latinboy642003, post: 353937 wrote: Im a bit confused about audio interfaces. If you get a mixer without firewire,usb does that mean it doesnt have a interface? and how do pick the right one for your mixer?

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.sweetwat…"]Allen & Heath ZED-24 | Sweetwater.com[/]="http://www.sweetwat…"]Allen & Heath ZED-24 | Sweetwater.com[/]

A mixer combines multiple inputs into one or two outputs. As in a food mixer...blend a bunch of ingredients together into one sauce!
So a mixer by itself without the ability to separate channels into a computer is not an interface. Most interfaces are not mixers because they take each sound channel into the computer separately to be mixed by your software DAW program like Cubase or Logic or Sonar....hope that helps...read read read

Larry....add more sauce on channel 14...we'll fix it in the mix!

The board you linked to ZED 24 is a mixer with a USB stereo output. S o all the channels you have going in are routed to two channels going out (right and left) which can be sent to a computer for recording. After recording you will only be able to alter each individual channel not the instruments, with this board!

You don't need an interface if your mixing live sound

You don't require a mixer to track seperate instruments for recording (for this you could use an interface)

Not all mixers will have the required outputs to add an inteface to track individual instruments

There are a very few mixers that will do both