Need to figure out which equipment to use for Home Recording of Radio Show

[Kris]

Hello experts and novices out there, 3 friends and I are trying to record a talk radio show and we need something that can record us onto our PC with at LEAST four separate Microphones and something we can edit and add music to. Please send ANY and all suggestions, any thoughts, we have no idea what software to use. I worked in radio for 3 years years ago, but frankly, their equipment was off the charts -nothing like what we are trying to do here. I am really baffled, but do have the task of getting this set up. My computer is a PC, a laptop. I am running Windows XP and overall, we just want to get this done, we don't care how. We are ready to start recording and are frustrated at not having the capacity to do it. We have a little bit of money to throw at it, so please let me know any suggestions. Thank you! Kris kriszettler@aol.com

[brandondrury]

Me and some buddies messed around with this concept back in 2003. It was a lot of fun. We weren't overly concerned about audio engineering, so we just used a Mackie 1604 mixer (you wouldn't need near that many channels) and I ran the stereo outs of the Mackie into my recording rig.

So, if you are content with this method of production, a simple 8 channel mixer ran into a cheap audio interface would do it. In fact, you may even get away with the stock soundcard. (I never recommend stock soundcards for music recording, but should be fine for this).

What is you budget?

Brandon