How To Connect Multiple Microphones To A Computer

Welcome once again to another article today, we are going to be looking at how you can connect multiple microphones to a single computer. You might want to do this for various reasons whether it is for a podcast and you want to invite a guest to speak at the podcast or maybe even guests, then you would need multiple microphones for convenience or maybe you need it for a song you working on, who knows, I don’t know what you might need it for your reasons are best known to you. So if you’re looking to do this there are various ways to go about it. Therefore in this article, I will be walking you through some of the various ways to do it.

So let us get to it. We all as of this point have a couple of questions going through our minds, “Can I really connect one or multiple microphones to the same computer, and if yes how do I really do it?” well the answer is yes obviously if not I will not be here now writing this article. And as for knowing what to do and what to tingle with or connect or cut or even break maybe in order to get the work done, we are about to get into it. So get your hammer and fire read so that we can get smashing and cooking. But really don’t mind me we are not going to smash anything or cook anything at least not today. Enough talk now let’s start. There are various ways you can connect multiple microphones to one computer and I’ll be listing and explaining some of the best ways that give you at least good audio quality. So be sure to read this article to the end in order to find the one that best suits your needs.

USING USB AUDIO INTERFACE

You might be wondering what this is, well a USB audio interface is a device which lets you convert your analog or audio signals, for example, your vocals or voice into digital signals for your computer. This is a very good device as you are guaranteed to get higher sound quality when using an external audio interface, it is one of the most convenient methods and affordable too.

Now to set it up, am going to be as basic as possible, so if you don’t know anything about cables you can still follow along. First things first you will have to connect the power cable to the wall (obviously) before it can even work, so plug in the cable and turn it on. Next is to connect it to your computer either using a FireWire cable, USB, or thunderbolt cable depending on which type you purchased. Now your audio interface is going to have various XLR inputs, all you have to do of course is to connect your microphones to those places. Next is to find your audio settings for your operating system, For example in windows navigate to the start menu, then control panel, hardware, and sound and then sound.

After this, you will need to set up your DAW to use your interface. Simply open your DAW then navigate to the general setting section then navigate to your sound setting and from there you can choose your device. Also by the way if you’re using a DAW such as Audacity which is by the way free, it allows you to record each mic’s sound onto a separate audio track. It’s that simple but in case if this isn’t really what you are looking for, don’t run away yet we are not yet through we still have more.

CONNECTING MULTIPLE MICROPHONES TO MAC

If you are familiar with your Mac pc and have ever tried connecting multiple microphones to it you will find out that it doesn’t really matter the software you use, only one microphone can be sued at a particular given time. But there is a solution software called Audio midi setup that can actually allow you to create a type of aggregate device which can combine two audio sources together thereby allowing you to record with two microphones. But even when connecting multiple microphones together you need to watch out for various things such as microphone compatibility and many other things. But we will get to that later in the article.

So you’re going to need a software, first is the audio Midi setup tool, second is garage band (it is free). Now let’s get to it. Open the audio Midi setup app, and make sure you have plugged in both microphones via USB. Next tap on the plus button at the bottom left corner of the screen and select create an aggregate device, next select your microphones and choose your desired clock source and sample rate, rename your aggregate device if you wish. Next, open up Garage band and navigate to preferences, tap on audio Midi pad and change the input device to the new aggregate device you just created. Don’t forget to add the audio track for each of the microphones, now you can record with both microphones.

CONNECTING TWO USB MICS TO WINDOWS (VOICEMEETER)

For connecting two or more microphones to the same computer, you’re going to need a third-party app called Voicemeeter for it to work. It is free software which enables you to connect multiple USB microphones to one Pc. All you will need to do is select it as both your input and also your output. But, this app will record the sound from your microphones into one track, this will limit flexibility when you are editing. And also the number of USB ports you have will also influence the number of microphones you can use as the microphones will use the USB ports.

USING AN AUDIO MIXER

If all the methods I’ve mentioned above still don’t cut it, another method might be to run your multiple microphones on your computer via an audio mixer. Note that this audio mixer must have multiple channels. An audio mixer is a device whose primary function is to accept, combine, process, and also monitor audio. The downside of this is that a mixer is a somewhat more expensive option to connect multiple microphones to PC than any other method in this list. But nevertheless, it is also very convenient and helps in the balancing of the various sounds from the microphones conveniently.

Before I wrap up this article, I know I should have done this sooner but I would like to list some of the potential problems you are most likely to face when using multiple microphones, some of which include; Delay and Echo, to avoid this the placement is essential. Sound bleed is another problem, this is when sound is unintentionally captured by another recording device in the same area, this can be fixed by isolating each device into its own recording space. There are many more but am going to stop here.

With that we have come to the end of this article, make sure you check out other articles in this blog to get more interesting, entertaining, and informative content, thank you.

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