Conclusions! #1

My justification for going with a computer-based setup was, in retrospect, a flawed one. I wanted a system that would be useful in many situations before and after the trip. Alas I paid dearly for this in two departments, a) set-up time and b) weight. 

a) because I assumed that I would have always at least five minutes in the space before the performance began. While this was technically true, the choir sang masses and religious occasions, which means there was a service going on in the space and I had to set everything up really quietly and sometimes incompletely (settling for only one mic, for example). Also, even though Macs are the quickest laptops to come out of any low-power mode, it still took too long to wake up, open Logic, record-arm the right tracks, hit record and have it start writing out to the right files. Furthermore there were too many cables to find and connect - USB for the hard disk, Firewire for the Inspire, and MagSafe from the external battery (if it was needed) all into the computer, plus two mic cables and headphones into the Inspire.

b) Weight - again, I those four devices (computer, interface, storage unit, battery) could have been consolidated into a single appliance weighing no more than one pound and occupying considerably less space. Since the concerts or masses were often combined with all-day walking tours, I found myself having to haul like you see in the "Honor Guard" picture below for an entire day, sometimes asking others to help me. It's fun only for about the first five minutes and then it gets really, really old. 

In conclusion (ha ha), my inventory SHOULD have been: Zoom H4 portable recorder, rechargeable AA batteries and a charger, ziploc bag full of SD cards, mic stands, mic cables, mics.