Topic: Do any of you use an audio interface to tape? What is your preferred setup?

[theres1tape]

Hello, so I am kind of new to taping, but as a broke student I just cannot justify spending money on a digital recorder right now, so to all the shows I want to tape I bring my Thinkpad laptop and Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 audio interface.

Obviously the biggest downside to this is the huge amount of space it takes up, it weighs a lot (most of the shows I'm forced to travel to by train and public transport) and you have to bring a ton of other stuff too. My laptop has an old battery so I need a charger, I also have to obviously power the interface and connect it to the laptop.

One advantage is that I always have enough inputs to patch into SBDs. Most of the time XLR > 1/4" jack will be all you need, sometimes 1/4" jack > 1/4" jack. I have to use line input since my two XLR inputs are used by my Line Audio CM4 mics. Fortunately most of the boards you'll come across support USB recording now.

I also use this old light tripod with a stereo mic mount held to the tripod by duct tape since I don't have the screw needed. The whole tripod falls apart and is very unstable even on all 3 legs. It also doesn't fit into the bag it came with so it falls out sometimes when I'm walking.

How do you counter these issues? Do you have any tips and tricks?

[rhinowing]

You might be able to run the interface into a spare phone instead of bringing the big laptop, just a thought

[opsopcopolis]

It's certainly functional from a tech standpoint. My biggest concern would likely be power. IIRC one of the main ways many of us sell taping as being a low impact to the production is that we're entirely self contained, and as soon as you start asking for power you are a) requiring venue/band involvement, or b) will be forced to a wall somewhere that has spare power. The other downside is the obvious space issue, needing a table (or table sized space on the floor) that you can setup the laptop/interface and leave it open.