Capture™ is a digital audio multi-tracking application designed to make recording quick and easy. With the look and feel of industry-standard digital multi-track hard disk recorders, it is instantly familiar to every musician and engineer. And it uses the same high-quality audio engine as our groundbreaking Studio One™ DAW.
Capture was designed exclusively for StudioLive™-series mixers, allowing instant setup and recording directly from the mixer with no configuration. You just launch Capture, click Arm All Tracks, and click Record. At the end of the show, click Stop, save the file, and you’re done!
In addition to recording all channels of any StudioLive-series mixer, Capture allows you to record a stereo track from the StudioLive’s main output, one pair of subgroup outputs, or a pair of aux sends, giving you the option to record your main mix or create a separate recording mix. When used with two daisy-chained StudioLive 16.4.2 mixers, Capture can record all 32 channels plus 2 assignable channels. (It is not possible to record from two daisy-chained StudioLive 24.4.2 mixers due to FireWire 400’s inherent limitations.)
In general, the features that make a DAW a powerful tool for audio production and mixing in the studio are the very culprits that bog down a computer’s performance and make for an unstable live recording environment. Capture simplifies this environment, providing only the tools necessary to record a great performance without placing huge demands on your CPU’s resources.
Yet as simple as Capture is, it gives you several important features. Of course you get basic transport and cut/copy/paste edit functions. But there’s more. Most people prefer to record a live set straight through, hitting Record at the start of the set and stopping at the end. Capture allows you to drop markers between songs, on the fly during recording. Then you can use the markers to jump quickly to the start of the next song and to export individual songs as separate files. You can save in any of several file formats (including WAV and OpenTL), sample rates, and bit depths, then edit your tracks in the audio software of your choice. Or save a Capture file, complete with markers, and open it for editing directly in Studio One, which is also bundled with all StudioLive mixers. Capture also enables you to stereo-link channels so you can record interleaved stereo files from linked channels on the StudioLive mixer.
You also can record in Capture, mix through the StudioLive, and then print your mix back to Capture. This allows you to take full advantage of the StudioLive’s Fat Channel processing, effects, and other features during mixdown, as well as during recording. It’s fast, it’s easy, and the sound quality is first-rate at every stage.
Another useful way to use Capture is to stream audio into the StudioLive while mixing a live show. For instance, to integrate previously recorded material into a live performance, simply bring prerecorded tracks into Capture—it can import WAV and AIFF files—and send the tracks to channels on a StudioLive while recording live audio from the other mixer channels.
Capture makes getting ready for the next show or the next artist a breeze. Let’s say you recorded a band last night, and you’re going to mix their show again tonight. You pull up the last session the band recorded in Capture and recall the saved StudioLive scene and Fat Channel settings. Since you can run Capture simultaneously with Virtual StudioLive™, you can set up both the Capture session and the StudioLive settings in less than minute. Now you are ready to do a virtual sound check before the musicians even walk onstage. After you virtual sound check, all you have to do is trim your inputs and go.
It took PreSonus years to develop this tightly integrated hardware and software, and nothing else is quite like it. StudioLive and Capture are the next generation of music technology. This is where the industry is going in the second decade of the century. And you can get it now.
With Capture you can:
- Place markers on the fly to divide the songs in a live set and then export each song separately to sell a live CD at the show.
- Record the Main Output from your StudioLive and then stream the live show as a pod cast while the band is breaking down.
- Export your recordings as single audio tracks or in Open TL format and import them into your favorite DAW application to create your mix.
Use the Firewire Playback option to stream the raw recorded audio back into the StudioLive, create a live mix and print it back into Capture.