Hi all, i'm planning to recorder some of live performances of the fanfares where i play drums.
Actually i have:
- Hill Audio multimix, an 16 channels (1985!!!) mixer with +48V phantom power.
- Peavey Autograph II, mono equalizer.
- Behringer DSP8000 Stereo Equalizer.
- 2x Behringer C2 capacitor microphones (sold in pair).
- Samick K9540 2x300W amplifier with a couple of speakers.
- My macbook (late 2007, but with an new SSD and 4GB of ram).
- Lot of cables.

Now i'm waiting 2x MOTU 828 MK1 firewire audio board to enable multitrack recording (according the seller, theese have  firewire issues, but i hope it is an seller firewire problem).
All equipement except microphones were unusable until i repaired (included Behringer DSP8000, if you consider an discharged CR2032 memory battery and some missing screws as fault!)

All performances will be recorded with ardour 2.

However, do anyone have suggestions for live recording? Actually i'm planning do buy some more C2 (up to 16) to recorder more instruments i can (multitrack recording) and so, increase quality of records.

Also, do anyone have suggestions to build my own rack flightcases?

I've done a fair bit of recording and tracking, though I'm no expert. What experience do you have recording? Are there specific areas you have questions in? I'm honestly not familiar with the equipment you listed. I've also never recorded on a MacBook, so it will be interesting to see how well that works. Generally you don't need equalizers when recording. I always record flat (just what the microphones pick up). EQ can be handled in production.

What software do you intend to use on the Mac?

Hi, i'll use Ardour (simple donation + vst support = me happy)
Equalizer is used for flatting speakers response curve.

I'm not so familiar with live or studio recording (i'm learning step by step everytime bands where i play percussions meet to trial of music).

Actually i need some hint in multitrack recording and where place microphones (i can't afford an fully 48ch mixer, as in one band we can be up to 45 people).

Ah, yes, now I see why you need EQ.

What kind of band are you recording? What kind of instruments, what kind of music?

Brass, clarinets, western concert flute, drum set.
Music depends about which band i record, but in general, some opera, italian military songs, march songs.

For example, here is an video (i play bass drum)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtTvxMv4zU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBLHRctQtV0 (i was recording, audio is very poor)
http://ftp.marcopete87.altervista.org/musica_ok/note_in_allegria/prove/10-09-14/carmen.mp3 (recorded with actual stuff; because bad headphones, i mistook setup of software equalizer during export).

Hi all, recentely i have upgraded my configuration:
Now i have an motu 828 MK1 with Musicnet AD24 plus 4 Beringher c4 microphones.

Here is an screenshot of my recording:


Can i put an recording sample mp3 on this forum?

Surely you can put it somewhere (personally, I'm using Microsoft OneDrive /SkyDrive/ but there are lots of services to do so, e.g. Dropbox etc.) and post a link here!
As for recording, with brass 44.1 kHz / 16 bit could be fine. With classical music it's much better to use a higher bit depth (24 bits or 32 bits) as very quiet passages might be distorted in a 16 bit recording (too rough level steps) - the same as dark scenes in digital photography.

Of course, i'm using 24 bit resolution (i can use 32 bit, but audio board support up to 24 bit).
44.1 or 48? this was a test, so i kept 44.1kHz.

For mp3:

http://ftp.marcopete87.altervista.org/musica_ok/note_in_allegria/prove_19_11_2014/ernani.mp3

this is a song i recorded during music school (half orchestra was missing in that day  ); we are all amateur.

@"half orchestra was missing": Not bad though, I like it - reminds me of playing a big drum in a brass band as a kid.

@44.1 kHz: If you mean 44.1 kHz per track, it's an overkill. If you mean stereo (i.e. 22.05 kHz per channel), it's still fine as most people don't even hear 20 kHz...

Merc is on track about the sampling frequency. However, the sampling frequency should be at least double the highest audible frequency desired. This is known as the Nyquist rate. There's some interesting math involved if you like studying theory. In practice, I choose the rate that matches my destination medium. Compact discs always play back at 44.1 kHz. DVDs use 48 kHz. If you intend to release on CD, 44.1 is most appropriate. Otherwise, 48 kHz is a good choice. In your case, either one will do a fine job for you! Frankly, you can convert (resample) from one standard to the other without any problem.

Yeah, you are right. I've checked that with my dad who has been sound engineer for all his life (well only last 25 years with digital technologies).
But the sufficient bit depth is indeed much more important as quiet parts might be audibly distorted.

@Frankly, you can convert (resample) from one standard to the other without any problem.
According to him, it's better not to convert 48kHz to 44.1kHz as some pulse sounds might suffer from this conversion. If marcopete's target is CD, he should rather choose 44.1 kHz in this case.

@merc Good to know! Didn't think about how pulses might not resample well.

Oh, yes, all recordings will be given as free cd or mp3 to the bands members where i play bass drum, triangle, maracas, etc...

Here is the mixer with its power supply (homemade) and audio interface: