The live recording facility was specifically installed with the aim of producing high quality live recordings from gigs that take place in the bar.
This facility is NOT intended as a 'cheap & cheerful' public service. Unfortunately we are currently too busy with production work to spend time track dumping. However performers are welcome to bring along a minidisc recorder and mic(s) and record the gig themselves. We are unable to provide desk output to minidisc as all outputs are already assigned to our own system.
The bar will occasionally commision the production of a live recording. Under those circumstances the performers will be provided with a free copy of the finished production to use as they see fit.
The bar may also occasionally wish to release a commercial live compilation album for sale. This will only be done with the consent of the bands we'd like to feature.
It is envisaged that some performers may wish to be recorded for the purpose of producing a live track or album. There is no charge for the recording process but production is a chargeable function performed by Mark Thomas Audio. Please note that the bar does not take any commission from these fees.
The bar requires all it's live recordings are credited thus:
"Recorded live at The Moorings Bar, produced by Mark Thomas Audio".
For more info on Mark Thomas, please goto
http://www.audiocourses.com/article83.html
or search for him on google.
Mark has given me the following guidelines for productions fees, based on producing the first dozen tracks from live performances at the bar. Please note that these figures are for bands - solo accoustic performers can expect to pay around 1/5th of the quoted rates:
To perform a basic production on 30mins of finished music would cost £200. The minimum fee is £50 for which you can expect up to 7.5 minutes of finished material. Having heard the results I'd rate them up with the very best demos that have passed through my letterbox. Contact MTA or myself if you'd like to hear a demo.
To fee for release quality production on a single track is negotiable, but the point of diminishing returns kicks in at around £100... but this is dependent on the standard of the original performance. IMO the quality of these productions stand comparison to live commercial releases. Contact MTA of myself if you'd like to hear a demo. There is also a Live At The Moorings Compilation present on our jukebox.
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Technical Specs:
The bar boasts a professional grade Sydec 24 track digitial hard disk recording system and Sydec Soundscape, a software package similar to (and some would argue superior to) Pro Tools. This equipment cost several thousand pounds.
The recorder can sample at up to 96KHz and can produce music to SACD standard. It's an impressive piece of kit! Even running in it's most space efficient mode sampling occurs at 8Mb per track per minute. Typically we are operating with 18 tracks so the recorder will sample in the region of 4320Gb of raw mic data over the course of a 30 min set! In contrast a CD typcially uses 264MB of space to store approx 30 mins of music! The recorder can only be controlled by firmware calls embedded in the proprietry Soundscape software. The Soundscape software will only function when connected to the Sydec recorder. This design prevents software piracy and helps Sydec keep the price of the pacakge competitive.
Sydec Audio Engineering - Soundscape | The home of professional digital audio
There are 16 professional tour spec mics located on stage that feed raw unprocessed feeds into the recorder via direct digital output from a Yamaha DM1000 mixer. This means that the recording is digital from the moment it enters the mixer until the moment someone plays it back on CD post production. A further pair of AKG C1000S condensor mics are arranged overhead in a stereo pair formation to collect crowd noise for that authentic live recording sound, this is fed into the recorder via a separate dedicated preamp. We also take DI inputs feeds to this preamp from the guitars. This enables us to re-amp and re-record the guitar tracks at a later date in the event of any problems with the live guitar sound. Altogether it's possible to record up to 23 separate feeds from mic and DI.