Recording

Get Permission

First things first. If you are not directly involved with the show, you’ll need the permission of the producer and/or director of the show before we can even talk about recording it.

Recording from the EPAC sound system is a ‘good news / bad news’ situation.

So let’s start with the bad news. The EPAC sound system is back in the dark ages, recording-wise, in that the only recording equipment we have is to a cassette deck. If that is not sufficient, you’ll have to bring your own recording gear.

The good news is that if you do have access to some audio recording gear, there are a lot of ways to connect it to the EPAC sound system. The following sections will give you some ideas

Most of the access to the mixer is through the patch panel at the bottom of the processor rack on the right side of the counter in the sound booth. Mixer outputs are available from the first 8 TOP 1/4” unbalanced jacks (from the left):

1. Main Left

2. Main Right

3. Sub-group 1

4. Sub-group 2

5. Sub-group 3

6. Sub-group 4

7. Aux-5

8. Aux-6

The ways to use these outputs are explained in the following sections.

Get the left main channel from the top position 1 of the patch panel.

Please Talk With Us First

If you’d like to record a show, please contact the setup person for that show at least a few days beforehand. The type of signals you’d like from the mixer is likely to influence the way we organize the inputs and details on the main mixer. We’d like to work with you, but please talk with us.

Stereo from the Mains

This is a recording ‘straight off the board’. It is likely to sound a little different from the live show because the recording will not hear any sound directly from the stage as your ears will in the auditorium.

This one is easy.

Insert a 1/4” phone plug into the top jack of patch position 1 to get the left output.
Insert a 1/4” phone plug into the top jack of patch position 2 to get the right output.

Note that we do keep an adapter cord on hand with 1/4” phone plugs on one end to 1/8” stereo on the other to record to anything that has a 1/8” stereo input jack.

Voices on One Channel, Instruments on the Other

If you’d like to do your own balancing of the voices and instruments after the fact, here’s how.

The method is to use the L-R outputs to go to the main outputs (and the house) and sub-group outputs to go to the recorder. The hookup is still pretty easy, but this one also requires some special settings on the mixer itself as well.

This method does not work if you are using real stereo to the main outputs.

On the sub-group controls un-set (button is out) all four of the L-R assign buttons so they will not feed the main outputs.

On all of the individual input channels that you wish to be in the recording, set the pan pots to 12:00 (straight up). Sorry, this method doesn’t work if you are using real stereo outputs.

On all those same input channels, push the L-R Assign buttons so those channels will go to the main outputs.

On all of the input channels to be recorded on the vocal track, push the 1-2 Assign buttons to cause sub-groups 1 and 2 to receive only those signals.

On all of the input channels to be recorded on the instrument track, push the 3-4 Assign buttons to cause sub-groups 3 and 4 to receive only those signals.

Use the sub-group 1 and 3 faders to set your recording level.

Insert a 1/4” phone plug into the top jack of patch position 3 to get the left (vocal track) output.

Insert a 1/4” phone plug into the top jack of patch position 5 to get the right (instrument track) output.

Stereo Voices, Stereo Instruments

It is also possible to record the voices in stereo and the instruments in stereo to either two separate 2-track recorders or to one 4-track recorder.

The structure is similar to the previous section except the pan pots on the input channels are used to place the voices and instruments in the desired part of the stereo spectrum. The outputs from sub-groups 1 and 2 are the voices, 3-4 are the instruments.

On the sub-group controls un-set (button is out) all four of the L-R assign buttons so they will not feed the main outputs.

On all those same input channels, push the L-R Assign buttons so those channels will go to the main outputs.

On all of the input channels to be recorded in the vocal section, push the 1-2 Assign buttons to cause sub-groups 1 and 2 to receive only those signals. Set the pan pot for each to reflect where you want this input in the stereo spectrum. Note that this same pan pot setting will also affect the main outputs.

On all of the input channels to be recorded in the instrument section, push the 3-4 Assign buttons to cause sub-groups 3 and 4 to receive only those signals. Set the pan pot for each to reflect where you want this input in the stereo spectrum. Note that this same pan pot setting will also affect the main outputs.

Use the sub-group 1 and 2 faders to set the recording level for the left and right vocals.

Use the sub-group 3 and 4 faders to set the recording level for the left and right instruments.

Insert 1/4” phone plugs into the top jacks of patch positions 3 and 4 to get the left and right vocal outputs.

Insert 1/4” phone plugs into the top jacks of patch positions 5 and 6 to get the left and right instrument outputs.

Four-Channel Recording

Another variation of the previous item is to group the input channels into 4 distinct groups with the sub-group assigns and pan pots. Perhaps you have the wireless lavs in sub-group 1, the Unipoint mics in sub-group 2, the pit band (minus drums) in sub-group 3 and the drums in sub-group 4.

The only magic is to use the assign buttons per channel to direct the output to a pair of sub-groups, then set the pan pot to hard left or hard right to go to only one of those sub-groups.

In this example, you will probably want to assign the sub-groups to the house mix (with sub-group pan pots at 12:00) and not use the L-R on each channel so the main outputs will not reflect the pan pot setting of each channel. Isn’t this fun <G>? Is anyone really reading this stuff?

Two-Channel Custom Mix

If none of the previous methods record just what you want, then try this one. Use Aux-5 and Aux-6 from the mixer (which feed the top jacks of patch positions 7 and 8) to feed left and right of the recorder. Pan pots don’t matter. Assign buttons don’t matter. The trim, fader and EQ still affect the output. A setting for Aux-5 will send that input channel to the left side of the recording, Aux-6 the right. Or set them both in any combination to achieve some other effect The result is a mix as custom as you’d like.

This can become very busy on the mixer. You should probably supply someone in the sound booth to monitor these outputs and make adjustments to the Aux-5 and Aux-6 settings during the show.

Per-Channel Recording

If you have access to a multi-track recorder, it is possible to get a copy of each of the input channels and record each separately. You will probably have to bring your own 1/4” snake to go between the mixer and your recording device.

The magic is to plug a 1/4” plug ‘half way’ (just to the first click) into the insert jack for each channel. This is actually documented in the Mackie mixer manuals and it also works on other brand mixers that I have tried it on. Use a separate 1/4” plug for each channel to be recorded. The output to your recorder will be post-trim, but pre-everything else. So if you don’t move the trim controls, the recorder will get a constant level signal for each input no matter what you do to the house or monitor outputs. Be aware that the normal settings we use for trim levels may be a tad low for recording levels.

Feed a Video Recorder

The theory on this one is to capture one or two outputs (any outputs, but most likely the main outputs) from the patch panel, patch them to DIs in the sound booth, use XLR cords to go to the remote video camera, use female-to-female XLR ‘gender benders’ to plug into another DI, use the 1/4” outputs of those DIs to an adaptor cord to feed the input of the video camera.

Voila, the video camera will hear everything that comes out of the main speakers, but no direct sound from the audience. If you want to hear the applause, this method will not work well for you. Consider using a mic right at the camera.

Other Needs?

If you have some other need for recording something that is not listed here, contact us and ask.

Processor Rack

(The patch panel is the unit on the bottom)

Mackie 3204
Sub-Group controls

Mackie 3204
Pan Pot,
Assign buttons