I use a Behringer Xenyx Q802USB to mix multiple inputs for recording, and the free Audacity to edit. The mixer just has stereo output, and Audacity appears to only be able to capture a stereo stream.
What hardware and software would I need to mix multiple inputs and have those inputs all stream to be captured for editing? This is not for professional use so I am looking for a low-budget solution with just the basics.
Sample Use Case: Record a guitar by both a mic on the guitar and a line-out from an amp, playing with a stereo backing track from an iPad. Capture all four channels to be able to balance in post-production, possibly adding an overdub of another instrument later.
Most of those mixer/audio interfaces can only record a maximum of 2
separate tracks simultaneously… you might need to look at a dedicated
multitrack recorder. Record on that, then import into Audacity for editing etc.
They’re not very cheap though !
(Most H/W like that will come with free versions of any S/W you’d need.)
Alternatively, if you’re mainly doing stuff like your sample case example, you can
use your Behringer : pre-record the backing track into audacity and play along
with it from there so you only need to record 2 tracks (stereo L&R).
(You just need to make sure you set up your monitoring options correctly
to avoid the dreaded latency !)
There is nothing stopping you from selecting, say, 24 input tracks for recording in Audacity. You need a A/D converter with that many channels, with the digitized inputs routed to USB for digital recording. However, if it’s nothing tricky and you have even one adequate additional device or sound card with stereo output, and you plug both in, that’s your 4 channels already. (Especially in your sample scenario, you should not need any additional expensive hardware you do not already have to get that stereo backing track from an iPad in there—in fact in that particular case you surely have that stereo track in digital form already, so you do not need to re-record it.)
Audacity does not seem to like selecting more than one input device at a time, in which case you may have to do some voodoo to combine them, e.g., if you have Windows, using VB-Cable and/or VB-Banana and/or OBS.
For software, I would definitely recommend Reaper. A full-featured Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
Evaluation version is free, individual licence $60. Not posting a link since the board rules don’t seem to like it, but it will show up easily in a search.
As for hardware, we need to know a bit more about your use case. What are you wanting to record? How many separate simultaneous channels do you need to record (for example, to get a good recording of a drum kit for later remix needs at least 6 or 8 mics).
Focusrite seem to have a well-regarded range of audio interfaces.
For the moment producing my own material in my home studio I am still using an old Lexicon Lambda interface, but that’s no longer supported & I’ll probably have to upgrade soon.
I just got a Zoom H6 multi-track recorder (about $300). It records up to 6 tracks simultaneously, and has XLR inputs. (Only the first 4 are truly independent; the last 2 are really a stereo pair.)
The advantage of this unit is its small size and battery power, which is why I got it, for portability.
Once the tracks are recorded, you will have to edit them with Audacity or something like it; the Zoom isn’t the best for mixing, although you can do a quickie mix on the fly.
In my case, I will be adding the 4-6 tracks to multi-cam video and editing the whole thing in a video editor.
Interesting device, though a bit pricy & I’m not quite sure what its target application is?
Not enough tracks to capture a full band with good options for a serious post mixdown.
But I guess it is a lot better than the audio on a typical videocam.
What are you using it to record?
I’m using the Zoom H6 to record what I do most – remote video productions. If it’s a music event, I get a mono feed from the main board; if it’s a lecture, same thing; if I have to mic it myself, like a panel discussion without a house PA, I can set up 1-4 mics and still capture house ambience with the built-in mics. Works pretty good for these applications. I wouldn’t use it for a large band, but it works for a solo, duo, or trio if you compromise on drums and don’t need stereo.
Most of my videos are remotes, where lugging excess equipment (and having to operate it) is something I like to minimize. And audio is usually secondary to video anyway.
Right, I can see how having a few extra channels on a portable device is useful for that situation.
Myself, I’m just recording music in a home studio with at most one other musician at a time, so portability isn’t an issue. So I just record directly to the DAW on the computer.
Actually that should work for the OP’s case. You don’t have to record the backing track at the same time as the guitars. Put it on the DAW first, then record the guitar tracks as overdubs (on separate DAW tracks, of course).
Here is the problem with that. With my existing setup, the two guitar tracks are not captured separately in the recording process so I cannot do any post-production editing on them (i.e., add reverb to the feed from the amp, reduce volume for the feed from the microphone). The whole mix is fed out as stereo. In my OP I am asking for a setup that will allow multiple inputs to be recorded in one take on separate tracks.
So you are saying that when you connect the USB output to your computer you get something already mixed, that you do not have separate digital audio channels?
I assume you could at least do something like the following: say the microphone is on channel #1, and the amp is on channel #2. You could then pan channel #1 all the way to the left and channel 2 all the way to the right. Over USB you have stereo output, so you get the channels more or less separated. (Even if you are only using Audacity to record it supports arbitrarily many channels; stereo is no problem.)
That’s how that particular Behringer model operates. I was convinced that it could output multichannel tracks over USB and was going to explain how, then I read the manual. Mixed stereo output only. I cannot imagine why other than that they proobably designed that unit to a specifc price point.
I’m ignorant about audio stuff, but I watch a lot of videos on the JoshTurnerGuitar Youtube channel. He recently did a Steely Dan cover with 13 inputs (including 9 drum channels). The video notes provide extremely detailed notes on the equipment used.
Definitely. I can’t think of any tricks that could squeeze 4 simultaneous recording tracks out of that Behringer model!
But are 4 simultaneous record tracks absolutely needed for that case? As we’ve said, the backing can be pre-recorded on the DAW, and the guitar tracks added as 2 simultaneous overdub tracks.
Though monitoring (ie hearing the backing tracks while you play, and having the new recorded be material in proper sync with the previous material) could be an issue. I’ve never tried to use Audacity in that way since I’ve always had a more full-featured DAW installed…?
I haven’t had much luck with anything PC based. I bought a Tascam 16 track digital recorder off of Amazon a few years ago and I am very happy with that. It’s a bit expensive and probably more than a little overkill for the OP though. Tascam has some much more affordable 4, 6, and 8 track recorders on Amazon.
A 4 track will capture what the OP wants but won’t have any leftover tracks to overdub later. I’d recommend a 6 or an 8 track.
There’s a 6 track on Amazon right now that’s on sale for $169 (normally $199). I haven’t used that one so I can’t comment on how well it works.
Yep. I hear ya. When I was in college, one of my friends worked in a radio station. Whenever we were on break, he’d borrow a tape-based 4-track for the weekend (this was long before digital) and we’d record a bunch of songs.
Later I used a PC with audacity. It kinda-sorta mostly worked, though if I had a lot of tracks it would sometimes get a bit squirrely and tracks would get out of sync. But as long as I kept the number of tracks to a fairly low number it worked pretty well for recording one track at a time.
The multitrack recorder I have now would have been a piece of very expensive professional recording equipment back when I was in college. I got it for about $800 off of Amazon.
Things used to be much more flaky. And complicated: you had to open up your PC and install a PCI audio card, then “plug and pray” that it would work! Plus the audio software available for Windows took a long time to catch up with what was available for the MAC.
It’s a lot better now. USB connections to audio interfaces pretty much Just Work properly, and there are good DAWs for Windows. I like Reaper (no connection, just a satisfied user: a full-featured DAW free for evaluation and $60 for an individual license).
I don’t see any need for a hardware recorder these days unless you’re doing mobile recording work.
This is a good suggestion. I have a Tascam 4-track recorder that I got quite a while back (DP-004) but it can only record 2 tracks at a time. Then you can put overdubs on the other two tracks. (IIRC you can also bounce them down to one track and then overdub again.)
