Hey podcast people! In today's short video, I'm going to show you how you can use more
than one USB microphone plugged into your computer at the same time to record two separate
tracks, alright let's get to it!
Hey, welcome to the Pod Sound School, where we help podcasters make something big with
their podcast. I'm Studio Steve. And today I'm going to answer a very commonly asked
question, which is how to use more than one USB microphone at the same time but record
them on separate tracks. So for this illustration, I'm just going to use the Samson Q2U and the
Blue Snowball.
You can use any USB microphone you want. You can use two of the same USB microphones. You
can actually use as many USB microphones as you can plug into your computer. Now, depending
on what model of computer you're using, if you're using the new Mac Pro, for example,
you might need to get an adapter with the new USB-C cable.
And if you don't have enough plugs or USB inputs in your computer, you can get a USB
hub that actually gives you multiple USB plugs. So let's just get these plugged in. Okay.
So first I'm going to plug in the Samsung, Q2 you, and I'll put it on this little stand
that it comes up and we'll just get it plugged into one of my open USB slots.
Beautiful. Okay. And now we plug in the blue snowball. So like I said, you can do this
with the same type of microphone. You can do this with as many microphones as you have
USB plugs, which is really cool. And there we go. You can see that the light has turned
on, on the Samsung, cute to you. And the light has turned on in the blue snowball.
So to record these at the same time, I'm going to use Reaper. Reaper is my favorite digital
audio workstation for independent podcasters, and it is way superior to audacity or garage
band. Now you can try Reaper out for free for 60 days. So you could try it out, try
it out with your multiple USB microphones.
And then after that 60 days, it's a, one-time $60. So it's not a free solution like audacity
or garage band, but it's way better than audacity and garage band for many reasons. But this
isn't a video about Reaper. This is a video about recording two USB microphone. So let's
get to that. So I have these plugged into my computer, so I'm just going to open up
Reaper.
So here's rebirth. Uh, as I said, it's really easy to download Reaper very quick to download
Reaper. And this is what it looks like when you first opened up Reaper, you can set up
two audio tracks here, just like this. And these two audio tracks are going to be what
are going to record these two microphone separately.
But before I do that, I'm going to need to go into the Reaper preferences right here.
And from Reaper preferences, I'm going to navigate to where it says audio device and
from device. You'll see audio device here from this dropdown menu. I can see all the
audio devices. Or plugged into my computer. I've got the Samsung Q2, you have the blue
snowball, but how do I select both of these at the same time?
Well, to do that, we're actually going to have to go into here where it says audio MIDI
setup. Now this is just the audio devices, audio MIDI setup from your computer. And what
we're going to do is we're going to create a new device right here by clicking on this
plus button. And we're going to create an aggregate device.
And from this aggregate device, Here is where we can choose as many audio interfaces as
we want and lump them all together into an aggregate device. So I'm going to start with
the Samsung Q2 and you'll see it has already assigned some input channels for that device.
And then I'm going to click on the blue snowball and you'll see that it is now assigned an
input channel for the blue snowball.
So input number one and two are going to be my Samsung Q2 IU and input. Number three is
going to be. My blue snowball. So that's all I have to do. And now I just X out of this
and this aggregate device. I can name this if I want, I'll go ahead and name this two
USB Mike's. Okay. And now I know what that aggregate devices, two USB mics, and I can
exit out of this.
When I exit out of this, I'm actually going to have to exit out of these preferences and
go back into it again. So I'll go to Reaper preferences. And now from this audio device
option, I have something called two USB mics or my aggregate device that we set up and
here I'm going to say apply. And okay.
Now when I come down here into rebirth to record these tracks, I can put them in record
or arm them to record. And if I arm both of them to record, it will allow me to select
the inputs and look from right here. It says in from here, I can select my inputs and I
have the Samsung Q2. You. It doesn't really matter if it's left or right on the Samsung.
Cute to you. So I'll just leave it at that. And then down here, I have look front left,
blue snowball, which is awesome. And just to verify that those are actually working
here in rebirth, here is the Samsung cute to you. So you can see that that is the top
one. And we'll actually want to name this Sampson, Q2 Sampson, or Q2 you, whatever you
want to name it so that you remember which one is which.
And then from down here, we can type blue snowball. Okay. So now I have the tracks named
and if I just tap on the Samsung cute to you, you'll see that the stance and to QTCU is
recording there. And if I tap on the blue snowball, it's just the blue snowball that's
recording there, which is great. Now, if I want to adjust the input volume of either
one of these microphones.
Because they're USB microphones that don't have a preamp or a gain knob on them. I would
have to do that for my system preferences. So I can see that these are a little hot.
So I'm going to come to sound here for my system preferences in my Mac computer. And
from here, this is where I can actually adjust the volume a little bit.
And when you're in your room with two or more people recording on your USB microphone, Phones,
you definitely don't want the microphone spacing each other if possible. And the farther you
can get away from each other, the better sound you're going to get. So let's start here and
I'm going to have the blue microphone here, and we'll pretend that that is a person recording
on this side.
And then here I am recording on this side and you want it nice and close to your mouth.
Also, if you keep them nice and close to your mouth, you're going to get less bleed into
each other's microphones. The closer you are. And we'll go ahead and press record here in
Reaper. And I'll just undo all these little distortion.
Uh, act and we'll press record. And here I am now talking onto the Samsung microphone
and you can see my volume levels are way too loud. So I would have to either back up from
the microphone or adjust the preamp. You'll also notice that there is some bleed happening
on the blue snowball, and that's perfectly normal.
That will happen at any time. You record in the same room with more than one microphone.
Then I'll put this one aside and just pull this blue snowball. And with the blue snowball
here I am recording. You'll see that there's still some little levels getting into the
Samsung, Q2, you, but this looks really good.
And now you can see that I'm able to record two separate tracks and really you can do
this with as many microphones as you have. You can have forests. Six USB microphones,
all recording. This is a great solution for independent podcasters because you don't have
to buy an expensive audio interface and many people nowadays, especially since we're all
being forced into remote recording, many people have a USB microphone.
So it's a great alternative for you. I hope you found that super helpful. Please comment
here. If you have any other questions, also, if you're interested in learning more about
Reaper and getting to be very fast and very efficient and professional the recording and
editing your podcast in rebirth, I actually put together a Reaper course.
It's called the Reaper for podcasters, and you can check that out by going to pod sound,
school.com. Slash okay. There, you have it. Pasky and until next time, don't forget to
hit subscribe here on this channel. We post all sorts of great podcasting videos here
every week for your enjoyment. All right. Happy cat.