Free, low-resource DAW for recording (only) a live gig

[Jack]

Hi all,

 

Quite a specific question, but one that I've been struggling with. I want to get better at recording gigs, it's something that I've done a few times but never particularly well or properly to be honest. At home, both me and the guitarist have powerful desktop PCs, I use Ardour and he Protools so we are sorted for the mixing and mastering side of things after the gig. What I need is a way to record on my aged Dell laptop with only 8GB ram. Now most importantly this laptop runs some arcane, totally unfathomable and unusable software called Windows, and as such I have no idea about any of the programs that I can use on it.

 

What's going to be the best software to use to record 15 individual tracks coming 'out of' a Behringer XR18?

 

'Best' in this case means 'lightweight and free'. I don't need any editing capabilities, I don't need plugins (not that I could on such a low spec machine), nothing. I just need the ability to write 15 high quality stems to the ssd which I can then move into the other DAWs for mixing after the fact. I can keep using Ardour I suppose, but I'm always worried with such a complicated piece of software that I've missed some setting somewhere or not pressed record properly. Also, even with all of the plugins and everything disabled it can still be quite resource intensive.

 

Any thoughts and tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jack

 

 

[BigRedX]

So long as the application runs and the computer can cope with recording 15 tracks simultaneously, stick with what you know.

 

What OS do you use on your desktop machine?

 

Your biggest problem may be that the computer simply isn't up to the task no matter what software you want to use for the recording. You will probably need to configure your installation of Windows so that nothing unnecessary is running in the background. That means disabling WiFi, Bluetooth, and network capability other than what is required for the computer to "see" XR18. You'll need to turn off any anti-virus software and disable all those unwanted background processes that Windows insists on running. 

 

 

[Dad3353]

Reaper will do what you ask, and can be trialled for free for as long as you want, with no restrictions on functionality. It is not 'resource-hungry, and capable of handling that many inputs, once configured. It would cost you nothing to try it out. 

[Happy Jack]

During Covid I recorded a track in my studio using an XR18 as the front-end for Reaper. Reaper worked perfectly in every regard and was as easy to use as ever.

 

On the other hand, the functionality of the XR18 was such that it was a nightmare to get it rigged up (this is after a couple of years of live gig experience, so we weren't novices) and I would never wish that experience on another musician.

 

The results were perfectly acceptable.

 

 

 

Next time I do this, I shall be using a Ui24R as front-end which makes the entire process of recording the stems an absolute doddle.

[BabyBlueSound]

I wanted to say Reaper, but I see people are already saing Reaper

 

However your bottleneck will be the storage drive's speed when recording all those tracks that need to be written on your drive. I would not expect a small older Dell laptop to have some crazy fast storage, so you might need some external (USB) drive to plug in and record to that can handle all that I/O. Definitely do some 15-track dry runs to see how it copes with writing multiple files on the fly.

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, BabyBlueSound said:

I wanted to say Reaper, but I see people are already saing Reaper

 

However your bottleneck will be the storage drive's speed when recording all those tracks that need to be written on your drive. I would not expect a small older Dell laptop to have some crazy fast storage, so you might need some external (USB) drive to plug in and record to that can handle all that I/O. Definitely do some 15-track dry runs to see how it copes with writing multiple files on the fly.

 

An SSD was mentioned, hard drive speed may not be an issue. 

[BabyBlueSound]

1 hour ago, Dad3353 said:

 

An SSD was mentioned, hard drive speed may not be an issue. 

My bad, I completely missed the SSD part!

[SubsonicSimpleton]

If the OP is happy using linux/Ardour, why not just buy a new SSD for the laptop(quick google shows £10-£15 for a new 120GB SSD drive) which will likely have better sustained write speed than what's in there already, and make a fresh install of whatever distro he is comfortable using. According to Sound Devices calculation tool, 15 tracks @24bit 48Khz  requires less than 8Gb per hour

https://www.sounddevices.com/audio-recording-calculator/

 

Recording audio really isn't particularly CPU intensive if you are simply streaming it to disk - simply set buffer sizes to maximum and turn off monitoring in the DAW.

 

When everything is recorded, no faffing necessary, just copy it across to the big PC - just make one custom template in Ardour with all your tracks named, and audio routing assigned and then use it for every recording.

 

Before going this route I would hook up the XR18 to the main PC and make sure you can see all the outputs (Behringer don't publish a mac driver so this should also work fine on any linux distro that plays nice with usb class compliant audio interfaces).

 

 

 

 

 

[Jack]

On 28/11/2023 at 11:42, BigRedX said:

So long as the application runs and the computer can cope with recording 15 tracks simultaneously, stick with what you know.

 

What OS do you use on your desktop machine?

 

Your biggest problem may be that the computer simply isn't up to the task no matter what software you want to use for the recording. You will probably need to configure your installation of Windows so that nothing unnecessary is running in the background. That means disabling WiFi, Bluetooth, and network capability other than what is required for the computer to "see" XR18. You'll need to turn off any anti-virus software and disable all those unwanted background processes that Windows insists on running. 

 

 

My main desktop is linux Mint and I also have a pretty powerful gamin computer that runs Windows 11. There's plenty of powerful computers in the house to do the editing! When we have recorded gigs before we ave used the mixer but into my guitarist's macbook. That in an of itself is pretty low spec and seemed to manage. I've got to say I'm generally pretty techy, I have worked in teaching using computers my whole working life and now I'm an e-learning consultant. I've built all my own computers for years. The laptop was bought from a computing forum that I'm on specifically to live in a gig bag and go to corporate gigs in which I don't necessarily trust the wifi. I had wanted to keep this is Windows as I might not be the one using it to mix at a gig, but that's never happened yet and the X Air Edit app looks the same once you're in I suppose.

 

On 28/11/2023 at 15:42, Happy Jack said:

During Covid I recorded a track in my studio using an XR18 as the front-end for Reaper. Reaper worked perfectly in every regard and was as easy to use as ever.

 

On the other hand, the functionality of the XR18 was such that it was a nightmare to get it rigged up (this is after a couple of years of live gig experience, so we weren't novices) and I would never wish that experience on another musician.

 

The results were perfectly acceptable.

 

 

 

Next time I do this, I shall be using a Ui24R as front-end which makes the entire process of recording the stems an absolute doddle.

I had assumed that setting up Ardour to test this at home was difficult because Ardour is complex, perhaps it's because the XR18 is a pain to setup? I think I've got it cracked though, with all of the usb outputs just taking a post-gain but pre-everything-else output. I think I just need somewhere to 'put' them. I think. What other problems have you faced?

 

On 29/11/2023 at 08:48, BabyBlueSound said:

I wanted to say Reaper, but I see people are already saing Reaper

 

However your bottleneck will be the storage drive's speed when recording all those tracks that need to be written on your drive. I would not expect a small older Dell laptop to have some crazy fast storage, so you might need some external (USB) drive to plug in and record to that can handle all that I/O. Definitely do some 15-track dry runs to see how it copes with writing multiple files on the fly.

This is likely my fault for describing the laptop as 'aged', which it isn't. Sorry. The laptop is maybe 4 years old and it has a 7300U, 8GB ram and a 256GB (sata) m.2 ssd. I guess I could go higher on the ram or even install linux.

 

 

Ok. In business speak I have some actions to take from this meeting. Thanks all.

[Jack]

18 hours ago, SubsonicSimpleton said:

If the OP is happy using linux/Ardour, why not just buy a new SSD for the laptop(quick google shows £10-£15 for a new 120GB SSD drive) which will likely have better sustained write speed than what's in there already, and make a fresh install of whatever distro he is comfortable using. According to Sound Devices calculation tool, 15 tracks @24bit 48Khz  requires less than 8Gb per hour

https://www.sounddevices.com/audio-recording-calculator/

 

Recording audio really isn't particularly CPU intensive if you are simply streaming it to disk - simply set buffer sizes to maximum and turn off monitoring in the DAW.

 

When everything is recorded, no faffing necessary, just copy it across to the big PC - just make one custom template in Ardour with all your tracks named, and audio routing assigned and then use it for every recording.

 

Before going this route I would hook up the XR18 to the main PC and make sure you can see all the outputs (Behringer don't publish a mac driver so this should also work fine on any linux distro that plays nice with usb class compliant audio interfaces).

 

 

 

 

 

Yes I have used the mixer as an interface at home before. I can confirm that the XR18 works just fine as an interface on Debian based linux.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Jack

[BigRedX]

Just now, Jack said:

Yes I have used the mixer as an interface at home before. I can confirm that the CR18 works just fine as an interface on Debian based linux.

 

In that case I'd remove Windows from the laptop install a version of Linux that you are familiar with and supports both your chosen DAW and the XR18.

[Happy Jack]

Just now, Jack said:

 

I had assumed that setting up Ardour to test this at home was difficult because Ardour is complex, perhaps it's because the XR18 is a pain to setup? I think I've got it cracked though, with all of the usb outputs just taking a post-gain but pre-everything-else output. I think I just need somewhere to 'put' them. I think. What other problems have you faced?

 

Long time ago now, but the biggest issue was the internal mapping between the XR18 and Reaper running on the PC. Secondary issue was that I couldn't find a way to do instant playback in the studio of what I had just recorded ... I had to render each take to a WAV on a memory stick, then take that stick to the PC in my home office and listen to it there. 

 

Just getting everything hooked up so it worked meant spending ages watching (really very helpful) YouTube tutorials of the "connect A to B, now set C to D" variety.

 

Next time, I'll get the best take (or the take the band feel happiest with) 'as live' recorded as separate stems on the Ui24R, then take those stems into Reaper for the pixie dust. That process will reveal the flaws that need fixing, which can be dealt with one by one.

 

In everything I say, do bear in mind that I'm not recording Dark Side Of The Moon here. 

 

[skidder652003]

This  is one of the reasons we went for the zoom L20 desk, we record straight to an SD card in the desk, all 20 stems.

Straight over into Reaper at home as 20 seperate tracks, piece of p1ss!

[Jack]

I know, right! If the Behringer ever let me down I'd move to the Allen and Heath stuff, which has some similar functionality, but the Behringer lives on and I don't care enough to upgrade.