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any suggestions on how to best set up my mics for a multi mic podcasting setup? i haven't purchased any equipment yet. planning on buying a few mics, and then connecting them in the following ways. which configuration would be preferable, what are the pros and cons of each? planning on either using audacity or ardour to record on ubuntu.

options 1: both mics connected via usb and using a virtual audio cable (software) http://www.vsound.org/ . would this work? or this http://jackaudio.org/faq/multiple_devices.html (details explaining this process here) what benefit or con would this have? if vsound wouldnt work on linux could i instead use windows OS, and a program like this http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm or http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Voicemeeter/index.htm

options 2: connect each mic via xlr to an audio interface or a mixer (example: this, this, this,this, this, this ) and then connect the audio interface to my computer using a usb. if this option, is preferable to option one, please explain the pros and cons of an audio interface vs a mixer. if i bought a mixer/audio interface with only 2 xlr inputs, but had three mics, could i then get an xlr splitter likes this?

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  • You have a LOT of questions in here! You might consider paring it down to one or two if you'd like to get a more detailed answer.
    – JoshP
    Commented Nov 3, 2014 at 13:28

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I suggest you connect your microphones to an audio-interface that has enough inputs. Audio-interface vs mixer: With the mixer, you loose the ability to record the signal of each microphone separately, because the signals are added up to a mono or stereo sum. A good and affordable audio-interface with an appropriate number of microphone preamplifiers is not easy to find, But it's an investment that will make your job a lot easier.

More on choosing the right interface: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/audiointerfaces.htm

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  • my understanding is with certain mixers you can only record on two separate tracks, however certain (more expensive) mixers allow for breaking the output into multiple separate tracks. for those mixers with only two tracks mono and stereo, you could isolate each track ie mono left and mono right which would allow for post editing of each channel
    – arboles
    Commented Nov 4, 2014 at 6:04
  • @arboles - digital mixers tend to double as audio interfaces since they convert the audio to digital anyway. Presonus sound boards for example allow distinct capture of each audio channel.
    – AJ Henderson ♦
    Commented Nov 4, 2014 at 15:32

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