What does sound recording have to do with Church IT? Maybe a lot. Especially if you are in a smaller church. Many guys out there are both the IT person and the sound engineer (Not entirely sure why, maybe it is our fondness for flashing lights and buttons…).
Finding an easy-to-use and easy-to-hook-up solution to live recording can be a challenge. Especially if you have to train someone else to use it when you are not around.
Enter the Zoom R16…
Our little church of about 300 people decided it wanted to be able to record the bands music in addition to the sermon on Sunday. We started off with a small M-Audio box, and a Mac running Garage Band. It worked pretty well, but left us a little limited when trying to multi-track with only two inputs (on our M-Audio box).
Using this method made our recording a little lack luster and unreliable. On top of that, there was too much editing afterward which made quick distribution difficult. I will, however, give mad props to our main sound guy for mastering the recordings the best he could before throwing our music up on Grooveshark.
We Needed an Upgrade
After much discussion, we purchased a Zoom R16. This little multi-track recorder records eight tracks at once and interfaces with your current mixer setup. And that is just the start of many amazing features on this bad boy. One feature is its ability to expand to a 16 track recorder by hooking up a second unit via USB.
Easy to Use
The R16 comes with an easy to use diagram which makes it easy to start recording in a snap. As a matter of fact, it is so easy to record with, our sound guy left the diagram taped to the wall so even new sound guys can make a recording with little or no training. Don’t let how easy it is to use fool you, you can get in depth by adding effects and even mastering right on the unit.
USB Interface and Storage
The unit interfaces with a computer via a USB 2.0 port. This means you can easily export your work right into your favorite audio editing software. The unit gives you the ability to dump all of your files on any flash drive for portability. If your church is holding band practice and wants to make it available to the musicians afterward, you can dump it on their personal flash drive and take it with them.
The unit does have the ability to write to SDHC cards (up to 32gb). While I have not tried it, I have read you can hook it up to an external hard drive for even more storage. The reason I have not tried it is, hard drives tend to have a sound associated with them which can show up on recordings as an unwanted buzz.
Ready to Record and Produce Like the Big Boys?
I’m serious. This is a great little box for under $400. You can take a leap from small time to big time just by putting this in your rig. Your recordings will sound professional and your sound guys will think you are the coolest IT guy ever.
Well, maybe not, but they will appreciate it.
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