4 Ways I Use A Mic Splitter While Recording

[@stoobieman]

Drummer with own one-man show studio here. I split some mics (kick, sn, hats, maybe some toms) into my old Mackie 8 bus for monitoring, and outboard preamps for recording into Logic. I've been dong this for several years now, it seems to work.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Nice! Great use of a mic splitter!

[@sTVG2]

Thank you. Your voiceover idea...I always wondered what the pro's do about when they are recording something live and someone decides to scream or shout into the mic. I have had this ruin a recording before because it was too late to turn down the gain. But with a splitter then at least it can be fixed in post production . THANK YOU

[@musicjam_austria]

Vielen Dank. Nach 4 Jahren baue ich mein Studio wieder auf. Windows 7 mit PreSonus 24.4.2. Jetzt weiß ich wie die Voice besser aufgenommenen wird. Vielen Dank für die tolle und wichtige Info. Grüße aus Österreich.

[@tommydiehl6794]

Never considered (or even heard of) these things. What a newb!! This a killer, straightforward 'lesson' on how to record better. I've been trying to record my wife's singing for years and have always had serious problems when she goes off into a high belt. We've tried moving her away from the mic when she does that or just compressing it afterwards but it always sounded like garbage. With a splitter...I'll just split the mic into two different mixes like you've done and that will no longer be an issue. Awesome!

[@MarkyGoldstein]

Also important, no latency on the split

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Yes! which is why it works so well for parallel processing.

[@allmetaliswelcome]

I imagine this could be very useful for guys who like to compress vocals on the way in but also want to have a backup! The voiceover thing with two gain settings reminds me of something i saw in a George Massenburg video once where he did a similar thing, also for tracking vocals.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Absolutely. I'll have to look for that GM video. I've nicked a few ideas from him over the years. He's great.

[@Martin-kn6vc]

Really interesting with setting the two gain stages for the dynamic voiceover. That's super useful.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

It has saved me multiple times. Plus the artists like it when they don't have to keep redoing lines because of volume.

[@gregmcveigh9966]

That vocal was cool - her clean channel and natural voice sounded pretty gritty to me!

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

She's got some grit for sure! But she always asks for more. Lol!

[@AnilKumar-zo2eu]

Thank you so much sir for your packaged information.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

You are most welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@SomebodyPickaName]

Finally, I hear somebody talk about this workflow in such detail. You sir are a very smart person. Thank you for promoting this style of workflow.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Thank you for watching! Hope it helps.

[@DadRockAndGuitars]

I have two of that same splitter. I got it for the same reason as #1. I was recording live gigs for musicians as well as multicam video. I had my clean audio and the sound guy had his. Worked great!

[@markitux]

i will use it for recording to computer and tape at the same time! Thanks Charlie Greetings from Chile

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Perfect use for a mic splitter! Happy recording!

[@MarkyGoldstein]

Highly underrated, even y-split cables rock!

[@ramencurry6672]

Wow. I didn’t know it was that simple. Gonna try it for recording into 2 preamp channels simultaneously

[@jessegimbel]

Great video Charlie! Really clever use cases. Love the gain staging idea especially. I also like to aim for feeding back effected signals into the artist's headphones while performing, it can definitely inspire different performances! I've got got a video I'm putting out this weekend that's about a myriad of uses for DIs - similar in that it's not a piece of gear that people drool over but the workflow options are so exciting.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

It's interesting because your right, this piece of gear isn't all that exciting by itself but when you find new (and creative) workflows with it it all of a sudden becomes exciting! I have to check that video out! Drop me a link when it's up.

[@TheGarageRecordingSC]

Such a great idea! This will work phenomenal for snare drum, when you have a drummer like I did recently. Really good drummer, but tended to play ghost notes really really lightly. Splitting it would have allowed me to juice the signal with a different preamp gain, and maybe more compression, to just boost up those light ghost note parts. 🤘🏻🤘🏻

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

I've never tried that but it's the same concept as the voice over setup just in reverse. Let me know how it works.

[@estraglacial]

What a fantastic video, always wanted to gear like this splitter. I'm glad I stumbled upon your video, cheers!

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Thank you for watching!

[@attilahajabacs6453]

I've been checking recently those splitters. Thank you, great content!

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

They can be pretty useful. Thanks for watching!

[@Mr_A_Mia]

Very helpful.thank you Charlie

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

You're most welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@dashfentrock]

Great stuff!!! Thanks !!

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Thanks for watching!

[@RickyHarrisMedia]

Great idea!

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Thanks Ricky!

[@LegoBeto]

I actually found this useful. thanks for creating this video.

[@billbradleymusic]

I like the way you work.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Thank you!

[@braxal6983]

Thanks for the video, and thank you for showing us NAMM on uncle Dave's channel live when you were there.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

NAMM was fun! Thank you for watching!

[@TheLeon1032]

top geezer, really helpful to me

[@FUNNYMANERICWHITE]

Thanks

[@Rokeru22]

But can you use this with a mic that requiers 48v?

[@drewfitz11]

When splitting to a recording rig and FOH, which destination do you send the direct output and transformer output to? And when phantom power is required, should it come from FOH or from the recording rig?

[@steme2007]

Here is how I use it: My Steinberg AXR4 interface has this wonderful Silk Red/Blue feature on the 4 mic inputs. Unfortunately you can only have either red (Treble Saturation) or Blue (Bass Saturation) but not both at the same time on any of those Preamps. By splitting the Signal and sending it to 2 channels I can set one for Red and the other one for Blue and then adjust to my liking in one go. Also works great for (otherwise boring) Synth sounds: makes them really shine! Oh and btw: You can't get the same results with EQ. I tried but it just sounds different.

[@SwinginBluesTube]

Wow this was so informative, thanks for sharing. Can you advise on my use case? I'm a home recording guitarist, and I have 6 XLR cables that are available to plug into my 2 XLR port interface. But I grow tired of constantly unplugging/plugging in their different combinations and would love to have them all plugged in, then be able to choose which two I want active into my interface. I have XLR out of: Torpedo Captor X (actually two of them, depending on if I want/need stereo) Soldano Astro 20 (cab sim) Line6 PowerCab Atomic AmpliFire 6 (one unused XLR cable, but likely soon to be connected to something) So for different scenarios, I might want any combination of those inputs. I started looking at new interfaces that have lots of XLR inputs, but they get very pricey. Now I'm looking at mixers that would feed the two XLR inputs on my existing interface. I basically want to take any pair of two, from all those available inputs, and send only those to the interface.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

A mixer would definitely work and would make it easy to switch between the different inputs. It would allow you to run multiple inputs at the same time too and never have to patch. You could also get a patchbay and put all of your gear, including the inputs to your i/o, in the patchbay. You'd still be patching cables but only in the patchbay as all of the gear would be permanently wired to the patchbay. This would allow you to patch one piece of gear into another if you wanted to stack things.

[@valclark5552]

@@Ultimatestudiosinc Patch bay is an interesting idea. I'm definitely going for the mixer, and I need 6 XLR inputs. I've heard of some mixers that double as an interface. That would free up some space for me (and my interface is an old Line 6 UX2). Any recommendations? (I see an awful lot of mixers under $100 and I wonder about quality)

[@vincentdelarosa7294]

I’m curious if this splitters is useful also for a backup analog snake cable once there is a failure of digital snake of cat6.

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

QUESTION: If we want to run a condenser mic to 2 phantom powered interfaces, do we turn phantom power on for both or no? What do we do?

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Phantom power only needs to come from the channel hooked to the direct output of the splitter. It will supply phantom to both channels.

[@GauteEliassenMusic]

In the first example with recording vocals. I don't understand the point of using 2 inputs here. Can't you just create 2 tracks in the DAW, where they both use the same input, let the first track be clean and the second track gritty? Can someone explain why this should be done with 2 separate inputs?

[@SeanTolan_illuminated_imaging]

I have a Yamaha EMX 5000-20 running off a snake from the stage to FOH, and wanted to get a second mix of all band members ran eventually into my Atem Mini Extreme. Since the Yamaha is an analog mixer, we currently just run a record line out from the Yamaha where two RCA out signals (Stereo) come into the ATEM via an adapter cable. This is not optimal as the house is mixed for the room, and I have to get crazy with the EQ on the livestream side just to try and make it sound better, often not with a very clean signal, and also have no control over individual channels. My question is this....since we are running a snake from the stage, do I split at the stage and run a second snake, or split at FOH from the snake that comes in there? Can we get away with just having the one snake sending to FOH, then divide from there with the splitter, without having to use another snake from stage? This probably sounds like a very stupid question. I ask because our church is poor with no money for.a new mixer, and if I incorporate a solution with what they have as of now, what would be your recommendation to gain control at my live stream station of individual channels for the livestream mix?

[@MattStone11]

Hi! can i use this splitter for videoconferencing? i want to connect 8 microphones and output to my mixer and i have a mixer BEHRINGER X1622USB it has only 4 microphone inputs. Is it possible to connect 8 microphones in the splitter and output to the mixer?

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

The splitter won't work for this setup. You would be better off finding a simple line mixer with mic pres built in. That would allow you to connect multiple mic, control their individual volume and send a stereo mix to your Behringer mixer. Look at some of the ART line mixers. You might find something that works. Good luck!

[@thedrumbox]

I'm trying to decided between the S8 & S8-3 way. What's the difference aside from the optional 3rd split?

[@thedrumbox]

bump.....

[@thedrumbox]

knock knock???

[@STARanoff]

да, вокалы записывать - самое то. только я использую Radial. на таких вещах не стоит экономить) тем более если у тебя микрофонный парк стоимостью Ferrari

[@jasonshrestha]

thank you for the information. I had a question. I am basically looking for a device that can have multiple inputs, for instance input 1 - mic, 2- nord piano, 3 mpc. But, I want all those input signal to go in through one output. I do not want the signal to go at the same time, but I want the ability to switch between those inputs. I am asking this because I have one really good mic preamp, and I want all the audio signal i record to go through that mic preamp as I add track in my DAW and change the instrumets or mic that i use. Please let me know if anything like that exists.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

You might want to check out Radial Engineering (www.radialeng.com). They make quite a few great utility boxes and might have something that fits your needs.

[@rand0mcraft]

Essentially analog 32 bit recording

[@Meteotrance]

Like reamp box or D. I most people dont think using that on stage very good tool, i can put it before the multipair to have the recording device separated from the mixing desk of live évent.

[@Wtfdawg321]

Art gear is so underrated

[@ryanluchuck8445]

ART hey? Found their stuff to be noisy but I’m assuming you tested this out and it’s transparent.

[@allenlocke1935]

What if the mic needs phantom power? How does that work with the splitter?

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Ahh yes. I forgot to mention that. The Direct Outputs pass phantom power to the mics.

[@hizhaus]

@@Ultimatestudiosinc If there's a transformer in the path, it's not going to pass phantom.

[@augustinpannard]

I made my own splitter lol

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Nice! I am considering making one as well. Barry Rudolph showed me one that he built that looks pretty cool. Plus he has the schematics on his website.

[@augustinpannard]

@@Ultimatestudiosinc oh cool!!

[@ArmchairRamb0]

Put it in the notes, the first two are obvious. This is just hardware vs software. All of this can be done digitally. Useful, but analog-only advice.

[@Ultimatestudiosinc]

Actually no it can't be done digitally. With the VO setup the entire point is to have proper gain staging BEFORE it enters the digital realm to avoid clipping due to loud dynamic performances. Using two microphones is also a common technique but it's done before the I/o. For the singing setup it's split between two channels, blended to taste and sent back to the vocalist headphones and never hits a converter. This means there is no latency at all for the vocals as their vocals never hit a converter before it's sent back to them. Could you create the compressed/distorted effects ITB? Yes. But not with no latency off the spit and going back to the headphones.

[@jrgallagher7768]

every video i get a minute in then you all use terms that are basically chinese to me. i hate being so ignorant while also trying so hard to learn.