Help needed on Patching mixer to laptop?

I bought a small (older) Yamaha MG12/4) to be the board for a small home online radio / pod cast show I was planning on doing. One of the older heavy ones without USB connection as I thought I could rig up a connection to the lap top.

There in is the problem, I patched up a couple of quarter inch jacks from the group outs to a splitter to the computer headphone in ? Don't laugh, I should have thought this through more before buying the older mixer I guess.

Is there any way I can hook it up to the lap top to make this work? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks so much.

Post note - no Pro tools at home just Audacity at the moment for what it is worth.

 

Your first error is gozinta and gozouta. The headphone jack is a gozouta and you need a gozinta. If you have a microphone jack and purchase the right adapters and pads you can make this work in a crappy way but you are trying to make gear what it was NOT designed to do. If you need to get into a computer then you need a device or interface with analog to digital conversion.

 

JackAttack, I appreciate your advice. Could you possibly give me an idea on some type of interface I could use with this mixer? I would like to keep the mixer if it is at all possible to make some type of decent sounding hybred set up here. Any advice would be much appreciated, Thanks for your time - This whole new home studio thing has my head spinning.

 

There isn't much around at the very low end of the interface market that's worth having. Although I've never seen one, the new CME Xcorpio A interface ($46 Canadian) looks as though it might do what you want. This has stereo input and output channels and could be connected between the XLR outs of your mixer and a USB port on your computer. The user manual gives no indication of what the maximum input level is, since it's written and drawn in a you-have-no-need-to-know-this style. However, if you can get through it without throwing up, it shows that the input gain can be adjusted using the software control panel. There's also a version of the interface for $34 that has jack plugs instead of XLR input cables.

 

Boswell,

Thanks so much for your reply. That will take one huge worry off my mind and that little XLR interface looks like it will do a much better job then the mess of patch cords I currently have strung together. I am running Windows 7 but don't see that being a problem? Either way, thanks again. Might as well see if they have any good condenser mics while I am there. YES - I would much rather run through the XLR outs my friend. Below is the little guy I will be using with the CME Xcorpio for what it is worth. Thanks Again.

 

Boswell, Just read comment on the site:

"This product only works with Windows XP. Windows XP isn't even going to be receiving updates anymore after April 4th 2014, and very few people even still have it. It won't be long before this product doesn't work for anyone. It would be nice if the system requirements were actually in the searchable text on the page because I didn't figure this out until after I got it" Any other ideas ?

 

Read a bit deeper on the CME site and you will find the Windows 7 drivers for the Xcorpio series.

 

Thanks again Boswell,

Should have started with the right gear but still determined to make this work. Appreciate your time on this, Tony

 

Boswell, I am a little late getting back to you on this one but just wanted to thank you and let you know your idea worked. Strangest little device I have ever seen and I am just getting used to the settings but it is a "Balanced Connection that solved my interface problem with the old mixer" so "Thanks Again" you have been very helpful. Much appreciated my friend.