how to record a group of people?

Hi folks,

We're looking at getting a new broadcast radio console for our small community station. I notice that most boards have two mic channels. We'll occasionally have situations where we'll want to interview three or four people at a time, such as if a local band comes in, or if there's a curling team, or whatever. How is this usually handled? Would it make sense to buy a four-mic audio interface and use that in conjunction with the board? Or do we need to buy a board with at least four mic inputs? Or do we need to get a special "group mic" and use that on the second mic channel of our two-mic board?

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!

Even Shure mixers have 4 mic inputs, so I don't know of a broadcast mixer with only 2 mic inputs. But yes, I'd suggest a 4-mic mixer is the bare minimum. Unusually you get an 8-module mixer, and each module can switch between line & mic (line would be a CD player, computer output, or some other audio source). Behringer makes a small mixer for just a few hundred bucks.

Depending on the mic used and setup, one mic can handle 2-3 people...but if you want to give everyone their own mic, get an external mic mixer like a Shure 267 or similar....you can feed that into a LINE input on the main board...and still have the two mics on the main board for talent to use and control.

TheBigA said:

Even Shure mixers have 4 mic inputs, so I don't know of a broadcast mixer with only 2 mic inputs.

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*Mixers*, yes, but we're looking at broadcast *consoles*. Like this: http://www.bswusa.com/SearchResults.aspx?q=&Departmentid=12#_ Most of the consoles under a few thousand bucks seem to only have two mic channels.

ContinuousWave said:

Depending on the mic used and setup, one mic can handle 2-3 people...but if you want to give everyone their own mic, get an external mic mixer like a Shure 267 or similar....you can feed that into a LINE input on the main board...and still have the two mics on the main board for talent to use and control.

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That would work, thanks. The only issue I see there is that the mixed mics wouldn't be able to be independently edited afterwards, unlike with an audio interface running into multichannel Adobe Audition, for example. I guess an audio interface is what I'm looking for, in that scenario?

Unregistered said:

*Mixers*, yes, but we're looking at broadcast *consoles*.

Most of the consoles under a few thousand bucks seem to only have two mic channels.

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The very first one on that page says this: The Audioarts AIR-4 radio console delivers superb broadcast quality and an extensive feature set at a great price. Boasting four built-in microphone preamps,

The Allen/Heath console for $799 has 3 mic inputs. But sure, that suggestion of having an outside mixer works fine too.

I've found that you can specify how many mic modules and how many line modules you want when you order. If you anticipate doing panel shows with four guests, get a console that can handle it. It'll last 25 years.

Typically, you're going to send all four of those mics to either a mono or stereo bus. They won't be discrete for editing unless that's something you want to do. Most folks don't do it. Adobe Audition can handle it, but as you mention, you'd need to buy an audio interface, like M-Audio makes.