely go with the alessis mixer and use the boom recorder. i have downloaded the demo so i am going to give it try. I love having the ability to makes notes for each roll as its recorded. because im editing this doc im sure it will save me some time in the end.

im always a little nervous about using new gear but hopefully this works out!!
 
Hey!

I've got 4 macs (3 laptops) running ProTools in daily use, and haven't had a problem in years. Literally! That's about 500 days of location work...

The trick is, not to screw with the system if it's working. My oldest laptop runs an older version of ProTools that I've never been compelled to upgrade; the newer ones have later versions; none of the laptops have been upgraded; and they don't have a lot of extraneous software installed - pretty much, ProTools and FCP. My desktop, however, I upgrade a lot and have all sorts of junk on (it's never used for critical recordings) - but I use it for almost all my post, and it has never hiccupped.

Long ago I used an iBook - that, indeed, had problems.

But in general, in my and other's experience, Mac ProTools systems are pretty bulletproof.

That said, as I've always noted, I always have at least one, ond often two, levels of backup recording.

THAT said, I'm not sure about the reliability of the digi core audio drivers for use with OTHER software (e.g., boom recorder).

Sorry if I'm ranting. I just don't like hearing the stories about PT being unreliable - in the last five years, I've had times when my cameras got finicky and didn't work. I've had times when preamps got finicky and didn't work. I've had times when cables got finicky and didn't work. But I can honestly say that in the last five years and hundreds of location recordings I've never had ProTools cause a problem.

I interact with a few dozen recording engineers that also use PT systems on location quite regularly; they all would tell the same story. I don't know where this "notoriety" comes from... certainly not something I've heard of. Especially on Macs!
 
The Alesis w/ Boom Recorder is a go. Remember that any program can be stable. When you start messing with it at the wrong times, your chance of having the program become unstable is going to increase. So only use it for intended purpose, such as recording and editing.

I use my personal computer for recording as well and I haven't had problems until I start doing things that I shouldn't be doing at the same time of recording. If I leave it alone it won't crash. Note, always make sure your computer is set to go before doing anything that will be important in the future. Backup! Backup!
 
If you look at my post from last weekend - I had recording going on in three places - BoomRecorder, my Tascam HD-P2 and the camera. I used the main outs to line-in on the Tascam and control room out L to the camera. Everything worked really well. Not sure what output options the 8 channel version of the Alesis has, because I was using the 16. BoomRecorder was amazingly stable, but always check their site because Take is constantly updating and fixing and enhancing. He's very responsive.

Phil
 
I see that you certainly cover all your bases. I am trying to find the cheapest solution to this problem and probably can't afford the Tascam unless i absolutely needed it. Hopefully my inexpensive boom recorder option works and it is up to the task of recording a lot of hours on this documentary.
 
I think Phil used the Tascam as a backup. Should the BoomRecorder crash in the middle of a session, the Tascam is a safety to recording the sums of the audio as well as the camera.
 
Yep, the Tascam was my backup. While we didn't run long takes, BR ran like a champ for three days. The backups will go unused for this project, though that is not to say that I won't continue to run backups on every shoot - I have the recorder so why not use it? There are lots of low cost recorder options available out there - there is another thread currently running that talks about them.

Phil
 
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