On Thu, 8 Mar 2018, at 14:17, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
What I want now, and for what I started the present thread, is, as I said,
to keep those three channels separated and listen to them through three
different loudspeakers. Thanks to the kind help from you listers, I
understand that I need one of those multichannel sound cards...
It's not normal to do that.... I mean I understand why you want to, I
think. But consider: if someone records an orchestra on - say - 96
channels... they don't have 96 loudspeakers to listen to each of the
inputs at the same time.
Instead, a mixing desk would allow you to listen to any individual
channel through your studio loudspeakers ('monitors'). A decent
mixing desk usually offers, for each channel, something called PFL
(Pre Fade Listen) which lets you hear the signal on that channel
even if the fader on the channel is not turned up (so you can check
the channel is working alright before bringing it into a mix). There's
also 'Solo' which when the button is pressed would let you hear one
channel instead of the whole mix, often/usually 'in place' which
means in its position in the stereo mix. So if that channel was panned
all the way to the left, when you Solo it you'd hear it only in the left
monitor.
Mixing desks (or equivalent audio software) tend to let you 'group'
channels together. So eg (in an orchestra) you might have multiple
mics on the strings, more on wind instruments etc... and in the mixer
you might choose to group the wind instrument channels together,
so you could listen to all of them as one unit (in stereo), or all the
strings together.
Mixing desks (or software) don't just produce a single mix of the
source channels. In a theatre or concert hall there might be
several places that some sounds have to be sent to, apart from
an overall stereo recording.