#Audacity record multiple inputs drivers#
#Audacity record multiple inputs driver#

You can force two USB devices to record and under poor and uncontrolled conditions, but rarely three. We’ve never really nailed down what’s causing that.Īnd don’t forget the natural barrier to recording more than one microphone. Then there is the “frying mosquito” noises you can get with USB microphones and mic level interfaces. Computer Delay is a big one: the inability to monitor yourself in real time during overdubbing. However, there can be significant problems. You usually have a computer anyway, so why not put it to work? It’s also insanely cheaper than a DAW. We only have information about the very few devices that users have told us about, so if/when you get a multi-channel device do try it with Audacity and let us know how you get on.Īudio Interfaces work on the premise that a general purpose computer can be made to do any job by appropriate programming and a little hardware here and there. It “may” (or may not) work for multi-channel recording in Audacity. The upshot is, that to make multi-channel recording (multiple tracks at the same time) you will need a multi-channel device, and that device will work with most commercial multi-channel audio programs.

#Audacity record multiple inputs drivers#

However, almost all multi-channel devices will also work with standard Windows drivers (supported by Audacity), but those drivers may only allow basic 2 channel recording. Very often the device will also be bundled with a multi-channel recording program, such as a “lite” version of Cubase or Cakewalk or similar.Īudacity is not able to ship with ASIO support due to licensing restrictions, so support for multiple channels is not guaranteed.

On Windows, multi-channel devices usually come with ASIO drivers which allow programs with ASIO support to access the multiple channels. So, to record multiple channels at the same time on your computer you will need a multi-channel sound card (this may be an internal sound card or an external USB or firewire device). More than 2 input channels are referred to as “multi-channel” (though note that some sound cards may have 2 input channels and multiple output channels, which allows surround sound output but only mono/stereo recording). Sound cards (audio devices) that are designed for music production may have 2, 4, 8 or more input channels. The sound cards that are fitted as standard in PCs have a maximum of two input channels and so only allow recording 1 (mono) or 2 (stereo) channels.

To record multiple channels at the same time (on a computer), you (obviously) need as many input channels as the number of channels that you want to record. If you do try a multi-channel audio device with Audacity, please let us know how you get on. There is a little information in this topic: We don’t have much information about which devices support multiple channel recording in Audacity and which don’t. In this case Audacity can record all of the available channels at the same time. In this case Audacity sees a single device with multiple channels. Other multi-channel devices have a single multi-channel device driver. When that is the case, Audacity sees multiple 2 channel “devices”, but it can only record from one of them at a time.

Unfortunately some multi-channel devices use multiple 2 channel drivers. As far as Audacity is concerned, if that “device” has 12 channels then Audacity will allow you to record all 12 channels onto separate tracks.

#Audacity record multiple inputs driver#

It all comes down to driver support.Īudacity is only able to access one recording “device” at a time. Multi-channel audio devices may work in Audacity. So you’ll be mixing down and doing post production in stereo. It may not make any difference, but Audacity has no provision to live play anything past two-channel stereo. You are getting into the “full studio” area with Digital Audio Workstation instead of trying to convince a Windows laptop to do it all. We did make a list of multi-channel devices. Three or more microphones on their own tracks and overdub monitoring is pretty much beyond me and maybe the other elves as well.

You have the additional requirement of zero latency monitoring for sound-on-sound overdubbing. Whatever you plug into #1 will appear on Left completely separate from what’s going on on the right. If you can make do with that and mix down in Audacity, then devices like the Scarlett 2i2 might be for you.