Capturing 90 minutes of audio, only...

[Eric Gulbransen]

Sorry I couldn't find my answer by searching, like I usually do, but I'm not even sure how to word this challenge.

My girl is a Power-Yoga instructor and we want to record the audio (her voice) from her classes which run about 90 minutes long. I set her up (by the way I'll be the first to admit I'm pretty clueless) with our G4 macbook, an M-audio Firewire 410 with a Sennheiser ew100 G2 wireless transmitter/receiver and a tiny ear mounted mic - and I had her run it through Garage Band. Everything worked great in our tests the night before, but the problem was we didn't run our tests long enough. Turns out Garage Band cuts out @ 60minutes.

Can anyone tell me of another program I can use that won't quit before 90-100 minutes?

Thanks

[Eric Darling]

Soundtrack Pro, or perhaps something like WireTap Pro from Ambrosia Software. Soundtrack is a good bet if you've already got it installed due to having Final Cut Suite. WireTap Pro is a good bet if you don't.

[Jeffery Magat]

I heard about the restriction a while back and I heard there was a quick fix, so I just did a quick search on google and this is what I found (not sure if it works):

The problem is that GarageBand (like its bigger sibling Logic) is, at heart, a sequencer, not an audio recording program. This means that it's measure-based, rather than time based.

Result: Maximum recording time is determined by number of MEASURES, not by anything else.

Create a new song, and set tempo to 40 bpm instead of the default 129 bpm. You will now be able to record 33 min x 3 = 100 minutes. If you set the time signature to 6/4 time, you get an extra two beats per measure, meaning your maximum time increases by half again to almost three hours.

Note: You must do this when you CREATE the NEW song. Changing this info on an existing song will apparently not work, for whatever reason.

[Eric Gulbransen]

Thanks for taking the time, guys. I'll let you know how it works out.

[Steve House]

I hate to ask the obvious, but why do you need to record this in one take anyway? Why not record it in segments over multiple takes and assemble the final program from the best? A straight through start to finish program from a single take is almost never done.

[Eric Darling]

It's a live performance. You can't really direct takes in a live performance.

[Eric Gulbransen]

If you really want to know, it's because my wife - as beautiful as she is - can get lost on her way to the bathroom, trips over things that aren't there, and still struggles to understand that you don't change your shutter speed by adjusting the light meter.

I have to come up with a process that she can set up/run by herself. Once she begins a class with forty people balancing on their heads at 6:00am (while I'm still asleep) there's just no way she can re-visit this recording process. It's got to run start to finish.

and by the way, my girl could drive forward - straight through the garage door while looking out the back and I'd be fine with it. She's that cool.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Eric Gulbransen

...
I have to come up with a process that she can set up/run by herself. Once she begins a class with forty people balancing on their heads at 6:00am (while I'm still asleep) there's just no way she can re-visit this recording process. It's got to run start to finish.

..

But does the final production really have to only include materials from 1 and only 1 class recorded start to finish? Can't you assemble the final program from representative clips drawn from a number of classes recorded at different times? It seems like it would certainly be true for audio only where you don't have to worry about matching moves, costumes, lighting, and timing. You don't even need to have the same group of attendees in the class for each recorded session. For that matter, does it even need to really be in front of a live class at all? If it's audio only, who would know listening one way or the other?

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Eric Darling

It's a live performance. You can't really direct takes in a live performance.

Sure you can! It's done in live concert programming and live audience television programs all the time. Many of the "In Concert Specials" on regular broadcast television are assembled from segments recorded over several performances and it's not even unheard of to restart or even completely redo numbers during the same performance to correct glitchs or shoot additional camera angles if the performance is being done expressly for the program production and the coverage isn't just incidental to a regular live show. A case in point is the John McDermot special that shows up regularly during PBS's pledge weeks - I was at a couple of those performances and I know for a fact that the show you see on the air was assembled with segments from 4 different performances on 2 different days.

[Bill Davis]

Not to belabor the point buy why are you throwing so much extraneous gear at this?

Why not just buy a small digital pocket recorder and a wired lavillier and be done with it?

Smaller than a body pack, NO chance of RF or other problems - and vastly easier (hit RECORD, stick it in a hip pack, pocket or tuck it in her leotard) and you're DONE.

Occam's razor kinda thinking.

[Eric Gulbransen]

Steve;
Thanks for the thoughts but it's a Yoga thing I think. I don't know, I haven't made it through one class yet and we've been married four years now, but there's supposedly something about "Flow" to these classes so I imagine grabbing moments from different classes might get planets to crashing together or something. Apparently each class is different (which would explain her late nights of prep). But I do appreciate your angle, and understand that if it comes down to it this will make a good plan "B".

Bill;
At first we tried something similar to your suggestion, by using her video ipod and an attachable mic from the apple store. Problem was it picked up way too much audio from anything/everything else in the class and I couldn't figure a way to adjust mic sensitivity (I believe this generic mic (system) was designed for recording classes or conferences?). I do appreciate that all these parts may be a bit much, but I've got them all here already, and by now I've got them tweaked well enough to pick up just about no other audio than her voice - which is great because I'd like to add some background music and get this to sounding professional once we get this worked out.

I wasn't aware of the fact that you could hook up a different mic to this "recorder" or any other similar recorder for that matter. Like I said, I'm pretty clueless...

Thanks for the help

[Bill Davis]

Just to make it a bit easier for you...

The signal to noise ratio (what you WANT to record verses what you DO NOT WANT to record) of any recording starts with proper mic placement. That's the single most important factor. After that comes the pickup pattern and or "sensitivity" of the mic.

In Aerobics instruction you typically have an instructor wearing a headworn micrphone that places the element an inch or so from the instructors mouth.

This means no matter WHAT kind of pickup pattern or "sensitivity" the mic has, the inverse square principal dictates the VOICE will overshadow all OTHER SOUNDS completely.

So the recorder type is pretty insignificant if the mic is positioned properly.

Start with a decent headworn dynamic, or cardiod or whatever. Plug it into ANYTHING that records adequately. Set the level properly. And you'll have a nearly perfect recording of the instructor.

The headworn mic position is WAY more important than whatever you hook it up to.

Simple as that.

Good luck with your recordings.

[Jon Fairhurst]

With a headworn mic, make sure that you leave the levels low enough so you don't overload, and don't position the mic right in front of the mouth, or you'll get too much breath noise and p-pops.

[Eric Gulbransen]

Yes, we struggled with that first mic picking up everything so on this last run we actually did try a proper headworn mic. Thanks for that tip. Good to know I was at least on the right track - but then the cutout happened!

Next try is this morning. I'll let you all know. Thanks