Detangling multiple drum tracks...

So my band and I have been working on recording for several months now, and we love Reaper, given that it's free and easy to use (most of the time) but we've run into a slight problem. We use a Behringer Xenyx FX mixer with a USB plug directly into the computer. The USB plug takes directly out of the RCA jacks on top labeled "out" and into the PC. We record drums with 7 mics, five Samson drum mics for the bass, toms, and both heads of the snare, and also two overheads to pick up the cymbals. The issue is, when we record drums through the mixer, we can change levels and volume on the mixer itself, but when everything is recorded into Reaper, it records as one stereo track with a massive wave. This somewhat defeats the purpose of having a mixer in the first place, because we can't separate tracks on the computer. Thus, editing is next to impossible. We've tried everything, Behringer's website has nothing on this, and it's put a serious block on our recording process. Please help, I'm unsure whether we have everything hooked up wrong, or if the mixer is just incompatible with Reaper somehow.

No, there's no way to separate out your drum tracks from a single wav. You need to record to discreet channels for each mic. You'll need an audio interface in order to record each mic to it's own separate track.

Mixer info 

Hi If you are going to use the desk you will connect the direct out's from each channel to whatever audio interface you get... If you get an audio interface with say 8/10 inputs you might not need the desk pkev

It looks like the Xenyx series of mixers come with a "UCA200 2-input/2-output USB/Audio Interface", so only the main stereo mix can be sent to the computer. You might want to trade in for a mixer that sends each input channel separately over USB, e.g. the Alesis MultiMix series.

Thanks for the help, bummer of a situation though. I think we're gonna go ahead and get a USB mixer like we were going to before. Peavey 24 USB looks pretty good.

The Peavey 24 USB mixer looks like is may only send stereo over USB. Alesis MultiMix 8 USB 2.0 and Alesis MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 are USB mixers that send multiple channels of audio to your computer. Make sure they say "2.0" on them, to get the multiple channels. I use the MultiMix 8 FireWire.

WOW Greg looks like you have my dream job!! Checked out your sites lots of cool stuff, nice basses.

Thanks MTS, I've been doing it for a while... :-)