Multiple (wireless) microphones into Isadora running on Windows

Gaspar

Hi there,
I'm planning to use several wireless microphones simultaneously and feed them into ISADORA. I have very little experience in connecting audio inputs into the computer.

I looks like I should be able to get as much as 4 stereo streams into ISADORA, 1 for each "live capture channel". Is it as easy as plugging in 4 wireless receivers (or two, since some allow for two microphones on one receiver)? Would they appear identified differently so I can assign them to each channel?

I need small / mini microphones and I've these are kind of popular: There are lots of videos comparing these two. "DJI Mic vs Rode Wireless Go II" This would be kind of the high end solution (260 to 340 € on Amazon, two microphones 1 receiver). Then there are many similar offers on ALIEXPRESS, as cheap as 20€ for a single microphone and a receiver), although there's little information and they state they're for connection to smart phones rather than Notebooks. (The first ones claim a range of about 200m, whereas the cheap ones only 20m ... which should be fine for a stage).
I plan using the mics more as a kind of SOUND SENSOR, rather than to get crisp clear audio, so maybe even the cheaper solutions could be OK for me... if they remain reliably connected.
Has anyone have any experience with similar set-ups?

Has anyone tried plugging in several USB microphones simultaneously into ISADORA on windows?

Would you suggest getting an external capture card?

Do I need any external software, like I've read/seen somewhere on the net?

Could anyone sketch out a typical set-up for doing this?

Thank you.

bonemap

@gaspar

Hi,

I would imagine you will want to look at an audio interface as an input rather than seperate live capture inputs. Audio is intrinsically multichannel in Isadora and a single audio input can carry multiple audio streams.

There is a useful case study presented in the following thread that outlines the multichannel throughput for a Windows 10 setup:

https://community.troikatronix.com/topic/5314/isadora-in-action-on-windows-10-some-findings

Best wishes

Russell

Gaspar

@bonemap Thank you for pointing to that post. I did not find it in my first search on the forum.
I've gone through that post and it had quite some valuable information. However I'm still not sure if that's the way I would/should go. I guess I'll try to play around a bit, ask some friends and possibly end up using a similar setup after all.

In case I'll end up going that way I've found this audio interface "M-Audio AIR 192|14" as a similar and more affordable option as the Roland mentioned in the post. I'm not in search of high quality sound, but for reliable connectivity, stable signal and behaviour. Anyway I still would need to purchase the microphones. And there are quite a few levaliers similar to those in my original post that instead or in addition to usb connection, offer an TRS and/or TRRS minijack, which I could then plug into the interface. Using the USB directly I should be able to skip the interface, loosing some functionalities but it should still work.

Anyway there is still a question about the limit of audio channels I can get into ISADORA. Is it actually 4 as it looks like from the "live capture" settings? Is it possible to use more than 4 audio inputs simultaneously?

I'll post my findings... not sure in which direction.

Maximortal

@gaspar to have more input channel you must interleave another software in between. Wich sofwtare depends on what you need to archive. if you just need the information of RMS energy incoming from the mic I suggest you to go with Ableton Live and MAXMSP. By this way you can use any kind of mic connected to a common audio interface. About that if audio quality is not so important but you need a lot of connection go for bheringher umc 1820, for the same price of M.audio you got twice channel.

Gaspar

Hi everyone, specially @bonemap & @Maximortal,

First of all this is probably only interesting to Windows users, since soundwise there seem to be quite a lot of differences between Mac & PC.

Second, sorry for being so late. I don't get to much time to "play" with ISADORA. I actually have no set goal for the microphones, we just wanted to tinker a bit with audio reactiveness and similar stuff to see if we can use it in our next production.

This what I've learned so far:

I've used Voicemeeter potato to gain some more control over sound inputs and outputs in windows.

Voicemeeter has 5 physical inputs (meaning somehow connected to the computer through soundcard, usb, Bluetooth, etc.) that I can not route into ISADORA

Voicemeeter has 3 virtual inputs (meaning I can direct different software sources to it, web browser, vlc, obs, etc.) that I can route into ISADORA (meaning I can see them in live capture) but I could not get any signal into ISADORA that way (theoretically it seemed as it should work).

Newer Bluetooth devices allow more than connection. I successfully connected two different BT loudspeakers, one of them with microphone and I was able to connect both simoultaneously to the computer, both seen in Isadora & Voicemeeter. I could also add my USB microphone.

On the other side I did not manage to route any sound out of Isadora to to any device different than the one specified as general audio output in windows. I can chose Voicemeeter as output, which from there can be routed to any other output connected to my computer. This is ok, but I found no way to route different sounds both coming from ISADORA to different speakers at one time, since I can only send it to one of Voicemeeters virtual inputs. This I can send to one or many outputs, but it would be always only one ISADORA source.

@Maximortal
Should I get an external usb sound mixer (behringher umc 1820 or M.audio or whatsoever), Would ISADORA recognise the mixer's several channels allowing to route the sound to any of them?

Cheers

Gaspar

PS: The Tiny BT speaker with microphone is quite cool, but I get some delay from the microphone (did not measure it but guess 200 to 400ms would be reallistic). I do not get significant delay with the usb mic. If I also use a BT speaker (the own one from the tiny BT my bigger one) as an output, the delay is at least doubled.

Maximortal

@gaspar you can route multi channel audio only using wave file and audio player actor.

Btw give a shot to Dante Via and Dante virtual sound card. Actually Dante protocol is a standard de facto in pro audio.voice meter is good and with Dante Via you can do a perfect combo.

Gaspar

@maximortal said:

Dante Via and Dante virtual sound card. Actually Dante protocol is a standard de facto in pro audio.voice meter is good and with Dante Via you can do a perfect combo.

Hi @Maximortal,

Thanks for the hint I'll have a look at that.

I did not necessarily mean to play and route multichannel audio files but maybe having two different audio players each sent to a different output. Is that possible with no extra hardware?

Tks.

Maximortal

@gaspar yes with audio player and a multichannel audio interface you can route each player to different audio out. This feature si part of Isadora since 3.5 I think. Look at documentation to go deeper.

Woland

@maximortal said:

Look at documentation to go deeper.

https://support.troikatronix.com/support/solutions/articles/13000084953-tutorial-getting-started-with-multi-channel-audio-in-isadora-3-0-8