Here's the scenario. We finally really dialed our one-mic technique for live. It makes it absurdly easy to record the whole show- it's already mixed. This brings the enticing idea of being able to sell the CD of that very show, at that very show.
I could just do it to 16:44.1 and accept that the levels will be very low indeed- very dynamic act, no compression, we need the headroom. I could use the limiter in the SLAM! but it's not exactly transparent in between moments of actual limiting. So I'd prefer not to.
The next idea would be to do it at 24:44.1 and have the option of doing a gain change and dither, to pull the level up as high as it could go without getting into clipping or limiting. Then there's limiting, but I have my doubts about doing any limiting in a big hurry right after getting off stage!
Basically I'm thinking about putting together a little rig to take the raw one-track stuff, level it somehow, cut any songs that obviously trainwrecked, and produce multiple copies of CD's of the show. I'm not really concerned about competitive level, I just want to have plenty o' headroom while recording and be able to eliminate unnecessary headroom for the dupe. And having it tracked at 24 bit makes further mastering possible later for especially lucky tracks, for inclusion on a more formal album.
Now, I am pretty seriously phobic about the whole computer trip. Ideally I wouldn't touch one to do this. But if I have to, it needs to be something so simple that *even I* can confidently and quickly do what needs done, there by the edge of the stage or wherever.
And, I'm nuts about the sound. I'd rather just do it at 16:44.1 with low levels than mess up the sound with a crummy digital gain change.
I guess I could do it all right at the masterlink, avoiding the gain changes and suffering through the "is it dither?" if I needed to have a 24 bit copy for future real mastering.
Or is there a better, but stupidly simple, way?
Also, I wonder what to do for a duplicator that makes multiple CD's at once that really play everywhere a CD-R can play...
Get 'em while they're hot!