Recommendations on an 8+ channel digital mixer

I’m in the planning stages of creating an Actual Play RPG Podcast. Does anyone have a recommendation on a good digital mixer/recorder that can handle 6 to 8 mic inputs and a USB output to a laptop?

Just so we’re using the same English. This is where you talk your way through a game right?

“This is where the dragon is supposed to come out of the cave to challenge you, but there’s a bug in the game where you have to click on the palm tree.”

Did I hit it?

digital mixer/recorder

You are correct that it’s a terrific idea to record all the individual channels on your mixer. The USB connection is so you can transfer the work from the mixer to Audacity for production later. Not during the game.

Audacity doesn’t play well with others. A good way to drive yourself nuts is run a production heavy game on the machine at the same time you’re trying to record the composite, or even the individual channels in Audacity. If you know somebody who got that to work, it’s my opinion they got lucky.

Koz

An Actual Play podcast is a recording of the actual play session of a tabletop RPG game, that’s where a bunch of players sit around a table (or a living room) and play a game. No computers are involved in the playing of the game.

There are lots of these types of podcasts out there, it’s a pretty popular thing in the world of roleplaying game podcasts.

And, no, I’m NOT planning to record directly into audacity or use audacity during the game session. My plan is have the mics plugged into a mixer, and the mixer plugged into my laptop running software that records and monitors the feed from the mixer.

I was just hoping for some recommendations on the mixer, if anyone knows of a good one.

my laptop running software that records and monitors the feed from the mixer.

So…ummm. This isn’t an Audacity question?

No, I don’t, to specifically answer you. I’d be Googling, too.

Koz

I don’t know if it is fully compatible with Audacity, but the Allen & Heath Qu-16 Chrome is an excellent mixer that meets those specifications: Qu - Allen & Heath

When you have made your decision and got it all working, please send a review to this topic: Multi-channel Recording in Audacity

(I use one of these, but it is now obsolete: Yamaha AW1600 While the recording quality is excellent, it can’t interface directly with a computer, which is a bit of a drawback.)

Thanks for the recommendation, that looks like a fantastic mixer! At a price of $1700 (on Amazon), though, I think it’s bit out of my range. But maybe I’ll grow into it. Thanks again.

You should note that the microphone preamps are a big deal. That’s why you always see mixers advertised: Now! With Doobly-Doo Preamps!!

If your microphone preamps are low volume or noisy, you just bought $1000 of trash.

Koz

The smaller Behringer devices go to the trouble to say they use the same good quality microphone electronics as their larger consoles.

Koz