"Mike Scott" wrote in message
...
David Looser wrote:
"Mike Scott" wrote in
message ...

Any ideas please on the cheapest and/or best way of getting 6 channels
of microphones connected to a laptop?

snip

We don't really need a full mixer - my thoughts are to get the signals
in and do any needed switching or mixing in software, possibly bespoke.

Any other thoughts and pointers welcome.


There seems to be a conflict between these two sentences. Do you want to
input 6 microphones *at the same time*?. If so you do need to do the
mixing before the signals get into the laptop. Only if you are happy to
record from each microphone one at a time can you use software mixing.

Eh? I don't understand that last bit. The current setup has 6 mic's going
into a 6-channel mixer (and thence to tape). In practice the mixer is
almost always just used to switch from one mic to the next as we change
talker; occasionally two or more mic's might be live at once.

We can either emulate the same - a 6-channel mixer but with USB output,
which is going to be expensive for that number of mic input channels, or
we can try to find a cheaper way of connecting the mic's and do the mixing
in software.

I notice there are some mic's with usb output; I'm not sure how well a
laptop would cope with 6 separate simultaneous USB data streams. Although
I suppose the data rate will be highish anyway. Let's see - 6 channels at
44.1kHz times 16 bits - about 4Mbit/sec; well within USB2 capabilities on
one data stream.


There are now plenty of small, cheap audio mixers with USB output which
you can simply plug into a laptop and use whichever of the audio editing

Not with 6 mic amps, at least, not that I've found.

They certainly exist, though I guess it partly depends on your definition of
"cheap".

software packages available that suits. Bespoke software won't be
necessary (unless you enjoy writing your own).

Or want to de-skill the task. A set of buttons labelled 'talker 1',
'talker 2', etc and automatic level setting would be ideal, not hard to
train people to use, and less error-prone.


It sounds to me as though you'd already decided how you want to do this. I
am not aware of any software that mixes the output from several USB mics, so
if you want to go that route I guess you are into the bespoke software.
Sorry, I can't help with that.

David.