Mixing Board Software

[Sirquacksalot]

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to start up a podcast with about 3-5 people who will be talking at once. The budget for this endeavour is basically nothing since we don't know when or if there will be a return on investment for the website.

In order to get relatively decent sound quality and level control, I figure that getting 3-5 USB headset microphones and simply plugging them into one PC is the way to go, but I've found that Audacity (or Windows?) only lets there be one microphone input at a time. Is there a way to get around this?

Alternatively, if there is not already a way around that issue within the OS, is there any software that emulates a physical mixing board that could mix the audio inputs from the 3-5 microphones and that could then be selected as the single input in Audacity. Preferably something free, though a 20-50$ price tag could be accommodated. As well, one of the individuals for the podcast will be joining us remotely, over Skype or MSN Voice Chat, so I'd like it to allow for those programs to be selectable as an input source as well.

Thanks for the help!

[kozikowski]

<<<Is there a way to get around this?>>>

Not that we ever found. Once you grow beyond one microphone or sound service, you either need external mixers or a second computer.

Skype and Vonage have their own problems. Usually one computer does that and nothing else. One service offers its own capture software and the other needs the paid version of Pamela to capture both sides of the conversation in a useful manner.

Each analog microphone is connected to a simple cheap mixer and the mixer output goes to the recording computer which can be running anything, but Audacity works really well. The second computer can be running Skype or Vonage and it's output also goes to the mixer and can be faded in and out just like the microphones. This is also the computer that can play sound backgrounds, stingers, themes, and openers and closers, CDs, and anything else you want without interfering with the recorder or anybody talking.

Write back if you can find anything that does all those jobs.

Koz

[Sirquacksalot]

Hey, thank you for the reply.

I did some searching around, and found this program: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

I've done some tests, and it supports multiple USB microphone inputs, seemingly completely bypassing Windows. One can then select the audio sample you want, and export the saved data as a .wav, .ogg, or several other files, that Audacity can then convert into .mp3 format.

So thats one problem down. No mixer needed, just a computer and a USB hub. I still have not discovered anything that can take the Skype input, and I'm not sure, but fairly confident that the Kirstal program can't do that. It may simply be neccesary for Skype to be open on the PC and have the remote guy save his own Audacity file that can be integrated with the other track afterwards, I'm thinking.

[kozikowski]

The problem with the VOIP software packages is that in order for them to work reliably enough to be an actual product, they have to grab the computer sound services with white knuckles and not let go. Remember, they have to open up bi-directional sound channels and work exactly like a telephone, so they're setting both Windows control panels at the same time. All the normal capture tricks are locked out -- or enough of them to make it a pain to record everything. The best you can do is capture one side.

The paid license of Pamela is supposed to be able to capture a bi-directional conversation.

So we're using and locking out both the record and playback services in our computer to get the phone call to work. That leaves.......what for everything else?

Koz

[kozikowski]

As you point out, you can do a lot, or actually all of this in Serious Post Production. "OK, here's where we stop talking and I'll put the music in later."

That's how they build movies. There's only one camera on the set. They shoot the same thing a million times from different angles with the actors saying the same lines over and over and the editor puts it all together in a dark room. That's why there's an Academy Award® for editing.

You know one of your "microphones" can be your cell on speakerphone mode. Forget Vonage.

Will the multi-microphone software allow you to change individual volumes on the fly?

Koz

[Sirquacksalot]

Mmm, I see what you're saying about VoiP. If it takes all of the system resources audio-wise, then the multi-channel input might cease to function properly. I'll have to experiment with it abit and see what can be done.

As for on the fly volume control, yes, each of the 16 possible audio inputs volumes are individually controllable, with a master volume slider as well. What appears to be missing is any real kind of control over gain/frequency/compression/etc for individual mics. All that can be done is to lower or raise the input and output volume (though one can control the input and output levels per device separately as well). In this case, actually, the gain seems to be controllable per device through windows. Its a clunky interface to deal with all the time, but for a poor-mans solution, it works, at least until we know if its worth picking up a physical box.

[yellobes]

I have no idea how dead this thread is, but I've been doing some messing around with Audacity and capture from the soundcard as source. From what I've seen you could pipe the system's sound into a VOIP program via OSS/ ALSA in Linux (I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 right now) I have no idea how feasible that would be for you guys, but yea, I think it should work with a little tinkering.

[kozikowski]

You did say one thing that got my attention. "plug all the microphones into a USB hub." We've been traditionally leery about doing that. Did they say that, or are you assuming you can do that?

USB is not full duplex and the channel has to switch back and forth to do its job. A hub has to manage all those switches and not drop anything -- or not take too long. Live production is, without putting too fine a point on it, live and doesn't wait.

You can certainly mix analog and use a USB mixer to send the bitstream to the computer. That's the system managing a single stream, not four or five independent uncoordinated streams. Multiple streams are usually deadly, even at USB2.

Koz