Here is a situation that happens more often than it should. Two people decide to start a podcast together. One of them buys a USB microphone because it is easy and plug-and-play. The other buys an XLR microphone because they heard XLR is better. They sit down to record their first episode and discover that getting two microphones into one computer, on two separate tracks, with synchronized audio, is not as simple as plugging both in and pressing record.

Everything they bought works fine on its own. None of it works well together.