Recording - January 2011 - 50

apturing Live Music
By Mike Metlay working with a Front-Of-House (FOH) engineer, you’ll need to be able to (a) explain to him what you’ll need in terms of board audio for capture, (b) explain how your setup will interface with his—so he can set up what you need and then forget about it so he can do his job—and (c) get set up and get out of his way as quickly as possible, preferably during sound check. Preparation is key. Practice with your capture rig before the gig, sort out any technical issues, and if at all possible, find out what kind of FOH console will be used. Then, when you get there, you can quickly figure out what audio FOH can provide you and how to get it painlessly. We’re not capturing multitrack audio for a future mixdown; this is a board tape, straight stereo. Usually you can just nab a copy of the Main mix, from a pair of outputs that the FOH board isn’t using that night. They could be the 2-track Tape outputs, the Control Room outs if separate from the Mains feeding the PA, a spare pair of Group outputs assigned to take signal from the Mains, or even a pair of Aux sends. Heck, you can even use a spare headphone output if that’s all they have available! Try to plug in those cables and run them far away from the FOH guy so he doesn’t have to think about you any more. A separate room with some acoustic isolation would be ideal, but in a pinch, you can set up behind FOH, out of sight and out of mind.

For The Internet
Anything the audience hears in the room is what your streaming audience should hear, so the Mains should be fine—you don’t have to get fancy with a separate prefader mix or anything like that. The only exception is if you’re in a very small venue where some of the instruments aren’t mixed or run to the console, like the drums or the bass amp. Check Eric Ferguson’s article on page 16 for the basics on added mics to pick up unmixed instruments, or room mics supplementing or replacing the board mix. Your capture/streaming rig will need to have the following elements. Start with a mixer, to blend the board mix with external mics (if any) and a DJ mic (so you can talk to your Internet audience before and after the show, since they can’t see the stage and know when the show is starting or ending). Then you’ll need a way to capture the show at full resolution, in case you someday decide to release a CD or other high-quality audio product from the concert. Finally you need an audio interface to a computer that’s running your streaming software. Connect your computer’s Ethernet to the venue’s Internet, and you’re ready to go. (WiFi can be made to work, but I avoid it when possible as it’s too unreliable.) You can simplify the setup by using a mixer with a built-in interface. If you’re feeling brave and can figure out how to send audio to two applications at once, you can record the

It’s a potentially huge audience—what’s involved in getting your music out there?

Elsewhere in this issue we discuss conventional setups for recording live music, but I’ve been asked by our Fearless Leader to talk about something a bit more out there—and by ‘out there’ I mean way out there... all over the world, via the Internet. I’ve been streaming audio to worldwide audiences for over four years, and I’d like to share the basics of the process with you here. It’s a real thrill to know that in addition to the dozens or hundreds of people at the venue, there are hundreds or even thousands more around the world listening to your music! For this article, we’ll divide the process into two approaches: non-realtime, in which the concert audio is recorded and quickly distributed after the fact, and realtime streaming, where the Internet audience listens to the concert along with people at the venue. To give yourself the most flexibility, consider a setup that allows for recording and streaming at the same time; it’s generally easy to do, given a little bit of preparation. We’ll start with the hardware and setup you’ll need, and then we’ll discuss file distribution (non-realtime) and demystify how realtime audio streaming works. Setup at the venue Your precise setup needs will vary from venue to venue. If you’re both the the live-sound engineer and the recording engineer, you can put the necessary tools in place without getting in anyone’s way. But if you’re
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RECORDING JANUARY 2011

Recording - January 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2011