need help with four person setup!

[kiki]

i want to make a roundtable discussion-type podcast with up to 4 peaple miked induvidually at the same time. sometimes there will be less than four mics needed but never less than two. they need to be able to hear each other wwhile recording. The core of my setup has to be a MAC ibook laptop. i have to do this through school so i dont even know where fnding will come from. Im thinking headset mics would be the cheapest. Also, from what ive read, im going to need a mixer. Can someone direct me to the cheapest equipment they know of that will fit my needs ( $150-200 athe most??) I'm tinking that i just need a mixer that plugs into a usb port and has the ports for 4 headset mics. The headsets and the mixer ports also have to match i guess. is what im proposing even possible?? i'd think it would be, since you can do it with radio. Im will be using GarabeBand for the recording, is it possible to have all mics reconized as multiple tracks? Thanks to anyone who can help me out!

[X Pat Radio]

If you want cheap look at the Behringer mixers. Does everyone need to headphones, or just the producer. If you need more that one, you will need to get a headphone amp.

Look at American Musical Supply, Sweetwater etc...

[pwfenton]

When you say "round table discussion" are you saying that all four folks are to be in one room?

P-Dub

[kiki]

When you say "round table discussion" are you saying that all four folks are to be in one room?

P-Dub

Yup! Do you know what ssetup that would require???

[anotherquizshow]

You could consider a Snowball microphone. It's USB and has a conference mode so it will be able to record several people in the same room.

Find show #39 of this podcast to hear a live demonstration:
http://talkitup.typepad.com/weblog/2006/02/index.html

You could even email Heidi, the host of the show, to ask her if she has been liking the mic.

The Snowball mic costs about $160 new, so it's within your budget.

I haven't heard of a mixer that will take multiple USB mics, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were available.

Even cheaper would be to get an iRiver 700 or 800 series...this is very popular with podcasters. It has a built-in microphone that will record in a room. The sound quality of the built-in mic is not that great in that it'll sound echo-like, but it's not bad. You can add an external mic to improve the sound, but that'll add at least $50 to the overall cost.

If you're on a tight budget for this school project, I'd go for the iRiver. It works great, is cheaper, and it's a compact MP3 player.

iRiver 780 - $73
http://www.anotherquizshow.com/iriver780

Good luck.
Michael

[roadrageradio]

Using a single stereo mic might be the best course of action. Either a desktop mounted omni directional mic or what is known in the trade as a boundary mic, which is placed on a smooth flat surface like a table top.

Here's an example, but this one is a bit out of your price range:
http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=U891R

The reason for stereo is that it will provide a sense of relative location of the four participants, which will help listeners distinguish their voices. Also, in your price range, decent mixers and sound cards will only have two channels, so a stereo mix of the four voices is the best you can hope for.

If you go this route, the four participants will have to sit close to the mic, and project their voices to minimize the echo chamber effect.