Microphone for PC

rizzodun

My daughter has an interest in singing and is looking for a microphone she can connect to her laptop to record herself, not being any-way musically inclined I have no idea if there is any good microphone worth getting, can anyone point me in the right direction?

I've had a look at the 'How do I record stuff?' sticky, but I'm just not totally clear on what extra connections I may need (if any?) to connect a mic to her laptop.

Budget is below €150, that's for the mic and any other connections etc she may need.

In case it matters laptop is a Fujitsu Lifebook A530 with Intel i3, 2GB RAM and standard on board audio.

pinksoir

A USB mic would do the trick. If she just wants to record herself singing, something like one of these would do. I have no experience of USB mics but I presume they're not the best sound quality, but for her needs they'd be ok. The other option is to go the whole hog and buy an audio interface, decent enough mic and some recording software. I dunno what age she is, or how much interest she has in it, but maybe try the M-Audio one on the page I linked (comes bundled with Protools SE which is recording software) and if she gets more serious you can always spend more later.

rizzodun

Cheers pinksoir, I'll check these out, she's only twelve, does choir singing and in a dance group, so it's just a hobby, but one she's into in a big way.

The Master

Pretty much as pinksoir said above a USB mic would be a good place to get going,
If you combine it with some recording software like audacity (which is free)
You should have a decent enough set up to record vocals

You might also want to look at a good set of speakers/monitors or even good headphones so you can hear if everything is being recorded properly

rizzodun

How could I possibly ignore advice from someone called 'The Master'. Cheers, its pretty obvious but never thought about speakers or headphones, I'm gonna have a look at the options over the weekend and let ye know if I have any other questions.