London’s Albany Theatre has purchased two JoeCo BlackBox Recorders.

Supplied by Stage Electrics and first used on the recent Alexander Wolfe concert, 24-track digital AES/EBU systems will be used in conjunction with the theatre’s 14 resident companies – some of which make use of its four performance spaces. The theatre’s programme encompasses music, theatre and spoken word, as well as a range of educational, training and community-based projects.

The BlackBox Recorder can be connected to any live mixing console and used for capturing multi-channel audio direct to an external USB2 drive, in Broadcast WAV format, without requiring a computer. Recorded audio can then be imported into a DAW for mixing, editing and re-purposing. The recorder is also suitable for use by visiting sound engineers and artists who can take away their recorded files on a portable storage device at the end of the performance. Multiple BlackBox systems can also be linked for performances involving larger track counts.

‘We wanted a simple, user-friendly but effective multitrack recording system,’ says Fiona Greenhill, Head of Operations at the Albany. ‘The BlackBoxes were easy to install and use and are already proving to be a great add-on. We would like to thank the Clothworkers’ Foundation whose generosity enabled us to buy them.’