I can’t see it being needed.
I can’t either. Boxes of trash are good. We like trash. I turned out two terrific sound shoots from a storage closet with boxes of paper files at work. Garages are not terrible places to record for the same reason.
Audacity doesn’t Save sound files. It only saves Projects. To get a sound file you have to Export one. I’ve never used Export Multiple so you may be the expert on that.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/file_export_dialog.html
Try it as an experiment to make sure you get what you think you’re going to get.
I think you have most of this nailed. The only shortcoming I can think of is making the mixer mount as a multi-channel device. Some mixers get to “multi-channel” with collections of stereo channels. Audacity will only recognize one stereo service. If you really offend the sound gods, it will be the last one.
“How come Audacity only records mixer channels 15 and 16?”
Audacity does not easily support ASIO software.
I would put a moving blanket on the desk to avoid “slap” echo. Pay attention to just the desk in these pix.
That also helps avoid dropping pencils and arranging paper clip sounds.
Because of file structure limits, WAV files are limited to either 2GB or 4GB. So if you’re going to create a many-hour show, that may be important.
Koz