I could wire a mic to a pre-amp then connect an adc to it’s ring buffer directly, but 16 of them gets expensive, could I multiplex, what sampling rates could I get? This is a prototype and it really just needs a square number of mics, but 16 or more is best. Are there mics with pre-amps?
A ring buffer is a memory structure where the starting segment is defined by a pointer. The pointer is incremented each time a sample is taken from the sensor and stored, when the pointer reaches the end of the segment it returns to the beginning, making a ring. Addressing an element in the buffer is always relative to the pointer. It can be created either in hardware or software.
Thank you so much reading this far, hope you can help. 
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Hi @KJinks and welcome to our forum.
Your task sounds interesting 
Did you maybe find a solution yet?
I don’t have much experience with that type of project, but perhaps other users here will express interest and can provide additional ideas or help brainstorm.
Nothing as yet, I am still shopping around.