ADDING MIC INPUT

[capone949]

Just curious, I have a mixer with 2 mic inputs and would LOVE to add 2 more for more people to sing karaoke. Is this possible and if so what adapter do I need?

[dave]

kindof a strange question. if you have a hardware mixer that has two inputs, then it has two inputs. you can't "add" inputs to a hardware mixer. if you require more inputs, you need a new mixer.

me i use a MOTU Ultralight

[capone949]

This looks like a very interesteing mixer, nice qualities. I also DJ and i use a Mixvibes interface,if I get this mixer here it serves as an interface as well?

[Sedge]

Well, I posted to your other thread re: no sound how to free up another mic input. Your board technically has 4 mic inputs, but you will end up using at least one of them for your music input.

There's a couple different ways you can do what you want to do - which is run 4 mics and at least one external audio source (kjams):

I think the best plan would be to use the board you have as a mic mixer board, and take the output from it and send it to either another P/A board, or to a simple battle mixer or DJ mixer. Here's a video to explain some different types of mixers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI6Xh04Sp7o One club I work at uses a mixer similar to the first one shown, but they run 4 Pioneer DVD turntables, 2 regular turntables, and a slew of other things. Mics are fairly low on the priority list, although they have one wired mic for the DJ, and two wireless for karaoke and other things. They have a full separate system for live bands, different mixers, etc.

Another idea comes from their setup - for their two wireless mics, they use a microphone signal combiner/balancer. This would be more what you are probably thinking of, initially. To get a decent one, you will probably spend as much as you will on another small mixer, though.

Here's a link to a signal combiner from Samson:
http://www.idjnow.com/StoreModules/Prod ... D=SCOMBINE
it doesn't appear to have balance adjustment between the two lines, though.

Here's a nicer one from Audio Technica:
http://www.directproaudio.com/product.c ... ctid=53331
It has a nice balance adustment right in plain view.

The one we use at the club is a rack mounted piece, much nicer, with separate gain controls for the two lines, as well as balance between them.

Still, when you can buy a Behringer 5 channel mixer for less than $50 (was called the Eurorack UB502, now called XENYX 502) or, for $10-$20 more (still under $50, if you look) get the 8 channel XENYX 802 - there's no reason not to use two small mixers, one for microphones, one for line inputs. (your microphones become a balanced line input - use the XLR cannon jack/s.)

If you go to a signal combiner, you lose a lot of control over the individual mics - if you have some lady singing a screechy soprano duet with a guy's rough tenor, you'll appreciate the ability to tune the two mics accordingly. Also, if you use different mics - say one from Shure, one from Sennheiser, you'll want them tuned way different too, probably with different gain levels, as they will pick up quite differently.

Sorry if this is more than you were looking for, but I've done live sound and audio engineering long before I started with karaoke.
BTW - that firewire mixer looks really cool, Dave - does it allow for daisy chaining? I run a DVD drive off firewire now, and I know it can daisy chain.

>>Sedge

[dave]

yes the MOTU has 2 firewire ports