Double Interface? Possible?

[JD01]

Most of you know that I do a bit of podcasting.
I normally just use two mics to capture a group in stereo - sounds great, no real problems there and I can deal with this with a Focusrite 2i2.

However, we've got a quirky one coming up. There's gonna be a few people and possibly an audience mic - a dynamic to get passed around for people to ask questions. We actually have an MP (yes an actual UK member of fucking parliament) coming on the show.

I can't be arsed to take everything apart in my studio room and use my 18i20 which has 8 inputs, but I do have access to another 2i2. Is there a way I can plug two 2i2s into my laptop or slave one 2i2 to the other.

[vomitHatSteve]

Off the top of my head, I don't know of a way to do it, but you could always try. (If it's in your DAW's memory, it'll probably be called "secondary" or "sync" interface or something. There's a lot of pushback in the technology world about "master/slave" terminology these days)

You could also daisy chain a mixer in there.

[Armistice]

I was thinking mixer too, but I guess if you had one of those you'd have already thought of that.

If you're going to be doing this more often and don't want to muck around with your larger interface, an 8 channel mixer could be 100 quid well spent. Lose a bit of control in "post" obviously so everyone would have to get their levels right at the start, but it sounds like that's what you're doing anyway with just having a stereo 2 mic set up.

[Armistice]

And that dynamic being passed around for questions would definitely need its own recorded channel, you'd think - having seen how people, given a microphone to speak into, actually use it, over the years...

[Tadpui]

In Windows it's not as simple as in the mac world, but if latency isn't a concern you can do it with asio4all. Sweetwater has a quick guide here: https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/ar ... c-and-mac/

Or you if you have spare change, you can grab a behringer umc404hd for the same price as a 2i2 and have a good 4x4 i/O setup. If you get it from a place with a forgiving return policy you could basically rent it for the cost of shipping it to and fro.

[JD01]

Hmmm, I'll take that as a no then... I'm actually recording this on Saturday!

[JD01]

And that dynamic being passed around for questions would definitely need its own recorded channel, you'd think - having seen how people, given a microphone to speak into, actually use it, over the years...

I know... mic technique doesn't appear to be something that comes naturally. That's why my usual technique is to position 3 chairs as I want them, tell the people that they're not allowed to move their chair and then point be two mics between the chairs.