You are a highly confused person. You purchased the MOTU with 8 quality microphone preamps already in it. That's why you bought that wasn't it? You don't want to use the microphone inputs on your mixer unless your mixer is higher in quality? Such as a Neve or API console. Which I am certain it's not. Plug your microphones into the MOTU and leave them plugged in. And if plugging in 8 microphones and unplugging them is inconvenient, why would you even play drums? That's a lot of plugging in and unplugging. You should have listened to your mother when she suggested to take up the trumpet. Much less assembly required.

When you mix internally in the computer, you can still monitor output from the MOTU. You could also monitor output from your crappy internal soundcard when mixing. No need to plug microphone inputs into other microphone inputs. All it does is screw you up and screw your sound down. That's not smart. That's like putting both of your snare drumheads on top with nothing underneath for the snare. It doesn't fit properly and it doesn't sound good. That's what you're trying to do.

You might want to consider purchasing an inexpensive 1/4" patch bay. You can't live in a control room without them. In my control room I have 20+ such 48 point patch panels. Do the math. That's a lot of soldering and a lot of cabling. It will make you crazy just look at me!

Please pass the patch cord (burp).
Ms. Remy Ann David

Agreeing with Remy:

Not knowing what make / model mixer you've got kinda makes it difficult to give you a solid answer.

If I were you, I'd plug the mics directly into the Motu and use the mixer to monitor playback (L/R outs from the Motu into two open channels).

Its just that the Motu is gonna be on a rack and its a pain in the ass to go to the back of it and plug and unplug. Its not a big deal but the easier it is to switch mics/instruments the less crazy I get.

If I'm better off just going straight to the Motu then alrighty. Thanks.

Well, then, get yourself a few DI's and leave the XLR's plugged in all the time.

Why not just get yourself a couple of 1U, rackmount XLR male & female connector panels and create yourself a small XLR patch panel? I have 2, 50 x 50 such panels for precisely that purpose. We utilized the same thing in the studios at NBC, so that microphones can be plugged in to numerous places in this gigantic studio all of which went to the back of the studio to an XLR patch panel which was then patched into the microphone inputs of the Neve console. You can't live in a control room without patching something all the time. You can use some of the patches some of the time. All of the patches all the time. Or all of the patches some of the time. Including patching all of the time sometimes. Or all of the time. Either way patching is an evil necessity that must be learned.

A patchwork orange? Patch 22. Patch yourself on the back. Organic control room? Cabbage Patch? Need to stop smoking? Nicotine patch. Using illegal software? Crack patch. Or just doing drugs that you shouldn't be. Crack patch. Hemorrhoids bothering you? Crack patch.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Or, something that can go with you to a live show if you play out:
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