030 - Multiple USB Mics

It is now possible to connect multiple USB mics directly to your computer. But is this useful in practice. Let's explore. 

But I'll have to leave you to search on how to install these apps for your setup. You will need:

For Apple: Go into your system tools and create an Aggregate Device. Lot's of instructional videos out there to guide you. 

For Windows you can install: Asio4all at https://asio4all.org/ ,  and a DAW that can handle ASIO, like Reaper or Audition. Note that Audacity will not handle Asio4all out of the box. You have to build a new version of Audacity from the source code to get it to work. I mean, really??!! Just switch to Reaper. 

or Voicemeeter at https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/ But note this ouputs to a stereo mix. This is to say the mics will not come on their own tracks but mixed together. However Voicemeeter handles virtual inputs so it can record your system sound as part of the mix. 

PRODUCTION NOTES

I used a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phone to record, edit and publish this episode.

Recording location: My car. It's black. Black cars have better noise rejection - just kidding. 

Microphone: phone mic (hand-held)  with a foam wind cover over the mic

Headphones: None

Recording app: Auphonic Edit for Android.

Recording format: WAV

Sample rate: 48000Hz

Editing app: Auphonic Edit for Android.

Sound Treatment: Auphonic Productions at Auphonic.com

Auphonic.com settings [to output as a 16bit mono WAV file]: Adaptive Leveler (on), Loudness Normalization (Loudness Target -19 LUFS ), Filtering (on), Noise and Hum Reduction (Reduction Amount: Auto)

I uploaded the resulting WAV file to Anchor.fm to host the file and added the music from their free music stock.

Anchor automatically converts the WAV file into a 128kbps .m4a file