in this video i'm going to look at usb audio interface
vs mixer what are the differences is an audio interface or a mixer better
for your purposes that's what i'm going to look at in this
video i'm zane welcome to simple green tech where i do
weekly audio tech tips tutorials and reviews to help you conquer the tech
and unleash your creativity and just so you know i've included links in the
description to all of the gear that i mention in this
video just in case you want to check any of it out and now let's look at the
differences between an audio interface versus mixer and each
one has its pros and cons in different situations
so i'm going to break it down into these different situations
an audio interface is designed to take your analog audio source be it your
voice or an instrument and then transfer that to
digital so your computer can understand it and record it
and then transfer it back to analog so you can hear it and it does this in
pretty much real time so you can have an audio
interface with multiple inputs like this one has two
inputs a typical starter interface will have
one input or two an analog mixer like this one is designed to mix
and route audio now you can connect this to a computer without an audio interface
and i've linked to my video that shows you how to do that you can find that in
the description there should be a card up on the screen right now
to that video but when you do that you're putting all the heavy lifting of
converting the analog to digital then back to
analog on your computer's built-in sound card
and it's most likely not designed with serious audio recording in mind
so the recording quality may not be as great when compared to an audio
interface but it can still be acceptable you'll just have to try and see for
yourself now a mixer like this can have multiple inputs allowing you to connect
multiple microphones instruments and outboard gear but
typically it's only going to have two outputs a left and right meaning you
can only record two separate tracks at the same time
whereas an audio interface can have multiple outputs allowing you to record
multiple tracks at the same time depending on the one you get
so if you're wanting to record multiple tracks at the same time and have better
digital audio converters then the audio interface might be the
way to go for you now having said that a mixer can still
find its place in a home studio as it can allow you to connect
multiple pieces of gear at the same time without having to
connect and disconnect things from the back of your audio interface
but typically you want to pair a mixer with an audio interface
when you're in the home studio now let's look at situation two which
is live event sound and for this you typically want
two outputs a left and right speaker then that's your main speakers and then
maybe a couple of outputs for some monitors so
your musicians or artists can hear themselves and you might also
want a headphone output if you're going to be operating the board
and then you can monitor what's going through it and you'll also want multiple
inputs for microphones and instruments and whatever other
audio gear you might have to connect in live situations
digital audio doesn't really matter here so a mixer in this case
is probably better for you you can find mixers with multiple
inputs for quite cheap compared to a usb audio interface with multiple inputs
also you don't need to bring a laptop or a computer with you
to use it like you would with an audio interface of course
you can bring your laptop and an audio interface with you to record your live
event and get some great audio so there you
have two situations and you can see the differences between a
usb audio interface versus mixer and you can decide what's better for your
particular situation of course there are mixers with usb
audio interfaces built right into them but
that's for another video now click here for my video showing you how to connect
a mixer to your computer without an audio interface
or click down here to see what youtube thinks you should watch next
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if you'd like to see more videos from me thank you so much for watching for
simple green tech i'm zane keep creating and we'll talk
soon