So far, we've talked only about recording from your mixer to your computer, but many of the consoles listed on the previous pages (particularly the more expensive ones) are also happy to pipe multi-channel audio in the other direction. Interfacing all the necessary analogue equipment (mics, stage boxes, monitors and so on) correctly is a challenge in itself, without having to worry about using splitter boxes, or connecting looms to your mixer's direct outputs, and then connecting those to your computer! With an all-in-one mixer/interface, by the time you've got the gig set up, all you need to do is connect the desk to a laptop via USB or Firewire, and hit the record button in your DAW.
This kind of simplicity is particularly welcome when you want to make a recording of a live performance. And that's before you've even thought about the best way to monitor your recordings! Since pretty much every mixer/interface has some facility for sending audio from the computer directly to an input on the mixer, you also won't have to worry about cables going back the other way, from your computer to the mixer. For starters, there's less cabling to worry about! If you wanted to record, say, eight channels from a mixer into a separate audio interface, you'd need either eight separate cables going from the desk's outputs to eight interface inputs, or you'd have to buy an expensive eight-way loom. Some of the more advanced 'mixerfaces' have routing buttons that let you flip a channel from being fed an analogue input to receiving a digital input from your computer.Taking this latter approach to its extreme, many mixer manufacturers have started to incorporate multi-channel interfaces into their consoles, and there are many reasons why you might want to invest in a 'mixerface' rather than buying the two separately. Most mixers, for example, incorporate channel strips, headphone outputs and various routing facilities, which means that with a desk and a multi-channel audio interface, you're just a couple of microphones and a pair of monitors away from being able to do some serious multitrack recording. Broadly speaking, there are two approaches: buy separate boxes for the various different facilities you need - an audio interface, a headphone amp, a monitor controller, and so on - or get a few units that each cover a lot of bases. Before you've even decided what equipment you need, you've got to decide on how you plan to work.
Setting up a studio can be a complicated business. The prospect of combining the functionality of a mixer and an audio interface is an attractive one, for a number of reasons.