Someone is going to designate $1000 to set us up for recording audio digitally.
What should we buy?
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Recording sermons
Our situation
We have found it cheaper and easier to do a DVD of the service. Our services last about 1 hour and 15 or 20 minutes; with a prelude, maybe 1 hour 25 minutes; not quite the range of many CD players.
But DVDs run for 2 hours, giving us plenty of space without have to go to two disks. So we have a cheap camera. It saves hassle.
We have a DVD/CD duplicator that makes 2 or 3 copies quickly.
Don't know if this helps, but it is something to think about.
Of course, if you have the manpower and a surplus of geeks who wouldn't mind editing a file onto a CD, etc., that would be different. Our system is set up for fewer personnel.
Do you have any kind of sound
Do you have any kind of sound room? If you have a mixer board you can send audio into the input on your computer. You can then record and save audio files on your computer to be burned to cds. You can also save those files in mp3 formats and post them on your website for ipod and other mp3 player users. The nice thing about using a computer is you can then also connect a video camera through firewire into your computer and have videos of your services that you can burn to dvds or post on the web.
Audio input
I'll confess, I'm a complete amateur in this area. However, we tried the audio input to the computer method, and I found the audio quality to be significantly inferior to the audio I got from the recorded CDs. I wish I knew more, to be able to tweak settings on the mixer board or in the audio software, but I don't.
When we upgraded a few years ago, we replaced our cassette deck with a CD burner & duplicator. CDs get distributed to whoever wants them. For the website, I rip the CDs to the computer, edit them with Audacity, and upload.
DVD recording would be nice!
We were told that we should
We were told that we should be cautious about recording the music in our service because of copyright issues. Is this correct?
We only record the sermon.
Greg Long wrote:
We were told
We were told that we should be cautious about recording the music in our service because of copyright issues. Is this correct?
We only record the sermon.
I don't know Greg, but it sounds logical.
Have any of you ever seen, heard of or used a device like this?
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrackII.html
What we purchased...
This is what we purchased for sermon CD recording:
http://www.tascam.com/products/cd-rw900sl.html
We were told different things by different people. Some said the way to go is to record directly to a computer or digital device like the one you linked to; others said it is somewhat risky to record onto a computer because computers can freeze up or have hiccups in the recording process that CD recorders normally don't have.
Also, we wanted to make audio CDs (not mp3 CDs) available for people like shut-ins, so we chose to record to a CD recorder than create an mp3 from the CD that we put on the web site.
What to record
We were told that we should be cautious about recording the music in our service because of copyright issues. Is this correct?
We only record the sermon.
I think this is going to be different depending on where you are located, but you are correct to be cautious. We do record the entire service for shut-ins, and I understand there is a legal exception to do so in our state (NC), but for anyone else, we record only the sermon, because the music must be left out.
Greg Long wrote:
We were told
We were told that we should be cautious about recording the music in our service because of copyright issues. Is this correct?
We only record the sermon.
For what it is worth to everyone, churches should really purchase a CCLI license. This will allow them to do a myriad of things legally (which I would suspect many churches are doing whether they have a license or not). From their website, here is what you can and cannot do with a license. As you can see, this will allow you to record the music part of your service. Technicially speaking you should have a CCLI license if you are using PowerPoint to project your music as well.
What You Can Do
- Print songs, hymns and lyrics in bulletins, programs, liturgies and songsheets for use in congregational singing.
- Create your own customized songbooks or hymnals for use in congregational singing.
- Create overhead transparencies, slides or use any other format whereby song lyrics are visually projected (such as computer graphics and projection) for use in congregational singing.
- Arrange, print and copy your own arrangements (vocal and instrumental) of songs used for congregational singing, where no published version is available.
- Record your worship services (audio or video) provided you only record live music. Accompaniment tracks cannot be reproduced. You may charge up to $4 each for audiocassette tapes and CDs, and $12 each for videotapes and DVDs.
What You Cannot Do
- Photocopy or duplicate octavos, cantatas, musicals, handbell music, keyboard arrangements, vocal scores, orchestrations or other instrumental works.
- Translate songs into another language. This can only be done with the approval of the respective publisher.
- Rent, sell or lend copies made under the license to groups outside the church or to other churches. (It is OK to distribute recordings to shut-ins, missionaries or others outside the church.)
- Assign or transfer the license to another church or group without CCLI's approval.
We do have a CCLI license,
We do have a CCLI license, but I was not aware that the license allowed us to record live music. Thank you for bringing that to our attention.
Now my Grandma won't have to
Now my Grandma won't have to miss the music when she is not at Grandview that week. 
wbarkema wrote:
Now my
Now my Grandma won't have to miss the music when she is not at Grandview that week.
LOL! Actually our services won't fit on a CD--too long. That's another reason we only record the sermon.
We don't have much; an old soundboard that is about 10-15 years old.
We only record the sermon. We are quite small and don't have much special music.
Thanks for the input so far. I know there was a thread a year or two ago that got quite specific. I need to take the time to find it.