Hi all! I want to start off by saying I am EXTREMELY new to audio recording and editing, and I am slowly teaching myself how to record quality audio. I am trying to start a podcast and I’d like to use Audacity; however, I’m running into some issues with recording. To be as detailed as possible, I’ll say what products I am using. I purchased this audio mixer:
I am trying to use 4 mics at once to record 4 people at the same time. I have the mics connected to the sound mixer via XLR cables, and I have an XLR-to-3.5mm jack cable running from the L MAIN OUT port to this sound card I purchased:
But I cannot get a SINGLE PROGRAM, including Audacity, to pick up any audio!! I suspect I am doing something wrong in terms of the L MAIN OUT cable; am I using the wrong type of sound card? Should I have a cable going through the red and white jacks on the audio mixer? I have triple checked all my connections, all my microphone settings, etc. and I am losing my mind trying to figure this out. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!
You SHOULD have bought a mixer with USB computer connection. Then you wouldn’t need a soundcard/interface. It looks like yours only works with a thumb drive, but check the user manual.
It should “work” but don’t expect good quality. It only has microphone-in and headphone-out. You need line-in (blue on a regular soundcard in a desktop/tower computer) for the mixer’s line output.
It looks like you can plug a thumb drive into the mixer and record to it. Then when you’re done recording, move it to your computer and transfer the files for editing.
Or you MIGHT be able to record via Bluetooth.
Or, the Behringer UCA202 or (UCA222) is an inexpensive USB audio interface with line-inputs. Or there are lots of higher-end audio interfaces like this with switchable mic/line inputs.
Note that most of those “little” mixers can only record the stereo (or mono) mix. They can’t multi-track 4 different mic channels. (Audacity isn’t great at that anyway.)
Gotcha—live and learn, I guess. Thanks so much for the info! I’m going to try recording to a USB drive and then editing via my computer, but it’s really helpful to know what other options I have. Thanks so much again for helping out! I’m very new to this and learning a lot from everyone!
Hi,
When I was trying to get my head around the different types of audio hardware I found this YouTube gave a great explanation: Mixer v Audio Interface. In particular, having a grasp of where the various inputs are combined - ie in the mixer or in the software (DAW) - was invaluable.
As for software better suited to multi-track recording, you could look at Tracktion Waveform Free or Reaper (inexpensive and much raved about).
There are loads of YouTube videos about doing podcasts. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Good luck and happy podcasting.
Mark B
WOW! That video was super useful! It seems I definitely need an audio interface rather than the mixer if I want to have 4 separate tracks. Thank you so much for the help! It sucks that I already bought the mixer but it will do the job until I can buy a proper audio interface. I’m definitely going to watch more videos on that channel. Thanks so much!
There are some potential advantages to that, especially if you don’t have a dedicated audio computer… Computers are the least reliable things we own. There are lots settings that can get fouled-up, and sometimes a Windows update changes things that you don’t know about, and often you don’t know there was a recording problem until the next day.
That’s a “double-edge-sword”. Most podcasts and radio broadcasts are mixed live with little or no editing. But for best results you should have a “sound guy” running the mixer. Otherwise, you could easily spend a day mixing and editing a podcast. If you think about it… you have to listen-through before and after editing so that’s double the program-time before any editing.
Even if you plug 4 microphones into the mixer, I don’t think you are going to get 4 tracks recorded on the thumb drive. The mixer will “mix” everything into a left channel and a right channel, depending on how you configure everything.
Would a digital multi-track recorder be an option since it’s essentially interface, mixer and recorder in one box? It would go some way towards getting around the computer reliablity issue and it would be portable, of course.
I totally feel your frustration been there! The issue might be with the sound card not properly recognizing the line-level signal from the mixer’s MAIN OUT. You might want to try using a proper USB audio interface (like a Focusrite Scarlett or Behringer UMC) instead of the USB sound card. They’re designed to handle mixer outputs and usually work better with programs like Audacity. Hang in there you’re close.
Thanks for the encouragement — it’s super frustrating but I feel like I’m learning a lot and the more mistakes I make now, the more I can learn for the future! I’m definitely looking into a Behringer right now since they’re not too expensive. My game plan right now is to use my mixer with a USB drive and just deal with all mics being mixed into 1 track until I can afford the Behringer! Thanks so much for your help!
Sometimes I use surround sound in videos. I can copy all the audio tracks to Audacity, edit them there and then copy them back to my video app, which supports multichannel sound.
You SHOULD have bought a mixer with USB computer connection. Then you wouldn’t need a soundcard/interface. It looks like yours only works with a thumb drive, but check the user manual.