Recording multiple mics as individual tracks

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notacop
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Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:39 am
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Recording multiple mics as individual tracks

Post by notacop » Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:48 am

Hello there,

First off, I apologize if this is a stupid question or comes off as completely newbie. I am brand new in the audio engineering world and am learning through hands on testing and tinkering. I have literal zero experience in this world so I want to preface that incase I miss something or can't give you a comprehensive response.

I just picked up a Behringer X1222usb Mixer that I would like to use to record five separate mics with. While testing, I couldn't seem to split the mics into their own tracks, so that got me wondering if I even could with this setup.
I'm currently on a Macbook using Big Sur 11.0.1. When I go into Preferences > Devices, my channel options are Mono and Stereo.

My question is, is it possible for me to record five mics as their own tracks?
It is absolutely not a big deal if I can't. I'm ok to do this as live mixing and change things on the fly for editing later. It would just make editing a whole lot easier in the long run.

My setup if it's necessary information:
- 2018 Macbook Pro
- Behringer X1222usb Mixer
- Two (2) Behringer XM8500 Mics
- Shure SM48 Mic
- Two (2) Audio-Technica M8000 Mics

Thank you for any help.

DVDdoug
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Re: Recording multiple mics as individual tracks

Post by DVDdoug » Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:56 am

That mixer only sends the stereo mix out of the USB bus. And, that's pretty standard with inexpensive USB mixers. There are higher-end mixers that work as multi-channel interfaces, or there are lots of interfaces with multiple channels.

notacop
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:39 am
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Re: Recording multiple mics as individual tracks

Post by notacop » Sat Dec 19, 2020 6:27 pm

DVDdoug wrote:
Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:56 am
That mixer only sends the stereo mix out of the USB bus. And, that's pretty standard with inexpensive USB mixers. There are higher-end mixers that work as multi-channel interfaces, or there are lots of interfaces with multiple channels.
Got ya, so this is most likely going to be the case with most USB mixers.
When you say "...there are lots of interfaces with multiple channels." What do you mean by interfaces?
As in different software or different mixers?

quichenight
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2020 6:46 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Re: Recording multiple mics as individual tracks

Post by quichenight » Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:18 pm

Thread after thread, I see this response. No one ever has named a single mixer.

Humanguy
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Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2016 10:45 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.12 Sierra

Re: Recording multiple mics as individual tracks

Post by Humanguy » Sat Dec 19, 2020 10:28 pm

As long as you don't need to record all 5 mics at once it should be an easy matter of recording each mic one at a time to its own track. You can then have all tracks play back simultaneously or one after the other.

Here's what I'm talking about:
Attachments
Screen Shot 2020-12-19 at 5.45.54 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-12-19 at 5.45.54 PM.png (402.8 KiB) Viewed 233 times
Last edited by Humanguy on Sat Dec 19, 2020 10:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.

steve
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Re: Recording multiple mics as individual tracks

Post by steve » Sat Dec 19, 2020 10:30 pm

quichenight wrote:
Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:18 pm
Thread after thread, I see this response. No one ever has named a single mixer.
There's this topic, but much of the info is now quite old: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=38626
9/10 questions are answered in the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

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