Many churches like to record their services and put them online or make them available by CD to their patrons and those who are interested in learning about worship at the church. And many of these churches have upgraded to digital boards that give the convenient option of recording an mp3 directly to a USB drive (often a live recording right off the main outputs or a live recording of a recording bus send). From there this mp3 is given to someone to edit or upload directly to a internet service. I have also encountered many churches that don't have a digital boar
d but are still looking for an easy way to record their services. Products like the Tascam CDRW allow people to record right to CD, marking tracks as they go, and burning a CD right from there. Later editors can rip that CD to manipulate it for online use. Those who have the budget may also use a hard drive recorder, like the Alesis Masterlink, and be able to edit using their push button system before they burn it to disc.
For contemporary churches, getting a good live recording from a live stereo feed will often leave people frustrated with the quality of sound from their contemporary bands... that's when a multi-track session usually comes into play, but then the editing and mixing need to be done by someone who knows what they are doing...
The issues I have run into is that for churches who are looking to simply get a solid recording of their worship services with their volunteer staff, many of whom have the heart to help their churches in this area but may have little to no interest/experience in audio, are stuck with having to teach complex systems and programs to already overwhelmed people. First Pres is in this situation with a handful of very willing volunteers who are NOT audio experts, but very much want to help in the audio area of their church.
First Pres's live sound typically runs 2 podium microphones (Pulpit and Lectern), two wireless headsets for the pastors, 1-2 handheld mics for various other speakers, and then two pairs of choir microphones (one for the front choir loft, one for the back). All the podium and wireless mics exist simply to help reinforce the speaking sound to the congregation so a live post-fader recording is easy enough, but the choir mics are not meant for amplification at all (after all, why amplify in a space that is meant for its natural acoustics and reverb!). Therefore, the use of a mix bus pair is employed in order to group sounds from a variety of sources that may or may not be going to the master output.
At first pres, we have purchased them a new Behringer X32 Compact digital board to run their live sound and manage their sends to the various audio needs from the sanctuary. This board is also useful in that we can program preset scenes and save them to each of the 8 assignable buttons giving their volunteers the VERY simple task of pushing a button for each part of the service. Using a pair of mix buses, we have all our mics set to record properly pre or post fader on each scene and the bus is getting the proper stereo signal to record......enter the issue...
First Pres wants to have a master CD recorded which they can duplicate during the week and distribute to those who want them. In the past, they have used a pair of Tascam CD RWs to record direct to CD and mark tracks along the way. If a track is missed, you cant add it later and you cant move it. If the service goes beyond 80 minutes, the second Tascam has to be used and then two master discs must be created and duplicated... How can we have these services easily recorded, easily editable, and easily burned right to CD?
...Enter the solution...
"Reaper" by Cockos DAW software
I spent SO much time researching the various DAWs examining them for capabilites, ease of use, and price. We wanted a DAW that could record from ASIO through USB or Firewire live from the X32, make track markers on-the-fly, be easily editable in post to remove silences or extras to bring a file down below 80 minutes, and burn directly to CD without a third party program... all this while remaining affordable and not overly complicated.
After examining the big boys, Logic and Pro Tools who cannot easily do what I need them to do, I examined a variety of other DAWs. I originally settled on Steinberg Wavelabs based on their reviews and advertised capabilities. The problem, after testing, was that while the full $500 version of Wavelabs could do what we need, the $99 version could do everything except automatically turn on-the-fly markers into track markers- So for a Service that may have 20-25 markers, the process for splitting up the files and making CD tracks is not so simple.
Enter Reaper
I discovered reaper through a few blogs and review and spent some time on their site and third party sites. For a non-profit like a church, the license cost is only $60 and seemed to be just as capable (if not MORE capable) than the more expensive programs. Not only was Reaper easy to install and use (which was NOT the case for Wavelabs), I was able to create a template making it even easier on the volunteers on a Sunday morning.
When a volunteer double clicks the template icon on the desktop, Reaper opens immediately to a new file, with a stereo track set to the proper input, already record enabled, live monitoring already selected, and the proper outputs selected to go back to the board for that monitoring. All the volunteer needs to do is click the familiar "Record" circle to start the recording. While the track is recording, a simple pressing of the "M" keyboard key drops a numbered marker into the audio. Once the service is done, pressing stop ends the recording, and with a few simple instructions, adding/removing/moving markers and deleting excess audio is very easy. Reaper is one of the few programs that takes it to the next level by allowing a CD burn right from the program in it's Render menu. Intuitively, it allows you to make a preset for your preferred render format, have it render the final audio to a burn file while using all the markers to make CD tracks, and then have that render immediately burn to disc. Reaper seems to be designed by VERY intuitive people looking to accomplish what might normally be very complex and expensive tasks in a very simple and affordable way. On top of this, now that file is stored on the computer hard drive in case the master disc is lost or scratched or another master is needed for any reason.
