Mic Recommendation... and some other stuff

AlanD

Hi,

I'm trying to set up my own home studio to record classical songs for my website and to send on cd to anyone who wants to hire me.

I'm a baritone (just below tenor range), but maybe this doesn't matter.

So far I just have a MacBook and Garageband. All I will record is one voice and one piano track, so I figure Garageband will do just fine.

Anyway, what other equipment do I need?

I am thinking I need an audio interface, some headphones and a decent mic.

I have a piano that can record the midi track and I suppose I'd need to be able to listen to the recorded track on headphones while singing.

Right, what mic would you recommend? I don't have much to spend.

Thanks

TelePaul

AlanD wrote: »

I don't have much to spend.

Thanks

Put a number on it.

AlanD

TelePaul wrote: »

Put a number on it.

apologies, should have done that in the first place. Somewhere in the region of 100 to 150.

TelePaul

AlanD wrote: »

apologies, should have done that in the first place. Somewhere in the region of 100 to 150.

You have two real choices - a condensor mic or dynamic mic. Both have their individual merits and drawbacks. Condensors are generally more favourable for pristine vocals but they cost an awful lot. They're also not as forgiving as dynamic mics, as they'll pick up more of your room and may show up any inexperience in recording vocals.

I'd go for a tried and trusted Shure SM58, though I'm experiencing something of an on-going love affair with this mic. It's a reliable dynamic mic from a good maker and yields good results - tried and trusted and simple to use.

If you are gonna go for a condensor, try something by Studio Projects, for example the C1 condensor.

Carrigsound

http://www.thomann.de/ie/maudio_mobile_pre_usb.htm

I haven't used this one but I do have an m-audio sound card myself.

Good luck

Liam

AlanD

TelePaul wrote: »

You have two real choices - a condensor mic or dynamic mic. Both have their individual merits and drawbacks. Condensors are generally more favourable for pristine vocals but they cost an awful lot. They're also not as forgiving as dynamic mics, as they'll pick up more of your room and may show up any inexperience in recording vocals.

I'd go for a tried and trusted Shure SM58, though I'm experiencing something of an on-going love affair with this mic. It's a reliable dynamic mic from a good maker and yields good results - tried and trusted and simple to use.

If you are gonna go for a condensor, try something by Studio Projects, for example the C1 condensor.

good advice I reckon. I'm a complete novice at recording vocals and I know the room set up I'll have won't be perfect, so the dynamic mic is what I should go for.

Finding it difficult to find good enough information on whether Garageband will do me. I guess I find out for myself. Reluctant to spend money if I don't have to, so I'll see how it goes. I guess if I can tidy up piano tracks and lay down some decent sounding vocals I won't mind so much.

Probably should put this in a new thread, but if I lay down a piano backing track and if I have a firewire audio interface that controls the mic and either monitors or headphones, do I playback the track and sing along to it. Well I'm assuming I can't use monitors for the vocal recording itself. Is lag time (can't think of the technical term for it) an issue in this case? I'm thinking I could sync up the recordings afterwards. I don't know. I really need to go sit down with someone who knows their way around really but I know I'll learn once I get kitted up.

TelePaul

AlanD wrote: »

good advice I reckon. I'm a complete novice at recording vocals and I know the room set up I'll have won't be perfect, so the dynamic mic is what I should go for.

Finding it difficult to find good enough information on whether Garageband will do me. I guess I find out for myself. Reluctant to spend money if I don't have to, so I'll see how it goes. I guess if I can tidy up piano tracks and lay down some decent sounding vocals I won't mind so much.

Probably should put this in a new thread, but if I lay down a piano backing track and if I have a firewire audio interface that controls the mic and either monitors or headphones, do I playback the track and sing along to it. Well I'm assuming I can't use monitors for the vocal recording itself. Is lag time (can't think of the technical term for it) an issue in this case? I'm thinking I could sync up the recordings afterwards. I don't know. I really need to go sit down with someone who knows their way around really but I know I'll learn once I get kitted up.

Let's start at the beginning with this. I get the feeling you know quite a bit about the overall recording process, even if you're not sure of specific terms.

A sequencer like Garage Band, or Cubase LE (which comes bundled with alot of audio interfaces) will let you record one track and overdub another on top of it - as you called it, play back the song and sing along to it - add effects, edit and mix.

The amount of tracks you can record at once depends on your interface, though you seem to only want to record either piano or vocals at a given time. The amount of overdubs and effects you can add depends largely on your sequencer and on how high-spec'd your computer is.

You can't record something with a microphone while listening to your monitors for reference - in almost all cases, the sound going into your microphone comes out of the speakers and will be picked up again by the microphone and creates a feedback loop. However, you can use heaphones to hear your backing track while laying down a vocal.

Lag-time or 'latency' is the delay resulting from processing your input and playing it back through a speaker. In most cases, it'll be miniscule. Lets take an example. Firstly, consider singing into your microphone. The sound will come back through your monitors/headphones instantly. Secondly, consider adding reverb, echo, some chorus and some equalisation to a particular track and then singing through your microphone - there may be some latency. It will really depend on your computer's speed and the efficiency of your soundcard and its drivers. Firewire is an extermely fast data transfer protocol, and most sound cards will let you adjust the latency buffer. Furthermore, Direct Monitoring allows you to hear an audio output immediately by bypassing the internal system. In short, latency is not the big deal it once was - with a decent soundcard you shouldn't have any issues.

AlanD

thanks for the advice.

Yeah I guess I know a small bit about recording, but I've never actually done any. I know music though and have that background so that will help, plus I'm a computer programmer by trade so know my way around computers, although I'm new to Mac. IBM mainframe is my trade tool.

Last question so......is an audio interface the same as a soundcard. So say if I got something like a presonus firebox, a mic and a set of headphones. Will that do me or is there a need for a sound card between the firebox and the computer?

I'll go with the Shure mic recommended above and start learning the ropes. Have a 500 gig HD on the way for storage.

white_falcon

presonus firebox is an audio interface. id say look at the sticky in this forum - it explains it all

a soundcard sometimes has an audio interface built into it

for example, I have an XFI extreme audio gamer card - it will record a mic, but not very well...

An audio interface is designed specifically to interface instruments and mics to your PC...as far as I know... :rolleyes:

your mac will have a soundcard built in already - all that is there for is to play back the sounds to you on your speakers

This is my understanding of it all anyway

AlanD

white_falcon wrote: »

presonus firebox is an audio interface. id say look at the sticky in this forum - it explains it all

a soundcard sometimes has an audio interface built into it

for example, I have an XFI extreme audio gamer card - it will record a mic, but not very well...

An audio interface is designed specifically to interface instruments and mics to your PC...as far as I know... :rolleyes:

your mac will have a soundcard built in already - all that is there for is to play back the sounds to you on your speakers

This is my understanding of it all anyway

yeah I have read the beginners sticky. Very informative.

So if I had a firebox, I don't really need a sound card? Like a good sound card? If the firebox brings in the sound and plays back the sound, I may not need an external sound card at all. Have I got this right?

cornbb

AlanD wrote: »

yeah I have read the beginners sticky. Very informative.

So if I had a firebox, I don't really need a sound card? Like a good sound card? If the firebox brings in the sound and plays back the sound, I may not need an external sound card at all. Have I got this right?

An audio interface (such as the Firebox) essentially is a soundcard - they both do the exact same thing, i.e. convert real-world analogue sound to and from digital data that your computer can understand. The difference is that audio interfaces are specced much higher, with the right pre-amps and converters for recording and monitoring, as opposed to everyday soundcards which are equipped for basic usage like listening to music. They also tend to come with extras such as MIDI I/O, digital I/O or phantom power for condenser mics.

AlanD

perfect....that makes sense. Thanks....

can't wait to get cracking on all this stuff. I'll see then how crap I am....haha....but I'll learn I'm sure.

AlanD

just had a thought...

with a firewire audio interface connected to a 2GHz MacBook with only 80gig HDD, will I end up creating some latency issues if I want to record directly to an external harddrive connected via another FW400 connection. Or should I record directly to the MacBooks internal drive?

cornbb

AlanD wrote: »

just had a thought...

with a firewire audio interface connected to a 2GHz MacBook with only 80gig HDD, will I end up creating some latency issues if I want to record directly to an external harddrive connected via another FW400 connection. Or should I record directly to the MacBooks internal drive?

Recording to an external drive shouldn't be a problem unless you are recording a huge number of tracks at once. Latency generally isn't a problem on modern equipment, as long as its configured correctly.

TelePaul

AlanD wrote: »

just had a thought...

with a firewire audio interface connected to a 2GHz MacBook with only 80gig HDD, will I end up creating some latency issues if I want to record directly to an external harddrive connected via another FW400 connection. Or should I record directly to the MacBooks internal drive?

Much of a muchness really I'd say.

AlanD

cool :cool: