The more hardware you wish to connect to improve your live streaming setup, the probability that you require an audio mixer increases dramatically.įocus on your specific use case and how you intend to leverage the benefits of an audio mixer.
This is your companion software to a USB audio interface, and will make your life easier for those not interested in an audio mixer. If you have been live streaming to platforms like Twitch, then you’ve probably heard of Voicemeeter Banana, one of the most popular software mixers available. Tuning, adjusting and altering the sound of your microphone, gaming PC or Discord, you will require a software mixer to hone in the settings. Once you connect your XLR microphone to a USB audio interface, it’s up to your operating system and your live streaming software to arrange and sort things out. in real time without additional software.Ī USB audio interface is designed to be much smaller, portable, and therefore less complicated to use. This is why you see the tuning knobs on a mixer – this allows you to alter volume levels and improve the sound of your microphone, gaming console, gaming PC, etc. However, how you use a USB audio interface or a mixer is where the differences begin.Ī mixer is designed to be the hub of all your analog devices, and it will take multiple sources of input and mix them into one, singular output. This is also true for a USB audio interface. The microphone inputs are XLR and require an XLR microphone to leverage the benefits of an audio mixer.
When looking at an audio mixer, the first thing you should notice is the inputs: and these are different from any PC or gaming laptop, and this is intentional. The benefits of a USB mixer vs audio interface for gaming The difference between a mixer and an audio interfaceĪn audio mixer is designed to take analog inputs and convert the signals into digital, so your gaming or streaming PC can read them.