Can I use these to be able to record more people?

[Blue20Boy17]

I have an Audiobox 44VSL interface, which is a 4 input. I record everything stereo, so I can really only record 2 people.

Can I use these to create a mono track from stereo inputs and still achieve the sound quality of stereo, since I'm technically still recording stereo?

Audio-Technica AT8681 UniMix 2-to-1 Microphone Combiner

 

[rob aylestone]

You've misunderstood a bit. Stereo sound quality is EXACTLY the same as mono. Stereo is just a system for conveying locational information in a two loudspeaker monitoring setup. Recording stereo with two people isn't stereo at all, it's twin channel if one person is left and the other right. Add two more mics or other sound sources and you have 4, which you can mix down to stereo if you want. They're all the same quality - which is set by the format - umpteen bits at loads of Hertz. That's the quality setting, nothing to do with number of channels.

The audiotex is a proper 4 channel interface. What on earth are you using the mic combiner for?

 

[Farview]

What are you recording and how? A lot of instruments are really just mono sources, so there is no need to record them as stereo.

We need a little more information to help you along.

 

[gecko zzed]

The AudioBox has four mike inputs, so you can record four vocals simultaneously and separately, each occupying its own mono track in your DAW. You can pan these separately to wherever you want within a stereo field.

 

[Blue20Boy17]

By recording stereo, I mean I record all instruments stereo (two mics on guitar, two on banjo, etc). I like the sound much better that way, and I understand a lot of pro bluegrass sound engineers do the same. Since I record like this, I can only record 2 people at once. If I use the mic combiner, I can record 4 people at once.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

By recording stereo, I mean I record all instruments stereo (two mics on guitar, two on banjo, etc). I like the sound much better that way, and I understand a lot of pro bluegrass sound engineers do the same. Since I record like this, I can only record 2 people at once. If I use the mic combiner, I can record 4 people at once.

Sure, but you'd just be pre-mixing the two mics to one channel. In theory you could record two stereo instruments to one stereo track, but with no way to balance them before or after they're recorded. A step up from that would be a mixer. You would be able to balance them on the way to the combined stereo track, but you would have no way to rebalance them afterward. The real solution to recording more sources at the same time is upgrading your interface to something with more inputs.

 

[gecko zzed]

By recording stereo, I mean I record all instruments stereo (two mics on guitar, two on banjo, etc). I like the sound much better that way, and I understand a lot of pro bluegrass sound engineers do the same. Since I record like this, I can only record 2 people at once. If I use the mic combiner, I can record 4 people at once.

You may prefer recording stereo, but you are limiting yourself unnecessarily, specially if you are going to end up with mono signals anyway by using a mike combiner.

 

[Farview]

If you use the Mic combiner, you will lose the sense of space you are getting from miking the instruments in stereo. You may also end up with phase induced comb filtering.

What you really need is an interface with more channels.

 

[rob aylestone]

If you want to multi mic - note this is NOT stereo, then it's a choice that will cost you. Technically it's possible the sound you like is a result of phase cancellation, which strictly speaking is a happy mistake that works for you, with these instruments and voices in your space. It's very unusual to record voices this way, and of course two mics on one mouth is mono. The reflections they capture give an illusion of stereo, and if they move their heads while singing the image moves, and in headphones, can sound weird enough for some people to feel like vomitting. I think most of us would record all this stuff separately and then sort out the result in the mix. Mic combiners are a blunt tool.

If it works for you, great. It's creating for you, a strange individual technique we'd not use, but one that could be a character sound for your music. Lots of people record unusually, and that's fine. It rarely translates to general recording skills. My friend is a drummer, and he always records his jazz drum kit in his kitchen, with one mic, and it sounds great. It wouldn't work in my studio and it wouldn't work, I think, if he bought a new kit. It's a happy accident.

 

[grimtraveller]

By recording stereo, I mean I record all instruments stereo (two mics on guitar, two on banjo, etc

Actually, that's not recording in stereo although it's a common misconception that takes us a while to get out of. It's just that you are recording with 2 mics. You might choose to pan them on top of each other. You might choose to pan them both to the same side. That's what the guys mean when they say it isn't stereo. It should be called what it actually is ~ multi mic recording. Stereo, as Rob says, is the field in which we place the sounds.

I understand a lot of pro bluegrass sound engineers do the same

Loads of engineers record that way and have done for more than half a century. It's one option among many. Drums are recorded that way but some still just put one mic on the drums like Rob's friend. Some record electric guitar that way, two mics on the amp. They are all valid if they serve the song and the production.

I like the sound much better that way

Which is important.
That implies you've tried other ways and didn't like the sound. What was it about the other way that you didn't like ?

Since I record like this, I can only record 2 people at once. If I use the mic combiner, I can record 4 people at once

A mic combiner is pretty much the same as a mic mixer. And they are useful in certain applications. For example, when I started recording, I had an 8 track portastudio on which you could record 4 tracks at once but only 2 mic inputs ~ the other 6 were line inputs. The line inputs were pretty lame for recording bass or guitar to be honest {although in retrospect, my inexperience at the time didn't enable me to find a way around the problem} so I used the mic inputs with the trim knob as I could increase volume. But I usually recorded with my friend playing drums which meant that the drums only had one input. So I used a 4 input mic mixer which then combined to give one mono drum signal. So I had to somehow try to set the mics in the mic mixer in such a way that the drums would be adequately balanced. I regularly failed because however I balanced the drums, it was a mono sound. I could have had a 10 input mixer and had mics on every drum, cymbal and kit piece, but my sound was always going to be limited by the fact that ultimately, it was mono.
Your mic combiner sounds like that. It's a limiter of a different kind !
Now that I can multi-mic the drums and I don't have to have the kit as mono, the only time I use the mic mixer is for the two timbale toms on the drum kit. They have a higher pitched sound than the regular small tom and are not in need of great separation so it's an acceptable trade off for what I do. You may well find that recording 4 people with the combiner will be less effective than the way you currently do it and you're unnecessarily limiting yourself for what you want to do. As has been said, you're better off with an interface that has 8 or 16 inputs.

 

[ecc83]

For anyone interested in ACTUAL 'stereo' the current issue of Sound on Sound has an excellent article about it and introduces the "Gerzon Array" a technique I was unaware of until now.

I was familiar with the name 'Gerzon' and his mathematics regarding surround sound...NOT that I understood a line of it !

Dave.

 

[TalismanRich]

Blue20Boy17, can you describe how you are setting up the mics? Are you truly doing stereo on each instrument, such as X/Y or ORTF, DIN or RAI to give the sense of space, or are you just setting up dual mics for achieving a sonic balance on each instrument but mixed mono?

I wouldn't think layering multiple coincident or near coincident mic pairs would be an optimal way to record. If you have multiple players at one time, I would use one stereo pair to preserve a really good sounding space and possibly add two more just as "spot" mics to allow you to adjust relative instrument balance if needed . Otherwise I would close mic up to 4 players, and use reverb and panning to create space.

 

[TalismanRich]

For anyone interested in ACTUAL 'stereo' the current issue of Sound on Sound has an excellent article about it and introduces the "Gerzon Array" a technique I was unaware of until now.

I was familiar with the name 'Gerzon' and his mathematics regarding surround sound...NOT that I understood a line of it !

Dave.

I tried to read the article, but since I'm not a subscriber, I could only read 20% of the article... bummer.