Chicago area-based audio engineers Scott Larson and Warren Bowman, who specialize in capturing live performances, regularly employ Portacapture X8 32-bit float point multitrack handheld recorder from TASCAM in their work.
Larson started live audio engineering in 1975 for Epic / CBS Records artist The Boyzz from Illinois, a Chicago band with a distinct Southern Rock feel. Additionally, he spent several years working in entertainment technology, event production and systems integration with db Sound, Clair Brothers and OSA. These days, he can be found live mixing One of the Boyzz, a spin-off musical endeavor headed by Dan Buck of the original namesake group.
Meanwhile Bowman has been an engineer for DeLuxury plus numerous bands while also working for American aerospace developer and manufacturer Blue Origin as a rocket engine test and development engineer before retiring.
“We purchased the Portacapture X8 in April of this year,” Larson reports, “and since then we have become very fond of it. We use the Portacapture X8 for capturing One of the Boyzz — a six-piece band — using the mixing board audio feed and four microphones. The mixer has 24 tracks, and we add minimal reverb and delay to the mix. The X8’s onboard mics are used for channels 1 and 2, the live board stereo mix goes to channels 3 and 4, and we use two more mics in channels 5 and 6, spread fairly far apart at the console.”
“We run the X8’s audio file output through an analog console in the studio after setting the X8 outputs and pans,” he continues. “This enables us to make slight EQ adjustments and add effects. The output of the console is run concurrently through a line level to digital converter and is stored on a PC as a high-quality WAV file. The WAV master is converted into an MP3 file, and individual tracks are separated and saved. From there, we add a small amount of compression, after which the track is normalized and fade ins and outs are inserted for the final product. This method also maintains a very high-quality recording throughout the process, and delivers the same audio quality to a CD, flash drive, or for file transfer.”
Bowman adds, “For us, portability is a huge plus. I can carry all the recording equipment under my arm, and I’m ready to record in just a few minutes. This, combined with the X8’s rich feature set make the unit perfect for our manner of working. There are several presets that are optimized for podcast, field, voice recording and more, all of which optimize the recorder for various types of applications. We primarily use the Manual mode, which lets us configure the recorder to our preferences. The unit is capable of very high-fidelity recording — sometimes more than we need — so we know we will get the best results possible for any project we use it on.”
