Microphone equipment help

H

HyperAXISZ2

New member
I'm basically completely new to home recording... so I have a few questions about equipment...

Can someone point me to a website about information dealing with recording from multiple microphones hooked up to some device... or something. I'm really confused. Is there a way to hook up, for example, 5 microphones to a pc and then edit each track individually? Is that what a mixer does? Do you hook a mixer up to a computer? I'm trying to find information about this on the net, but I'm having no luck and I'm completely lost... I'm used to just recording from one microphone hooked up to my pc...:confused:

Thanks
 
help?

Well this is the best place to come too. What do you already have as far as recording equipment?
 
No, Hyper, a mixer does exactly the opposite. It takes a bunch of microphones and makes then into fewer signals, but you *can't* edit them separately afterwards. What a mixer really is, is a bunch of preamps with level controls, and usually EQ (glorified tone controls). It allows you to send signals from different places to different places, in other words, it facilitates routing of signals.
Yes, it is possible to do what you want. First, you need a multitrack recorder. That can be analog/tape, digital with removeable media, digital with built in hard drive, or a computer with a specialized sound card and recording/editing software. Some soundcards are also control surfaces, so they have real hardware knobs and sliders, like a mixer. Some of those are firmware, so they also contain the recording software, and send signals for storage in the computer, usually by USB or firewire. What equipment you want is dependant on a number of factors. The most important ones being:
1. What do you intend to record?
2. How many signals will you be recording at once?
3. What's the total maximum number of tracks you need?
4. What kind of room or rooms will you be doing it in?
5. What do you intend to do with the recordings once they are made?
6. What music, computer, recording, live gig gear, and home stereo equipment do you already own?
7. What is your budget?

Understand this- recording things well takes experience, hard work, and a lot of money. The most basic kind of setups will start at several hundred dollars, and you could easily sink $30,000 into gear without being close to pro. That would be me. If you tell me you want to make radio ready professional recordings, and you've got $500, all anybody can give you is a reality check.
Answer the questions above completely, and then people here can give you intelligent advice.-Richie
 
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