Recording individual channel signals from a PA mixer

Phil Tipping

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West Wales, UK
Website
www.philizound.co.uk
Gear owned
dp-32sd
This topic was touched on here but have just uploaded an old recording which used the same technique of connecting to a mixer's 'insert' points at a concert, so thought it might be useful.

The quick way of using inserts for this is to partially insert a standard jack cable so the signal can be tapped without breaking the channel path. This can be unreliable - if the jack isn't pushed in enough you'll just record silence, and if it's pushed in too far you'll break the signal to the PA... which doesn't go down too well :)

The more reliable way is to use a special cable which has a TRS jack at the mixer end, with its tip & ring joined together. The jack can be pushed fully home without fear of breaking the channel. The other end is a standard TS plug which goes to the recorder inputs.

The audio in this video was recorded on a dp-32sd using a set of home-made TRS-to-TS cables. The signals from the PA mixer were the duo's 2 guitars & 2 mics, and the stereo output to the PA. Two additional mics arranged as a stereo pair were positioned facing the audience to capture ambience, so these went to another 2 inputs on the dp32, so all 8 inputs were used. Tapping off the signals this way means the recording levels can be adjusted without affecting the main PA mix, or vice versa.

The total recording was over 4 hours, and the dp32 behaved flawlessly, unlike the 3 camcorder batteries!

After the event, the audio tracks were exported to a DAW for editing, with the ambient mic feeds faded in & out between each song, and then synced and mixed with the 3 video feeds. It's not the best recording or mix, but it was my first attempt at anything remotely like this :)
 

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