Record a 9hrs Seminar?

[mogui_666]

Hi guy,

I am recording a 9hrs seminar in the near future. The last time when i record it with Apple Garage Band, the application hang when it reaches around 1 hr.

Now, here are some questions i need to know,

1) how do i record a 9hrs seminar(as .wav) directly to my hard drive in a Mac? (ie: what kind of application should i use?)

2) Can a normal sequencer like, Cubase, Sonar, Pro Tool, Ableton Live etc, be use to record 9 - 10 hrs of audio?

Please help. Thanks in advance.

 

[soft]

The seminar should have breaks right? It would be safer to record small chunk instead of a 9hrs take. Just in case the computer hangs at 8.59!

 

[smurfpiss]

As far as I know Cubase and Pro-Tools can record as much as the storage space you have on tap. Recording in .wav at 44.1khz 16bit, 10 mins would be around 100mb.

But yea like what James said it is better to record in chunks of 30mins to 1hour. However heres a point to note. If the system hangs at 8.59 you're screwed anyways, not because you lost the file but its that you missed the last minute of recording. Cubase and Pro-Tools record direct to hard disk so there is no temporary cache or RAM being used for recording (unlike Audacity) so from the get go stuff is saved onto the hard disk.

I'd also like to suggest recording direct to an external hard disk that is connected via firewire to your mac. Puts less strain on your internal hard disk as it will have to grab system files to run the applications while writing data down on the disk, in fact you should practice this habit all the time makes for a more efficient and stable recording platform.

 

[mogui_666]

Hi guy,

thanks for the reply. The last time when I am using Apple Garage Band to record, I did use an external hard drive. but the application really screw me up big time.

anyway, thanks for the advice=)

 

[blueprintstudios]

i don't know how you're going to do that on your apple garage band. but with my current setup using 2x Zoom H4s.

I think it can record on SD card (now that it reads SDHC cards) and last throughout. even if 1 Zoom H4 runs out of SD card space during recording, I'll have a 2nd one live standby record while I empty out (transfer) the 1st one into my pc. then sync later on in DAW.

DAWs may/may not crash, but for 9 hours it's really hard to say because the longest I've recorded is 4 hours myself.

if you can't afford to screw up 9 hours. I suggest you buy a Zoom H2 , test record it on a huge SD card for 10 hours.(with power adapter of course) save it. check the .wav. then consider getting 2 to play safe, or use 1 Zoom H2 to record and the other one your laptop to record.

gd luck.

20¢ worth.

 

[mogui_666]

Hi blueprintstudios,

thanks for the advice.

 

[logicdroid]

I'm a bit late at this, but just in case it's still going on... A little info... I believe the only file format capable of recording unlimited amounts of audio to your hard disk is CAF (core audio format).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Audio_Format.

 

[JonEthan]

or buy the DV recorder that someone is selling here in soft?

 

[logicdroid]

Yep. go with a recorder - no fuss. GarageBand or any other Daw is for Music production.