in this audio mixer tutorial I'm going to show you how to use an audio mixer
with an audio interface now there's a few ways that you can do this and I'm
going to look at that in this video plus I'm going to show you how to record with
your audio mixer setup welcome to simple green tech I'm Radio
Zane and on this channel I do audio tech tips tutorials and reviews to help you
unleash your creativity now today I'm doing an audio mixer set up by
connecting a mixer to an audio interface now the hardware that I'm using today is
a Behringer mixer it's the xenyx 1002 and the audio interface that I'm going
to be using is a focusrite 2i2 now near the end of the video I'm going to
show you another way that you can connect a mixer by using the behringer
ub 502 mixer and I'm going to be using the behringer um2 audio interface just
to give you a little bit of variety links to all of the gear mentioned in
this video will be in the description below so you can easily check it out
whenever you like but right now we're going to get started with the audio
mixer setup first we'll look at one of the easiest ways to connect your mixer
to an audio interface for this you'll need a couple of quarter-inch cables
you can plug the quarter-inch cables into your main output on your mixer and
go into the quarter inch input on the front of your audio interface
make sure that the gain knobs for both channels are turned completely off
you'll be controlling the levels from the audio mixer also if you're using a
focusrite scarlett interface like this or any other interface that might have
these switches on them make sure that the switch is on line for both channels
now on your audio mixer on the channel that you plan on recording set the level
knob to 0 some mixers might also have it as a u and this is typically at 12
o´clock then you can adjust your gain knob near the top to control the level
of your mic or your instrument that you might be recording leave the master
fader at 0 and I suggest opening your DAW and using the meters in it to
determine your levels as the meter on the behringer xenyx mixer isn't the
greatest if your mixer has better meters you can use those and once your levels
are set you're ready to record if you want to record two inputs at the same
time and have them record on two separate tracks in your DAW use the pan
or balance controls on your mixer and set one all the way to the left like
this and the other one all the way to the right now in your DAW or digital
audio workstation set track 1 to record input 1 and track 2 to record input 2
now you'll be able to record two separate inputs at the same time
that method is super easy to set up and it's going to get your signal going into
your system and if that's all you care about then just go with that method but
if you want your mixer to control both your input and output meaning you want
to record into it and also listen back through your headphones or through
studio monitors that are connected to the mixer then you're going to need to
do a little more of a setup and we're going to get into that right now you'll
need a set of cables like these they have left and right RCA connectors on
one end and left and right quarter-inch TS connectors on the other side if your
audio interface has RCA style connectors on the back for the main output then you
can use one cable like this and the other cable would be a straight RCA to
RCA cable you'll also need two quarter-inch TS cables unless your mixer
has balanced outputs then you can use TRS cables which I recommend
connect the quarter-inch cables to your mixers main outputs then connect the
other end to your audio interface right we'll go into input two and left will go
into input one now connect the second set of cables to the two track in your
audio mixer then the other end to the output of your audio interface you'll
now want to connect your monitors or speakers to the control output of the
mixer the main mix is what's getting sent to the audio interface and the
control room output is what we'll be monitoring as that's going to be the
playback of whatever you have going through your audio interface your
connections are now set but before you turn your mixer on make sure that the
two-track to mix button is not pressed in you do not want to send the two track
to the mix but you do want to track to control pressed in
so to recap two track to mix not pressed in but two track to control is Pressed in
if you were to send the two track to mix you're going to create an audio feedback
loop if that's all set up you can turn your
mixer on and remember when you're doing your level checks you want to adjust the
levels on your audio mixer not on the interface and not in your DAW software
once the levels are set you're ready to record if you're using one of the stereo
channels on your audio mixer and you're only recording a mono source meaning a
single plug-in like maybe a guitar cable or the output of a guitar pedal then
make sure you plug it in to the left input on the channel on your audio mixer
now this makes the balance control actually become a pan control so you
can pan it all the way right if you want to record it two input two or all the
way left if you want to record it into input one let's try a quick recording
with this mixer setup I'm going to plug my guitar into the left input of a
stereo channel and then I'll pan it all the way right just to show you how that
works then in my DAW I'll select input two which is the right channel
alright now I'm going to show you another way that you can connect an
audio mixer to an audio interface this time I'm going to be using a little bit
different hardware this time I'm going to use the behringer UB502 audio mixer
and the behringer um2 audio interface just to give you a little bit of variety
but again the same method will work with other mixers and other audio interfaces
so this method is very similar to the last method except instead of connecting
the mains out on the mixer to the input on the
audio interface we're going to use one of these RCA to quarter-inch cables and
connect the two-track output on the mixer to the input on the audio
interface and the output of the audio interface will go from the main output
on the back of your audio interface that's going to go into the RCA
two-track inputs on your mixer now if you're going to be using monitor
speakers with this particular mixer you're going to have to get a splitter
from the phone's output so you can send the left and right channel to your
monitors or you can just plug your headphones into the headphone jack and
monitor that way now on this mixer you're going to want to make sure that
you have the tape to phone's button pushed in and that's going to send your
audio interface signal to your headphones and that's the way you're
going to monitor this the main mix knob on this audio interface should be set to
zero and you'll use the phone's dial to adjust the volume of what you're
monitoring and just like before you're going to
control your gain by using the gain knob and set the main level on the channel to
zero click here for my di box vs audio interface vs mixer guitar recording
video or click down here to see what youtube thinks you should watch next
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tech I'm Radio zane and we'll talk soon