Recording 4 voices at once.

  • Thread starter Thread starter minaru
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minaru

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You don't need an outboard mixer or compressor. You need an interface capable of handling at least 4 microphones. LIKE THIS ONE
 
Seidy said:
You really dont need a mixer, just get firewire audio interface with 4+ inputs. Lots of choices out there. You could check out this:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/audio_inte...ison_chart.htm
Make sure, that the interface has phantom power.

why do you need a compressor?
Click to expand...

Hm but I'm looking at the prices for it for 4 inputs and they are like 500+ including the preamp. I don't have that type of money. The mixer I showed above seems to have phantom power in each input so I thought that might save me a lot of money.

I thought compressors are good for recording because when we belt or sing too quiet it will either lower it or raise it.
 
minaru said:
Hm but I'm looking at the prices for it for 4 inputs and they are like 500+ including the preamp. I don't have that type of money. The mixer I showed above seems to have phantom power in each input so I thought that might save me a lot of money.
Click to expand...

But what you have doesn't do what you want to do. Getting four separate signals into the computer at once takes a specialized piece of gear that costs money. Either come up with the money or adjust your goals. You could record four voices mixed to two channels going into the built in sound card of your computer, assuming it has a stereo line input.

minaru said:
I thought compressors are good for recording because when we belt or sing too quiet it will either lower it or raise it.
Click to expand...

If you could record the voices separately with sufficient isolation you could use a plugin compressor after recording the tracks. It's doubtful that the hardware compressors you have will be better than a decent plugin. Use good mic technique during recording to minimize the need for compression.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
But what you have doesn't do what you want to do. Getting four separate signals into the computer at once takes a specialized piece of gear that costs money. Either come up with the money or adjust your goals. You could record four voices mixed to two channels going into the built in sound card of your computer, assuming it has a stereo line input.
Click to expand...

I like this idea. Instead can it be USB or Firewire? I mean I do have a soundcard on my PC but I also wanna record with the equipment on my laptop and the laptop sound card is stock. When you say record four voices mixed to two channels does that mean I still have 4 mics but voice 1 and 2 are mixed into channel 1 and mics 3 and 4 are mixed into channel 2?

Thanks for the information!
 
minaru said:
I like this idea. Instead can it be USB or Firewire? I mean I do have a soundcard on my PC but I also wanna record with the equipment on my laptop and the laptop sound card is stock. When you say record four voices mixed to two channels does that mean I still have 4 mics but voice 1 and 2 are mixed into channel 1 and mics 3 and 4 are mixed into channel 2?

Thanks for the information!
Click to expand...

Yes. You'll be able to alter mics 1 and 2 as a unit, and 3 and 4 as another unit. Alternatively, you could record two mics into two separate tracks in one pass, then record the other two in a second pass (or each of them individually in four passes). Then you can mix them as needed. The tricky part is going to be monitoring because the sound card is not designed to to that well, but your mixer can solve that if you learn how to use it to monitor the live inputs with the previously recorded tracks. Get this down and you can do some pretty sophisticated recording, two tracks at a time, but your sound card will somewhat limit your audio quality.

A decent USB or Firewire interface will have better monitoring function that will eliminate the need for the mixer entirely.
 
You need some kind of interface which will act as the soundcard - the ones in your laptop and PC are shite!
 
Last edited:
mjbphotos said:
You need some kind of interface which will act as the osundcard - the ones in your laptop and PC are shite!
Click to expand...

I think given his mics and budget the built in sound card will be fine for learning. It will provide a foundation to build on and give him a lot of reason to appreciate a good interface when he gets one. Doing things the wrong way has educational value that doing it right "because that's how I was taught" lacks.
 
minaru said:
After reading the feedbacks I am going to get USB audio interfaces. What brands do you guys suggest?
What do you guys think about this interface? the reviews look pretty good on it.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Lexicon-Lambda-USB-Desktop-Studio?sku=245506
Click to expand...

I work with a band that used one for playback and it seems to do the job. We haven't really used it for recording but it's probably better than the M-Audio Mobile Pre I have. It's still two tracks at a time though.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
I work with a band that used one for playback and it seems to do the job. We haven't really used it for recording but it's probably better than the M-Audio Mobile Pre I have. It's still two tracks at a time though.
Click to expand...

So two mxl990 mics will work fine for this right? I can have two people on one and another two on the other mxl. lol alright I gues this would be the beginning of my recording =D This mobile with two mxl 990s connected to my pc or laptop. Thanks for all the help!

Edit: Oh can I use a headphone splitter so I can connect that splitter to the device then split with 4 people to listen to?
 
Yes, you can use the headphone splitters, but note that the volume on the headphones will not be very loud because you are running 4 headphones from a signal with strength for 1.
 
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