Clueless Opera Singer

mgiles7

New member
I am a young Opera singer (please take me seriously =) and I was given a cpu by my brother who just gave me some info on it to ask a question. Here goes -

PC - 100
Asus P3A - B (motherboard)
K6-2+500 (processor)
128m
2 gig HD and a 6 gig HD

Is there anyway I could use this with the right equipment to Record myself and a piano and then burn CD's to send to different opera Company's as well as family and friends? Or is this sytem hopeless? I know I could go into a studio and do something, but I really want to be able to do it on my own time and energy, and I have always wanted to dabble in recording. What will it take? I could have about 1,000 dollars to work with.
 
Hi mgiles7,
I'll try to tell you something here. First, very hard to tell what you've got except for your hard drive size/s. Like so:

PC - 100 -- 100 what? That is too open ended....
Asus P3A - B (motherboard) -- ok, but how fast is the bus?
K6-2+500 (processor) -- ok, but what speed is the cpu?
128m -- is this the cpu speed or what?
2 gig HD and a 6 gig HD -- gotcha

Looks like an old machine. I'll give you a reference point though, I was successfully running Cakewalk on a 266mhz (cpu) Intel machine with nothing but a decent soundcard. It would drop every now and then but nothing serious. If you have $1000, here's what you do:

- go to a good music shop where they know about computer recording and tell them what you want, for under $1000 bucks. A nice fast machine (the standard these days is up around 900mhz) with a decent sound card and vid card can be gotten anywhere for as little as $600 if you look. Hardware prices are way down. Then get a demos copies of some different software (Cubase, Cakewalk, etc) and load 'em up and see which one you like the feel of. I WOULD NOT spend a bunch of dough on music/recording software until you a) check out bug-track record (see forums in this bbs and elsewhere) and/or b) have run some demo copies for look/feel/ease of use. Learning and doing computer recording is a major educational experience.

- other advice: if you are just doing some live vocal recording and you want a lot less headaches that the whole computer b.s., get something like a Korg D8, or Tascam, whatever (around 500-700 bucks) and a couple of good mikes (condenser for vocals) and have a nice clean digital time with minimal headaches. My Korg D8 is easy as hell to use, and great effects. And no computer hassles.

Hope that helps. If you're not REALLY into computers and/or dying to record via a computer, then I wouldn't bother. You'll spend a lot of time screwing around with Windows, the system, the software, etc, instead of recording. A hard disk recorder is a much easier time in my experience.
jt, L.A. CA
 
Yup that should handle piano and voice. I could get a 486 to playback 5 tracks. I'd try to get hold of an early version of cakewalk audio say version 5 or 7 or 8.

cheers
john
 
Thanks for your advice. Is there anyway to hook up a cd burner to any of the pieces of equipment that you listed? I really appreciate your help.
 
Your motherboard supports the IDE interface, but it is impossible to tell without looking how many IDE devices you can support. Provided that you have an IDE channel free you can hook up a CD-RW drive. If you do not have a free channel you will need to purchase an additional IDE controller, and once again, there is no way to be sure it will work given the information provided. Given that you have two HDD installed, you might consider purchasing a single large IDE HDD for channel 0 and a CD-RW for channel 1, and toss the 2gb and 6gb to a local charity.
 
- other advice: if you are just doing some live vocal recording and you want a lot less headaches that the whole computer b.s., get something like a Korg D8, or Tascam,


I actually was talking about hooking up a CD-RW to one of the above that jthomas was suggesting. Is that something I can do?
 
I hate to add further complications, but you may also need a compressor. If you are singing opera, it is likely that the music you will be working with will have a very wide dynamic range. Unless the vocals are compressed on the way into what every recording device you eventually opt for, you will get a lot of distortion. Generally, though, while I would not want to discourage you, I would have to warn you against underestimating the difficulty of recording with computers. It takes a long time to master and you may be better off going into a studio to get good results,
Best,
Mole.
 
OK, If I did decide to go with the digital Multitrak Recorder, what is the best one out there for what I am trying to do, and at a good price? And can I get one that will hook up to a CD-RW?
Thanks again for everyone's help. You have probably saved me from disaster so far.
 
I'll leave the computer stuff to the computer experts, but that system should be able to handle what you want to do.

Here's what I would get for a front end to that computer. It will cost a little more than 1000 bucks, but maybe you could sell some blood or something.


First you need a soundcard, get a really cheap one with digital inputs (I think the SBLIVE sells for about 75 bucks or less), it will probably have a S/PDIF input.

Next you will need an Analog to Digital converter to get the signal into that soundcard. I would recommend a Lucid A/D 9624. This will set you bakc about 750. You may be able to find it for cheaper though.

Of course you need a mic and a mic amp. For a mic, I would recommend looking at a few different mics including the Rode NT2 (399), the C1 (250), Marshall v67 (175), and the Oktava MC012 with the Lomo Head (572) from the soundroom, but you actually get two mics here.

For mic amps I would buy the Grace Design 101 (579). Very clean and detailed. Or wait for the RNMP to come out (450 probably).

At the most you looking at about 2000 dollars, the least: about 1450.

Sorry for recommeding these things which may be out of your price range, but this is all I know, and this it what I would recommend.

Of course this bring up another question, what are you using for monitoring?
 
mgiles7 said:
Nothing yet, Is that going to set me back another 2 grand?

Nah, what do you use to listen to Opera and Piano now? If you know your system well, and you know what voices sound like and what piano sounds like on your playback system, that will suffice. Just be sure to check out the recordings in different systems to make sure it translates well.
 
I actually do have some preatty fancy headphones.... So I guess those might work, I also have an aiwa stereo system...Anyway I was just looking at some equipment and this caught my eye -
Roland Studio Pack

Complete Hardware/Software Package Offers Easy Solution for 24-bit/24-track Digital Recording and Mixing on Mac or PC
This package includes a 20-channel digital mixer with 24-bit converters and studio-quality effects (the VM-3100Pro), a PCI audio card (the RPC-1), and a customized 24-bit/24-track version of Emagic’s award-winning Logic Audio recording and MIDI production software, entitled "Logic RPC."

At the heart of the Studio Pack is Roland’s VM-3100Pro V-Mixing Station. The perfect "front-end" for Logic RPC, the VM-3100Pro is a compact 20-channel/8-bus/24-bit tabletop digital mixer with 12 analog inputs and two XLR mic inputs with phantom power. It is capable of routing eight channels of 24-bit digital audio plus MIDI to a Mac or PC via Roland’s powerful R-BUS digital audio format and the included RPC-1 PCI/R-BUS card.

The VM-3100Pro also offers two onboard stereo multi-effects processors, giving users everything from studio-quality reverb, delay and chorus to COSM Guitar Amp, Microphone and Speaker Modeling without taxing their computer’s CPU. And with its built-in controller templates for Logic and other music production software, the VM-3100Pro is not just an audio routing and processing tool, but an excellent software control surface as well.

The other major component of the Roland Studio Pack is Logic RPC, a customized version of Emagic’s popular Logic Audio recording and MIDI production software. Using Logic RPC, users can record up to eight tracks of 24-bit digital audio simultaneously and play back 24 tracks right from their computers. Logic RPC includes many of Emagic’s best plug-in effects—EQs, distortion, flanger, tape delay and more—and a suite of powerful editing tools including HyperDraw.


Click here for more information


List price: $1,395.00Sale price: $629.00



Is this something I should be interested in?
 
I think some of these posts have gotten a little outa' hand. :)

All you're recording is you and a piano. You don't need a lot of inputs, then. I think you should start out with a 4-track. Work your way up if you start getting more serious and want to start recording whole bands. Right now, you just need something simple that sounds great for recording a voice and one or two instruments.

1) You need a good digital 4-track recorder. Boss makes an excellent one:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/love.music?p=p.BOSBR532&z=1251102684219

There's a digital output that you can use to go straight to a CD burner . . . or to transfer to your computer in digital format so you can burn one from there. Go to a guitar center or something like that. The guys there should be able to help you out with somethign simple like that. I hope. :)

Cost: $400

2) You need a good microphone. Luckily, prices on these have fallen considerably over the years. For $200 you can get a Behringer B2. For $300 you can get a Studio Projects C1 (check out sweetwater music - sweetwater.com I believe). Both are great mics for the budget-conscious. The C-1 is outstanding for vocals, and should sit well in the mix with minimal tweaking. With the B2, I must warn you to swallow your S-ess when you sing. This is what you call a siblant microphone, so be careful on verses like "Six Simple Simons sitting on a stump."

Being an opera singer, I'm sure you can exercise control over this kind of thing without difficulty. I am also going to assume that you can exercise control over your volume. For that reason, you might not even need a compressor. For pop vocals, definitely, but not for what you're doing.

Cost: $200/300

3) Assuming you have 400 bones left, you need a decent mic preamp. Anything you get will be a big upgrade from the ones that come with a 4-track recorder. Obviously, you'll want something simple, clean and uncolored. You might want to wait for the rnmp and/or the Studio Projects VT-1 to come out and look in to one of those units.

Cost: $200/$400

If you have anything left after this, then get yourself a CD burner.

Good luck
 
Shut your yap, Ametth.

You're going to make this poor, clueless opera singer spend all this money on all kinds of computer gear . . . and all she needs is to record a voice and a piano for some demos to send out. ? ? ?
 
Although a digital 4-track is attractive for 400$, if you look closer you'll see that it only supports 128 MB total for recording. That's not enough for opera. Hell, that's not enough for anything but scratch-pad usage.
 
OK, I'm not sure what 128 MB means, but if I do need more of whatever that is....Should I look into a better Multi-track Recorder with more MB? I saw a Roland 1880 on ebay for around $650 yesterday, That would do everything I needed to do wouldn't it?
 
chessrock said:
Shut your yap, Ametth.

You're going to make this poor, clueless opera singer spend all this money on all kinds of computer gear . . . and all she needs is to record a voice and a piano for some demos to send out. ? ? ?


I'm trying to lead her in the direction of buying quality gear, not stuff she'll want to throw out the window in six months.
 
I see your point, Ametth, but keep in mind we're dealing with a novice . . . not an aspiring recording engineer. Why spend all that money on audiophile computer hardware when we don't even know if our opera singer friend will ever be serious about all of this . . . or if it will always be just two-track demos for friends and audition tapes ? ? ?

And as antiquated as it may become, a 4-track will always be useful for basic tracking of rough song ideas. Or to record your dog's farts with should you decide you'd rather just stick to singing. :)

A Grace. A beginner is toying around with the idea of recording demos for friends and family . . . and you're recommending a Grace. Unbelieveable.

Charger is right, though. I forget opera songs tend to be rather on the lengthy side. You'd probably need something with more space than the Boss. That one would be more for typical 3-5 minute pop/rock songs as opposed to Pink Floyd, YES, or opera.
 
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