On location recording – Your concert online in an hour!

At the 2010 NAMM trade show I stumbled upon an amazing on location recording opportunity. How would you feel if you could put a concert online in under an hour? With an all-in-one mixing desk that not only is a powerful live sound desk, but also doubles as a multi-track recorder?

Enter the PreSonus StudioLive Mixer

PreSonus had a booth at the NAMM trade show where they demoed their StudioLive rig. While I was watching this presentation it hit me how awesome this gear was that they were offering. 

Their engineer was recording a multitracked concert consisting of a drummer, bassist, guitarist and a singer. They were playing live and being recorded at the same time, all through the same mixer. 

Their engineer was using this mixer to run live sound for them through the P.A. system, just like a normal live show. But the mixer was also connected to his computer, working as a firewire interface, recording everything. 

Then it hit me.  What an amazing gear for on location recording!

You could record, mix and bounce a concert and get it online in an hour!

Career opportunities!

Imagine being in a band and you could go on tour with a piece of gear like this and record every single concert you played! It's an amazing opportunity for bands to market themselves. 

Imagine being a sound engineer marketing yourself with this distinct advantage. You could be their sound engineer and make them sound great live. But as an added bonus you could record and upload their songs to Myspace in under an hour. How's that for a business model?

Let's go to namm 2010

Listen to Wesley Devore of PreSonus at the NAMM show present some of the Studio Live's features. This video was shot by yours truly and is the property of PureWaveAudio. Check out Pure Wave Audio or Allusion Studios for more information. Or go on to Pure Wave Audio's Youtube page for more NAMM videos.

An affordable solution

The PreSonus StudioLive Mixer definitely doesn't come cheap, but it's surprisingly affordable. It comes with 16 channels that is enough for most small to medium bands: 

• Drums on 8 tracks
• Bass guitar on one track
• Two guitar tracks
• Two tracks for keyboards
• Three vocal tracks

If you don't have keyboards, or only have one singer you could use the extra tracks to record the room for ambience instead. Whatever eclectic line-up you might have, 16 channels are a good starting point and often enough for most bands.

If you do need more they also have the StudioLive 24 track model that should be enough for most touring needs. The extra 8 inputs could come in handy as some bigger bands will be needing extra microphones and tracks to get by on the road.

Here is another video showcasing all the features this small but powerful all-in-one on location recording and mixing machine can do. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty impressed by what this thing can do.

entrepreneurial opportunity

For sound engineers/entrepreneurs a rig like this is a great business opportunity. It encompasses all the facets of audio production; live sound, on location recording and music mixing. It's a great way to become a jack of all trades, and hopefully a master of all.

Portable sound systems are another way to freelance in live sound

On location recording not for you? What about studio recording?

Go back to the live sound page

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