You should either be using a USB microphone plugged straight into your computer ( but only if your budget is under $200), or if you want to ensure professional quality, have an audio recording interface, and plug your microphones and/or instrument inputs into that.Īudio interface units - such as a Focusrite Scarlett or SSL 2 USB Audio Interface are good examples. You almost certainly do not need a standard analog mixerīut my general advice is this: you don't need a mixer for a computer-based home recording studio and trying to add one to your set-up may well cause more confusion and trouble than it's worth. And of course, if you're recording a live band (straight to stereo - not doing multi-track recording), you'll want a mixer for that.

Most importantly (for this type of mixer), it does NOT send any signal into the computer for recording purposes. My mixer, a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro, sends nothing out except a signal to the speakers/headphones. I DO NOT use it for recording! I feel I need to make this clear based on some comments I've seen on our FB page. I use a small mixer to receive inputs from several sources (computer sound card, two different audio interfaces, etc.) and it is only for listening. For you, I say please YES - use your mixers as you have always done. And you probably have high-quality mixers that integrate with your computer (or even tape machine for the really old-school folks).

If you truly understand all the routing ( gozintas and gozouttas, as I've heard them described), then using a mixer as part of your home studio may well be what you're used to. You experienced recording folks are going to say 'why shouldn't I have a mixer as part of my home studio?' Well as with most things, the idea of a recording mixer is one of those 'it depends' type of situations. Should you have a recording mixer as part of your home studio? For people who are beginners or otherwise not experienced audio engineers, I say definitely not.

Fl studio mixing board