Splitting up multiple inputs on one soundcard

Question

I record audio on my PC from a couple sources and have tried to improve my setup over the last two years with no results so far. An example: I have a game's audio, my mic's audio and Skype or TS running and want each of these inputs split into a different source so I can mix them as needed. In case a group records locally there'd be 3 microphones recording at the same time and I know software like DxTory is able to split those inputs, but most software is not capable of doing so. How can I do this the hardware-way?

My guess is that I have to send my output to an external mixer and feed it back into the PC. Can someone explain this to me, please?

Answer 1

Don't try and do it with hardware if they are internal sources. That will just introduce an analog loss cycle. Your game audio and voice chat audio are already digital and sending them out and back in is not only unnecessary but counter productive.

Yes, you could use 3 different audio outputs. Some games and most voice chat software lets you select the interface you want to use, so that's relatively easy to do as long as you have enough outputs. You would also need multiple distinct hardware inputs. All in all, you are looking at several hundred dollars worth of hardware to achieve lower quality than you could in software.

If you can't use a virtual routing system to get the recordings working, you could also try direct recording. TeamSpeak supports recording just TS audio independently of anything else. You could then route the game in to something like FRAPS and record your personal voice independently. It would require a bit more work to mix after the fact, but would still probably be a better overall result than trying an unhelpful hardware setup.