record DJ set, but High quality recording

[bmo]

If you use your input to record into something that does live low-latency monitoring, you can use that to record and use its output to stream using soundflower or jack or whatever.

Honestly, if I were doing that, I'd just use Traktor's recording and streaming. The mixes on my mixcloud page (which should be linked in my sig) were all made either in Ableton Live as rendered studio mixes or recorded using Traktor's recording off a random output from my mixer (probably the record out, knowing me) into my FS Open. If you're having serious issues controlling levels, you can probably get a reasonable outboard limiter for less than the cost of a professional DAW. Plus you get to sound like a stud when you describe it to people.

If you go with a DAW, you want to record the audio direct (simple) and between what gets recorded and what the DAW outputs, you probably want a brickwall limiter with just a bit of gain in front of it…control the unintentional peaks but keep the volume up for streaming. Aim for no more than 2-3 dB of gain reduction at the loudest points.

So, in summary

DJ Mixer -> Some input -> DAW (record the input) -> Gain Stage -> Limiter -> Soundflower -> your streaming program.

Or

DJ Mixer -> Hardware Limiter -> some input -> Traktor for recording & Streaming.

The downsides of the second option are that it's really easy to squash the sound to death and that once you screw up, you recorded the screw up…in a DAW, you can always render the recording with less limiting (or pre-limiter gain). Your stream will still be messed up because it already happened, but the recording won't.

The simplest DAW that I know will work is Ableton Live (don't need Suite but Live Lite doesn't have what you need), but if you're willing to find a limiter plugin online somewhere (there are free ones available…OS X comes with one, for example) then you could do it with just about any DAW that does live monitoring.

If you're not monitoring the DAW's output and just streaming it online, latency isn't even really a concern…it just has to do it in real time, even if it takes a second or two to process the audio. Reaper looks like it might be a good choice if you want to take the cheap route (it costs $40 unless you make more than $20,000/year from music) or Ardour might work if you want to take the free route…I just haven't used it.

If I needed to do that today, I'd probably just use Ableton Live because I already have it…or I'd take advantage of the educational pricing while I can get it and use Pro Tools or Logic just because I could.

forgive my ignorance, I am interested in option two seeing as how I use Trakotr and am familiar with it, but I don't see hwo I would be able to use traktor to record if I am currently usign traktor for mixing timecode externally?

I have ableton Live 8, my friend had no need for it, and gave it to me, I think he uses logic pro now. I'm not very familiar with Ablteon, and have not had enough time to really get a grip on how thigns work with it. If this option won't be too much hassle,a nd if you think the results will be better, then how would I go about doing this?

Sorry for asking you so much. I thought I figured out my whole streaming and recording situation, but lately since i've been recording mroe, i'm not impressed with the quality, and then tied in with this is the lack of volume on my streaming output as well.

[mostapha]

You can record in traktor from an external input…as long as you've got one available. If you're using an Audio 4 and mixing 2 decks externally (or an audio 8 and 4 decks externally) you're SOL without buying another audio interface.

If you've got one extra stereo pair (like they added for the Audio 6 and 10) then you're golden…assuming that whatever you're streaming to can understand Traktor's output. I haven't done live internet radio since I switched to Traktor, so IHNFC what to tell you on that one except that it does have streaming capabilities. I just don't know the details.

Recording in Live isn't hard. You can set different input and output sound cards, which makes things simpler. It would be possible, for example, to choose your built-in input as the input device and soundflower as your output device. Set an audio track to read that input pair, hit record enable, set your levels, launch a scene…and record. Then just throw a limiter (set appropriately…-.5 as a threshold to start with and whatever gain you need) on the master channel. It'll be recorded to your hard drive and the output wil go to whatever stereo pair you choose in soundflowwer, which you can send to your streaming program.

I'm sure that watching some of the tutorials available on youtube or on ableton's website (or just reading through the manual) will get you further on your way than me describing it without a full knowledge of what you have available.

[bmo]

You can record in traktor from an external input…as long as you've got one available. If you're using an Audio 4 and mixing 2 decks externally (or an audio 8 and 4 decks externally) you're SOL without buying another audio interface.

If you've got one extra stereo pair (like they added for the Audio 6 and 10) then you're golden…assuming that whatever you're streaming to can understand Traktor's output. I haven't done live internet radio since I switched to Traktor, so IHNFC what to tell you on that one except that it does have streaming capabilities. I just don't know the details.

Recording in Live isn't hard. You can set different input and output sound cards, which makes things simpler. It would be possible, for example, to choose your built-in input as the input device and soundflower as your output device. Set an audio track to read that input pair, hit record enable, set your levels, launch a scene…and record. Then just throw a limiter (set appropriately…-.5 as a threshold to start with and whatever gain you need) on the master channel. It'll be recorded to your hard drive and the output wil go to whatever stereo pair you choose in soundflowwer, which you can send to your streaming program.

I'm sure that watching some of the tutorials available on youtube or on ableton's website (or just reading through the manual) will get you further on your way than me describing it without a full knowledge of what you have available.

yea that's what I figured, I have an audio 4, and while at home with my korg zero 4 I cna afford ot loose a channel for recording. When I'm out and actually use my audio 4 I guess traktor won't help much in terms of recording, because it can only use one soundcard.

Thanks man for the input I'll try to Ableton solution

[Conall]

There's nothing wrong with the macbook's audio interface. No, it's not a 192io, but it's not that much worse than any of the cards aimed at DJs.

The problem is how you're recording…probably something to do with setting levels wrong. You should be seeing nice, loud levels in a meter that never distort…then, all you should have to do is normalize the recording with just a bit of headroom to prevent ISM distortion, and you're done.

I've recorded DJ sets with everything from windows sound recorder to Pro Tools, and frankly they all sound about the same quality unless I screw up something like leveling.

this, unless your playing all FLAC/WAV sets and playing all your sets back on Funktion 1's (an exagaration, yes, but the sad fact is most people have really shit soundsystems) then the macbook audio interface is fine, its just the settings that need adjusted.

[bmo]

this, unless your playing all FLAC/WAV sets and playing all your sets back on Funktion 1's (an exagaration, yes, but the sad fact is most people have really shit soundsystems) then the macbook audio interface is fine, its just the settings that need adjusted.

Thanks guys. I finally found an OK solution. If I use my booth output to go into my line-in on my macbook, and I crank it. It actually sounds really good and loud enough both for recording and streaming.

It's too bad you can't output what Traktor is recording, to soundflower or something (just relay the recording input through) so I'd have an all in one solution.

But oh well. Guess I'll stick to using Audacity, with the booth output routed to the line-in on my macbook. And then if I really want to record and be able to cut the tracks onthe fly I can jsut record through traktor while I stream through Audacity, although it seems kind of redundant.

It's unfortunate because dunno how often I'll get access to the booth output at gigs for recording/ streaming.

[mostapha]

Actually, the macbook (pro) sound card is a pretty good 24/96 interface. It's only 2x2, and it's really small…they probably use a stereo op amp instead of two mono ones for the output…and it's not electrically isolated from the rest of the laptop afaik, so the noise floor is probably pretty high compared to a real interface (though not compared to something like an Audio 2).

But…quick research shows that most of them are decent converters (some models are cirrus logic cs4206a), which is the same manufacturer that provides converters for a lot of the NI cards over the years…as well as things like the modern, digital Pioneer DJ mixers and CDJs and a whole host of other stuff that no one complains about.

I could be wrong about the details…I spent like 2 minutes on google trying to figure it out. But I think it stands to reason that the cards are at least passable. I would contest that–honestly–the next step up for recording quality from the normal macbook (pro) input is an Apogee Duet or Duet 2. Those things are reportedly really brilliant for the price…but they still cost like $600 for a 2x4 interface. And you still have to know what you're doing to hear let alone record the difference.

But, seriously…unless you're specifically buying a fairly good interface for recording, you're not going to get noticeably better quality off a DJ mixer.

If you run a DJ mixer like most people do–pegging the red the entire time–or you don't know how to set levels for recording well, it wouldn't matter if you were recording with Avid or Apogee…it's going to sound just about the same.

I don't have the ears of a life-long studio engineer.

I'm not a professional.

But I've recorded DJ sets with a lot of different stuff over the years…from internal sound cards on Apples and Thinkpads to $20 budget "i need another input" USB cards to soundflower or my old Mbox2 or a borrowed digi002…using everything from windows sound recorder to Pro Tools.

Once it comes off an mp3 and/or goes through a DJ mixer with questionable preamps and "just barely good enough" circuitry…I can't hear a difference unless I screw up and clip the input.