I have a computer that has one 3.5mm Jack microphone slot. I have my microphone that I plug in and use. When I use my computer with friends we sometimes struggle to use the same microphone because we have to keep passing it around. We have another microphone but can only plug in one at a time. What can I do so I can use both?

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amateur video maker & media tool developer

Fundamentally, you need to upgrade your system, which will start you down the slippery slope of gear lust!

To use two mics together you either need to record them on two seperate channels (allowing you to process and balance them separately later on), or to mix their signals together and record as a combined entity.

To do the latter, you'll need a mixer of some kind -- and they're available across a huge range of prices and with a huge ange of facilities. You might find something able to accommodate the outputs from a couple of low-end mics and feed the signal to the line input socket on your computer's sound card interface at Maplins or similar -- probably something intended for home video editing etc. That kind of stuff is really outside my experience and probably that of most others here.

A better approach, technically and sonically, would be to buy an external audio interface which would link to the computer via USB or Firewire. That would give you much better quality mic preamps and monitoring facilities, and open the door to using much higher quality mics. Again, there's a huge range to choose from, and with two channels up to dozens of channels.

Before going further with this, do you have a budget in mind, and maybe an end-goal?

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Most webcams have mics built in, and they're designed to sit a little way from people and pick up everything in the area. So several people in front of the mic would be heard just fine.

Pick up a cheap soundcard (Audio Interface) intended for audio (not games) from ebay.

You should really be using XLR 3 pin mic cables (or cannon to cannon as they're sometimes called) for the best possible signal.

You'll need to buy a couple of new cables but it will be well worth the investment if you're serious about what you're doing.

The Tascam range of USB interfaces go for buttons now and sound great. Although the Mark 1 is old now they still update the drivers and the functionality is great from such a little box.

What type of mics are you using and what program are you using to record the signal with?