Live Recording Help - mostly hardware issue

[Bantha]

My church is wanting to record some worship services live. I have a Mac Pro with plenty of horsepower. I have a FireStudio. I do not have the box open yet as we are just starting to put together the system. I am thinking of adding 2 DigiMax's for a total of 24 inputs. I am using Logic for the recording.

Here is my problem. We are using an analog Mackie board so I need to go into the Computer before it hits the board. There are no line outs on the board. Do I need a splitter or does the PreSonus stuff have balanced line outs that effectively make them a splitter.

Any other input would be most appreciated.

Thanks, Charlie

[Lance]

You may want to dig around the 'net. Or the manual, for that matter. The insert jacks often function as direct outs on those Mackie boards, when only plugged halfway in. I know the VLZ Pro series are like that.

[LSchefman]

Why do you need to go to the computer before going to the mixer? Doesn't it have direct outputs from each channel that can go into the Presonus?

[Bantha]

Our mackie board does not have direct outs only the inserts. Here is what the guy at sweetwater recommended:

Come off the snake into a Mackie tt24 digital board. bring channels 1-16 into 2 Digimax FS via optical and then come out optical into a motu 2408. also bring 17-24 into the motu straight in from the new mackie. This would allow for recording channels 1-24. We could then come out of the Digimax's analog outs into our aviom system for monitoring.

What do you think about this solution?

[thesedaze]

I didn't hear you mention anything about a Mackie digital console, or a MOTU...

Since you don't have direct outs, are your inserts switchable to pre/post fader? If so, this would work just as good as direct outs if you could make it post fader...

Otherwise, you can still just use the inserts on each channel, and do your levels/eq in post or with an engineer during soundcheck.

Ideally, you'd use a monitoring style splitter/snake from the stage...run 1 group into your mackie live console, run the 2nd group directly into your FireStudio/DigiMax FS setup. No need for a board on the recording end really...

[Bantha]

I didn't hear you mention anything about a Mackie digital console, or a MOTU...

Since you don't have direct outs, are your inserts switchable to pre/post fader? If so, this would work just as good as direct outs if you could make it post fader...

Otherwise, you can still just use the inserts on each channel, and do your levels/eq in post or with an engineer during soundcheck.

Ideally, you'd use a monitoring style splitter/snake from the stage...run 1 group into your mackie live console, run the 2nd group directly into your FireStudio/DigiMax FS setup. No need for a board on the recording end really...

I did not mention the Mackie Digital console or the motu because at the time I had not spoken with sweetwater...I should have been more clear. Thank you for the suggestions. I will have to check whether the inserts are switchable on the analog board.