Yes and no. You only have one choice here as the Mackie is an analog board (cannot create digital information). You are sending your mics into the board which creates analog signals. The only outs from the board that transmit analog signals are the RCA jacks or Phono jacks (1/4 inch jacks). Thus you have to use the Audipohile's RCA jacks to put a signal into the computer.
The Audiophile converts the analog signal to digital (AD conversion) and stores your tracks with whatever track options you have chosen, either 1 stereo track in your software, or two mono tracks (one left and one right rca signal). The tracks are now in digital format sitting on your harddrive in the form of digital wave files. You can continue adding multiple stereo or mono tracks in your software until your computers resources run out.
The Audiophile can do several things with your digital tracks. First, it can play them back to your speakers (D/A conversion). TIP: Make sure your media player software points to your Audiophile as the card of choice for playback. This helps you A/B professional recordings vs yours. Many people record on their Audiophile but play back on a Soundblaster or Motherboard sound card. Not good for trying to get better at mixing or for building a mix that transfers to other stereos.
Second, the Audiophile can route out the RCA outs to another device i.e. back to your mixer's tape in for monitoring, or to an external reverb or other effect.
Third, the SPDIF outs can be used to also pass another simultaneous stereo signal to another SPDIF device, i.e. another reverb, delay or digital mixer. The SPDIF in would return the signal from these devices to the Audiophile for mixing with the original vocal, guitar etc. This requires some software buss routing which is found in most medium ranged recording software.
SPDIF is very clean and low in distortion as it is passing digital information i.e. 1s and 0s. The RCA jacks are passing frequencies which are subject to electronic noise from circuits, magnetic waves, sunspots etc.
So, you are taking as full advantage of the Audiophile as you can going from the mixer to the card. You may have many options you have not explored going out from the card to various devices.
