wireless usb 2.0 with a DAW for live sound?

[Rick Lee]

Have a small church with a young congregation that is asking about using an audio interface to plug things into on stage and then using wireless usb to the computer about 50' away. Anybody ever done this?

I have a Tascam US-1641 16 channel interface and it works great with my computer- around 3.5 ms latency so I don't have a problem recommending usb 2.0. However, I've never used it wirelessly.

They also want to use a DAW to mix live (2 mics and one instrument). SAC is way overkill for their situation but they would rather use a computer than a mixer. Anybody ever done this?

[James R]

SAC is probably the best bang for the buck, unless you want to buy a Prosonus and leave it at the stage and use a Ipad and laptop to interface the Prosonus.
I work with a band that has a Prosonus with the Ipad interfaced and it works great, I guess it boils down to cost.

[Sydney]

I work with a band that has a Prosonus with the Ipad interfaced and it works great,

How straightforward is the implementation?
Any gotchas , hurdles, workarounds, or limitations?

[Greg Plouvier]

Never done it but I think I'd be more comfortable with cat5 - if you can get it in place - and extenders/baluns. I've read too many stories over on the sac forum about wireless failing in the middle of shows.

[Rick Lee]

Have y'all seen the Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL? 8 mic pre's, ADAT with a virtual StudioLive interface? Looks like a good live option.

[James R]

I work with a band that has a Prosonus with the Ipad interfaced and it works great,

How straightforward is the implementation?
Any gotchas , hurdles, workarounds, or limitations?

Do a search on Youtube, I watched a few of those before even using there system. It became really easy.

[James R]

Have y'all seen the Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL? 8 mic pre's, ADAT with a virtual StudioLive interface? Looks like a good live option.

I forgot about that one. Not sure if you can expand channel inputs, maybe ?
Also not sure about the usb in how much of a latency issue there would be.

[BrentEvans]

Any gotchas , hurdles, workarounds, or limitations?

One is that the console does not have motorized faders, so any changes you make aren't immediately reflected visually.

[Rick Lee]

Thanks for the replies- I'll give more detail:
I guess my question really is can you use a DAW like Reaper, etc. for live sound?

The situation here is that they would rather not use a mixer but have it all computer based. The "media station" is an L shaped glass desk with one side the place where print media is for the congregation to p/u and the part facing the front is where the A/V is. They would much prefer two computers- one for video and one for audio with two monitor screens instead of a console with all the knobs and such cluttering things up. Visually the desk setup is pretty cool and the church has a modern look in an office building so I understand their desire not to look "old school".

I'm helping them with new speakers so that end of it is no problem- amps are in place, etc. The space is pretty small and I don't see them ever going over 8 channels of audio. Right now the pastor only uses a headset to record his sermon and doesn't use the p.a. to project his voice. However, they want the music to sound really clear and full. So I'm putting in tops and a small Tuba or maybe narrow T39. Naturally the budget is tight which is fine because they don't need much.

However, SAC is stupidly overkill for them (wish there was a SAC Lite!). I was thinking maybe they could use something like Reaper with the channels they need in record mode with record monitoring on. The only shortcoming I see with that is if they ever have a band and need monitors I'm not sure how that would work.

Also not sure about the usb in how much of a latency issue there would be.

In my 3 or 4 years of using USB 2.0 I haven't had a single problem. Latency is very low. I would have it setup to where the only usb device would be the interface on it's own card with the motherboard usb disabled.

Never done it but I think I'd be more comfortable with cat5 - if you can get it in place - and extenders/baluns.

I think I'm gonna recommend a small snake. A little more money but pretty fail safe.

[Sydney]

[Do a search on Youtube, I watched a few of those before even using there system. It became really easy.

Actually this is not for me but another forum member who has a Presonus considering this path.
I thought perhaps you have gone through the entire implementation and could offer "insight" to pass along to fast track them.
( FWIW: Not everyone needs flying faders. )

[James R]

[Do a search on Youtube, I watched a few of those before even using there system. It became really easy.

Actually this is not for me but another forum member who has a Presonus considering this path.
I thought perhaps you have gone through the entire implementation and could offer "insight" to pass along to fast track them.
( FWIW: Not everyone needs flying faders. )

Sydney I do know how to set it up, it's really not hard. Just need a laptop with a firewire and a router and the ipad.
There's a very detailed video on Youtube from Presonus on doing this.

[BrentEvans]

Rick,

Reaper can probably do what you want, but it's not nearly as stable as SAC, and a somewhat more finicky to control. It's also harder to get a monitor mix.

Lots of sound cards come with a monitoring application. MOTU and RME (the newer models from both) have a quite passable app that would do what you want. That said.. for much less money there are several 1RU mixers out there that woudl probably do just as well.. this isn't a particularly demanding job.

[Rick Lee]

That said.. for much less money there are several 1RU mixers out there that woudl probably do just as well.. this isn't a particularly demanding job.

I think I'll give them two options: the traditional way like this or using a computer with maybe the Presonus and virtual StudioLive. Hey, I'm being lazy here- Brent, what is that wireless mic setup you recommend?

[James R]

I had to actually use Reaper at job where the f/x on the board was not working, the tech had his mac and reaper along with some Focusrite interfaces in his rack
for recording, It was nice but there definately was some latency