dead simple podcasting setup

[agentfitz]

Hey guys!

I am currently recording two usb microphones into my Macbook pro by using a virtual "aggregate device" to combine them into one signal internally. This works OK, but I am looking for something more portable so that it could easily be done on Windows, another Mac without fiddling with a bunch of settings, etc. Ideal for me would be a usb microphone mixer, but I don't think such a thing exists.

With that in mind, I'm also thinking about purchasing a DEAD SIMPLE analog mixer where I could send in two xlr microphones and send out one signal which could be fed into the macbook's line in. I think the headphone jack doubles as a line-in, does it not?

Anyway, a bit of a newbie here but at the end of the day just looking for an easy way to record two microphones at the same time and in my macbook (and/or another basic computer).

Thanks for your help!
Brian

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hi,
I think all you really need is a two channel usb audio interface. There's no end of options out there.
Plenty of them are cross-platform and bus powered.

They simply offer mic input with gain. Sometimes they'll have phantom power/pad/polarity.
They'll also handle your output so you have (usually) L+R line out for powered speakers and headphone out with volume control.

Does that cover what you need?

 

[bileshake]

A slick, simple option is to pick up a Zoom handy recorder. Very mobile, very robust and delivers good audio quality. You can run whatever mics and misc sources into it and it goes straight to SD card. This is way more stable then relying on a Mac or Pc and you can option to mix it down later if your not sure about the mic levels.