Since you're talking about transmitting via Skype I assume that the utmost quality of the transmission is not one of your concerns, especially since this is the budget gear forum.

I suggest that you simply get an entry level mixer, 3 or more budget mics and some cables. Plug the mics into the board and adjust to taste. Then patch the output of the mixer into your computer's soundcard and voila! One of the early behringer entry boards can be had off of ebay for around $25.

sbar, post: 374788 wrote: Hi,

I am new to this forum and also new to audio. I need some help from you guys in order to tell me what equipment would I need to build a setup that does the following:

I need to transmit a vibraphone (I think 2 microphones would be needed) and my voice at the same time through Skype during a video call. Apart from this I would like that at the same time I hear the person on the other end too.

Thanks

How is your Skype computer set up? Can it use an external audio interface as the sound source for transmission? If so, all you need is a 4-channel USB audio mixer, a pair of Shure SM57s on stands to pick up the vibraphone and a headset mic (not plug-in powered) plus headphones and you are good to go. You may even be able to use your soundcard line input, but an external USB mixer would give you better quality.

Don't play too loud if you want to hear the person on the other end.

Thanks for the replies.

Boswell, one of the options I have on skype when choosing the microphone is stereo mix so I guess it should work..what do you think?

Also what do you think about hooking up a mixer with a firewire audio interface and then to the computer??

Yes, fine, but it all depends on which subset of the audio devices attached to your computer Skype can be persuaded to use.

After that, the only niggling difficulties I forsee are to do with getting a mic/headphone headset to work with an audio mixer.