[mcp6453[_2_]]

A friend needs to record four speakers with individual mics at a conference.
He'd like to have one speaker per track recorded on a laptop. Is there a
four-channel USB mic preamp that will allow him to record each channel on its
own track in Audacity, Audition, or Reaper?

[Arny Krueger[_4_]]

"mcp6453" wrote in message
...

A friend needs to record four speakers with individual mics at a
conference.
He'd like to have one speaker per track recorded on a laptop. Is there a
four-channel USB mic preamp that will allow him to record each channel on
its
own track in Audacity, Audition, or Reaper?

I was surprised when I looked at the marketplace. Seems like audio
interfaces with 4 mic jacks aren't that common, particularly at reasonable
prices.

The Tascam US-1800 has 8 mic inputs and records each one on its own channel.
Overkill, but the price ain't bad.

Other alternatives include the Presonus Probox 44VSL, Akai EIE Pro, a number
of cheap mixers with built in computer interfaces, Aleisis IO4, etc.

By no means exhaustive and needs more research, but you might start he

http://www.swee****er.com/c695--USB_...IjoiMzAwIn19fQ

The link may time out and break, but you can see where it came from.

[mcp6453[_2_]]

On 3/27/2012 8:36 AM, Arny Krueger wrote:
"mcp6453" wrote in message
...

A friend needs to record four speakers with individual mics at a
conference.
He'd like to have one speaker per track recorded on a laptop. Is there a
four-channel USB mic preamp that will allow him to record each channel on
its
own track in Audacity, Audition, or Reaper?

I was surprised when I looked at the marketplace. Seems like audio
interfaces with 4 mic jacks aren't that common, particularly at reasonable
prices.

The Tascam US-1800 has 8 mic inputs and records each one on its own channel.
Overkill, but the price ain't bad.

Other alternatives include the Presonus Probox 44VSL, Akai EIE Pro, a number
of cheap mixers with built in computer interfaces, Aleisis IO4, etc.

By no means exhaustive and needs more research, but you might start he

http://www.swee****er.com/c695--USB_...IjoiMzAwIn19fQ

The link may time out and break, but you can see where it came from.

Maybe I'm missing something in the terminology. How can you tell if an interface
allows each channel to be recorded separately? When the US-600 says, for
example, 4 in/4 out, does that mean that all four outputs are individually
available by USB? If so, the US-600 may be all he needs.

[Arny Krueger[_4_]]

"mcp6453" wrote in message
...
On 3/27/2012 8:36 AM, Arny Krueger wrote:
"mcp6453" wrote in message
...

A friend needs to record four speakers with individual mics at a
conference.
He'd like to have one speaker per track recorded on a laptop. Is there a
four-channel USB mic preamp that will allow him to record each channel
on
its
own track in Audacity, Audition, or Reaper?

I was surprised when I looked at the marketplace. Seems like audio
interfaces with 4 mic jacks aren't that common, particularly at
reasonable
prices.

The Tascam US-1800 has 8 mic inputs and records each one on its own
channel.
Overkill, but the price ain't bad.

Other alternatives include the Presonus Probox 44VSL, Akai EIE Pro, a
number
of cheap mixers with built in computer interfaces, Aleisis IO4, etc.

By no means exhaustive and needs more research, but you might start he

http://www.swee****er.com/c695--USB_...IjoiMzAwIn19fQ

The link may time out and break, but you can see where it came from.

Maybe I'm missing something in the terminology. How can you tell if an
interface
allows each channel to be recorded separately?

Spec sheets, obvious physical characteristics, user manual.

When the US-600 says, for
example, 4 in/4 out, does that mean that all four outputs are individually
available by USB? If so, the US-600 may be all he needs.

Yes it may. They put two of the inputs on the back panel where I didn't
notice them. Thanks for looking deeper.

[david gourley[_2_]]

mcp6453 said...news:TfidnaDbFu-
:

A friend needs to record four speakers with individual mics at a
conference.
He'd like to have one speaker per track recorded on a laptop. Is there a
four-channel USB mic preamp that will allow him to record each channel on
its
own track in Audacity, Audition, or Reaper?

My MOTU 828 does that fine, so this probably will, too -

(may be out of the budget range, you didn't say what it was)


http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/4pre


david

[Mike Rivers]

On 3/27/2012 7:57 AM, mcp6453 wrote:
A friend needs to record four speakers with individual mics at a conference.
He'd like to have one speaker per track recorded on a laptop. Is there a
four-channel USB mic preamp that will allow him to record each channel on its
own track in Audacity, Audition, or Reaper?

I just posted a review on my web page of the PreSonus 44VSL
which can do just that. It does a lot more so your friend
should not be one who's blinded by science.

A lot of the interfaces that have "4" in their names indeed
have four inputs, but there might be two mic/line and two
additional line inputs so you have to watch what they're
counting. Sometimes you need to get a "6" in order to have
four mic inputs and even then, like the Focusrite Scarlett
6i8, only two are mic inputs.

A "6" with four mic inputs is the M-Audio Fast Track C600.

As far as how you can tell if each input can be routed to an
individual track, generally you'll find that most newer USB
2.0 interfaces off that. When its driver is properly
installed (or if he's using a Mac, generally no driver is
needed) each input appears as a source for recording in the
DAW program. The chintzy USB devices are generally mixers
with a USB output rather than recording interfaces, and on
those, the USB output is usually just of the stereo mix. But
that's changing with cheaper USB interface chips. I think
you'll find that any box that's sold as a recording
interface will have a recording output available for every
input.



--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be
operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although
it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge
of audio." - John Watkinson

http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and
interesting audio stuff

[geoff]

mcp6453 wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something in the terminology. How can you tell if
an interface allows each channel to be recorded separately? When the
US-600 says, for example, 4 in/4 out, does that mean that all four
outputs are individually available by USB? If so, the US-600 may be
all he needs.

Yes - 4 inputas means that each input is recordable to a separate track.
This is bog-standard and has been the case since last millenium.

Your issue is finding a box with 4 (or more) MICROPHONE LEVEL inputs. They
are not as common as ones with LINE LEVEL inputs, or those with a couple of
MIC and a bunch of LINE.

If you had one with LINE input you would need a separate samll mixer with
DIRECT OUTs or INSERTs from which to take the separate channels.

geoff

[Trevor]

"geoff" wrote in message
...
Maybe I'm missing something in the terminology. How can you tell if
an interface allows each channel to be recorded separately? When the
US-600 says, for example, 4 in/4 out, does that mean that all four
outputs are individually available by USB? If so, the US-600 may be
all he needs.

Yes - 4 inputas means that each input is recordable to a separate track.
This is bog-standard and has been the case since last millenium.

Your issue is finding a box with 4 (or more) MICROPHONE LEVEL inputs. They
are not as common as ones with LINE LEVEL inputs, or those with a couple
of MIC and a bunch of LINE.

Dead right, because many don't even want any mic inputs if they are using it
with a mixer. The manufacturers simply add a couple to make it more
universal to a larger purchasing audience.


If you had one with LINE input you would need a separate samll mixer with
DIRECT OUTs or INSERTs from which to take the separate channels.

Or simply buy a mixer with 4 mic channels and USB output these days. You
still need to be careful that some cheap mixers only have USB out from the
stereo main bus, rather than individual channels. As with everything you
need to read the specs carefully before buying!

Trevor.