Hooking up several microphones to one headset simply and cheaply?

Question

Is it possible to hook up, say 12, small microphones to one audio input without a mixer if you don't care about the individual levels? I'm thinking that hooking them up serially would probably not work, but what about parallel? Or would it not work at all without a complex circuit to mix the signal due to interference? I'm trying to find the cheapest way to get twelve inputs to mix without regard to any individual levels.

Answer 1

depends on the type of microphone.

Answer 2

yes, in parallel.