mixers....

[Foo-bu]

this is gonna sound like a really stupid question but its been buggin me.

i understand the basic use of mixers however i've often wondered what good some mixers can be for recording. theres been many of times when i see mixers and they have the mon outs and the aux outs. i could see these mixers being useful for PAs but how can you use these mixers for recording? if you were to use these mixers wouldnt you only be able to get one output signal? wouldnt these be pointless if you have a multi-input sound card?

to me it seems liek the only way to do it is to get a digital unit but i know that mixers have a purpose in recording studios and thats why they're there but im new at it and its confusing me.

i've worked with analog mixer which had line outs to get seperate signals but these arent the type of mixers im talking about

 

[jrosenstein]

most mid-range mixers and up have direct outs or inserts on each channel, so you can send each channel to its own track on your recorder.

beyond that, your mixer can handle the monitor mix, as well as headphone cues or other submixes. not to mention the final 2-track mixdown.