Recording several mics to separate tracks

[Pauly]

I want to record my drums over pre-recorded music. I have several mics on the kit. I am using Audacity 2.0.3 on a Toshiba Satellite running Windows 7. I obviously need some extra piece of hardware to plug the mics into but I can't understand how the signals are going to be kept separate. I can see how a mixer could take all the mics and combine them into 1 track but I want separate tracks. If this is possible, can someone please advise me as to what extra hardware I need to buy in order to make it happen?
Thank you very much.
Regards
Paul

[kozikowski]

Actually, the natural limit is two. Stereo Left and Stereo Right. If you can make do with that and mix down in Audacity, then devices like the Scarlett 2i2 might be for you. These devices are not mixers. Whatever you plug into #1 will appear on Left completely separate from what's going on on the right.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Scarlett2i2

Plug in your two Shure SM57s and go. You have the additional requirement of zero latency monitoring for sound-on-sound overdubbing. I think the Scarlett will do that. It does according to that feature list.

Three or more microphones on their own tracks and overdub monitoring is pretty much beyond me and maybe the other elves as well. We did make a list of multi-channel devices. I'll see if I can find it.

You are getting into the "full studio" area with Digital Audio Workstation instead of trying to convince a Windows laptop to do it all. It may not make any difference, but Audacity has no provision to live play anything past two-channel stereo. So you'll be mixing down and doing post production in stereo.

Koz

[kozikowski]

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 27&t=38626

Koz

[Pauly]

Thanks Koz!
That is most helpful. Unfortunately 2 mics is not enough for my 10 piece + cymbals and hi hats kit. It looks as though I will have to bite the bullet and go with a more professional setup (not to downplay the capabilities of Audacity in any way which I think is quite brilliant).
Thanks again!
Regards
Paul

[steve]

Multi-channel audio devices may work in Audacity. It all comes down to driver support.
Audacity is only able to access one recording "device" at a time. As far as Audacity is concerned, if that "device" has 12 channels then Audacity will allow you to record all 12 channels onto separate tracks.

Unfortunately some multi-channel devices use multiple 2 channel drivers. When that is the case, Audacity sees multiple 2 channel "devices", but it can only record from one of them at a time. Other multi-channel devices have a single multi-channel device driver. In this case Audacity sees a single device with multiple channels. In this case Audacity can record all of the available channels at the same time.

We don't have much information about which devices support multiple channel recording in Audacity and which don't. There is a little information in this topic: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 27&t=38626
If you do try a multi-channel audio device with Audacity, please let us know how you get on.

[Pauly]

Thanks Steve
Wow, I thought it would be complicated, if indeed possible, but this is way out of my depth. I was really hoping to learn from someone else's experience as I didn't think I was venturing into uncharted waters.
I will do some more research and let you know how it goes.
Thanks again
Regards
Paul

[steve]

To record multiple channels at the same time (on a computer), you (obviously) need as many input channels as the number of channels that you want to record. The sound cards that are fitted as standard in PCs have a maximum of two input channels and so only allow recording 1 (mono) or 2 (stereo) channels.

Sound cards (audio devices) that are designed for music production may have 2, 4, 8 or more input channels.
More than 2 input channels are referred to as "multi-channel" (though note that some sound cards may have 2 input channels and multiple output channels, which allows surround sound output but only mono/stereo recording).

So, to record multiple channels at the same time on your computer you will need a multi-channel sound card (this may be an internal sound card or an external USB or firewire device).
On Windows, multi-channel devices usually come with ASIO drivers which allow programs with ASIO support to access the multiple channels. Very often the device will also be bundled with a multi-channel recording program, such as a "lite" version of Cubase or Cakewalk or similar.

Audacity is not able to ship with ASIO support due to licensing restrictions, so support for multiple channels is not guaranteed. However, almost all multi-channel devices will also work with standard Windows drivers (supported by Audacity), but those drivers may only allow basic 2 channel recording.

The upshot is, that to make multi-channel recording (multiple tracks at the same time) you will need a multi-channel device, and that device will work with most commercial multi-channel audio programs. It "may" (or may not) work for multi-channel recording in Audacity. We only have information about the very few devices that users have told us about, so if/when you get a multi-channel device do try it with Audacity and let us know how you get on.

[kozikowski]

Or you could do what at least one other poster did. 8 microphones, native multi-channel.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DP24

Koz

[Pauly]

Thanks guys, you are being most helpful and I truly appreciate it.
It seems, from the looking around I have done with your direction, that there are (at least) 2 kinds of device I need to look at: 1) Audio interface or 2) Digital Audio Workstation.
The Audio Interface seems to be the correct device to use for PC based editing, whereas the Digital Audio Workstation attempts to make PC based editing redundant. How am I doing so far?
If my understanding is correct, would the DAW do the same job as the AI? 2 reasons for this question: 1) DAW seems to be cheaper and 2) I have been advised NOT to move away from PC based editing due to functionality and upgradeability.
Back to you.......
Thanks guys, once again!
Regards
Paul
P.S. This is brilliant being able to get answers to these questions, saves lots of phone calls!

[kozikowski]

Audio Interfaces work on the premise that a general purpose computer can be made to do any job by appropriate programming and a little hardware here and there. You usually have a computer anyway, so why not put it to work? It's also insanely cheaper than a DAW.

However, there can be significant problems. Computer Delay is a big one: the inability to monitor yourself in real time during overdubbing. Then there is the "frying mosquito" noises you can get with USB microphones and mic level interfaces. We've never really nailed down what's causing that.

And don't forget the natural barrier to recording more than one microphone. You can force two USB devices to record and under poor and uncontrolled conditions, but rarely three.

Multi-channel devices can have poor or completely absent software support and monitoring on a naturally stereo computer can be a challenge.

Have you done your overdubbing latency adjustment yet? Wasn't that fun? Have you found out that it moves around yet?

So yes, there are significant challenges to using a general-purpose computer to sub in for a DAW.

Koz