Hey there, i'm fairly new to the "tech" world of recording (meaning I went years with single mic recordings and occasional studio time), so I don't have a lot of knowledge when it comes to external gear.

I bought the Ashton MXL6 (6 input 2 bus) yesterday, it will come in handy for a number of things and yes, I know they're not great mixers, but I only dabble in that sort of gear. When I had connected it all up to my desktop and started recording, the sound was pretty good through the monitors, but I didn't realize until after it had recorded that it only did 1 track!! All the audio from the inputs on the mixer recorded fine, in fact quite well, but it only came through as a single track on my software.

So needless to say, I am in dyer need of help!

I've heard about these audio interface boxes. Problems... I don't think i've quite sussed out what one is exactly... Reason being? I saw 2 yamaha models yesterday that looked exactly like my mixer but with only 1 row of EQ, Vol, etc. I saw A couple of the boxes you need to get for Pro Tools (so, not for me), and then I start hearing they are pretty much your soundcard...! Instruments i'm fine with, technical words I blitz, but in this big ole world of digital recording I am quite limited!

So any help on how I can split the audio from the inputs on the mixer to make them seperate tracks on my desktop software would be brilliant! And any further info on these Audio Interfaces would also be wicked!

Cheerio,
Dani

Gday Dani,

If you want to record individual sounds into your computer, you need to bring them in seperately.
By plugging them into a mixer you are..yes...mixing them. So you wont be able to balance them seperately after the fact.

Protools is probably one of the easiest solutions IMHO -
a) lots of training options if you need them
b) both the hardware and software come from one company, all in the box
c) much more musician friendly these days

But - you are flirting with a totally different job. Audio engineering. No longer being a musician.
If you really need to go this way do it, but please understand it will be a fairly hard climb up the learning curve unless youve got mates around you with experience, to assist.

So what you're looking for - an "audio interface" or external sound card, that has enough inputs to cover all the bits you want to record AT THE SAME TIME - ie if you want to record drums (kick, snare, overheads thats 4 mics) plus bass pluss two vocal mics you'll need an audio interface with at least 7 inputs, like a 003Rackplus.
http://digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=61&navid=464

You wont be able to split the individual signals from your ashton mixer, whoever sold it to you sold you the wrong thing as it doesnt have individual line outs from the mixer.
Try talking to the guys at factory sound in south melbourne - they generally know what they are doing in the hitech dept.