New to digital recording, need help

S

sarahb760

New member
Hi, everyone! A while ago my friend came up with this idea that since she can sing and I can play the piano, that we could make a CD, and some $$$ selling it. So I'm doing some research on it. I bought a Sony Dynamic Sound F-V320 for $30, but when I tested it, it sounded awful. It was really quiet and had a lot of static. Then I tried my little microphone that came with our old Windows 95 (I just bought a Windows XP Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, which is what I plan to use for recording) and it had better sound, but I still heard static. I want to make sure before I buy another microphone, that it IS the microphone that is making the static, and not something wrong with my computer. You know, sound cards and all that kind of stuff. But what kind of microphone should I go with (it'll all be voice and piano that we're recording)? I really have a tight budget (about $50 to spare right now, heh heh) so I can't get anything too expensive, but if it'll record good and last a long time, I would be willing to pay a little extra money. And do I need any special kind of software for this? I use the sound recorder on my computer, and I think it'll be fine. There's copy and paste so I can even multiply if I wanted to.
Anyways, I would really appreciate if someone had some answers for me. Thanks!~*Sarah*
 
sarahb760 said:
...my friend came up with this idea...that we could make a CD, and some $$$ selling it...I bought a Sony Dynamic Sound F-V320 for $30...I really have a tight budget (about $50 to spare right now, heh heh) so I can't get anything too expensive...I use the sound recorder on my computer, and I think it'll be fine. There's copy and paste so I can even multiply if I wanted to.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that :)
 
MULTI TASKING!

shure 57 is a good cheap but not too cheap and highly respected one that goes for both instruments and vocals....i havent heard of one instrument that people cant use a shure 57 on. unfortunately you'll need get another 20 or 30 bucks..........as for static...if you hear static on more than one microphone then i would check your sound card.....cheap quick recording i would try a Soundblaster Live card thats like 59 at its most expensive but you can find it some places for 39. as for the money....dont be ashamed to ask the parents for it! or boyfriends...or other friends and promise them a cd for free when you finish lol and about the piano...are we talking a baby grand here or something? cause i was thinking a direct box right into the sound card.
 
AND ANOTHER THING!

KAZAA!!! people download recording software off of that all the time....i have ..er.. uh... i know someone who has Cakewalk Sonar 2 xl, cool edit pro, fruity loops studio so to make drumbeats and other fun stuff
 
Re: AND ANOTHER THING!

distortedrumble said:
KAZAA!!! people download recording software off of that all the time....i have ..er.. uh... i know someone who has Cakewalk Sonar 2 xl, cool edit pro, fruity loops studio so to make drumbeats and other fun stuff
Click to expand...

and then when you make this great CD that everyone will want.. I hope they all download it from KAZAA!!!

dumbass
 
Shure 57 and Soundblaster Live...ok. Is that exactly how you spell it? I'll have to check it out. How would a new soundcard work with a laptop? I know there's a lot of things you can't do with a laptop than you can do with a regular PC. But I'm not too keen on working with our 95; the sound doesn't work on it. My piano isn't a grand, it's an upright...it's really old, built before WWII, but I think it has beautiful sound, more like Mozart and Beethoven must have had.
Isn't Kazaa the thing where you can download music off of? I have that, and I would plan to put our music in the shared folder thingamajig~*Sarah*
 
nevermind the haters

with kazaa you can download damn near anything but a kitchen sink...however you can probably get a picture of one.....there are a good bit of messed up software titles but its trial and error. anyway laptop soundcards are usually USB type things.....this may cause a little problem but if your determined then it shouldnt stop you.....and remember i'm a cheap ass so others will probably give you the rundown of everything over 150 bucks and anything less sucks.....however i used my onboard soundcard and an audio technica mic from god knows where and made an acoustic cd that sold over 200 copies....that group is now defunct but at least we sold some.
 
If you're going to share it in the Kazaa shared folder, how do you think you will make any money? Seriously. And, Kazaa is a virus haven.

You should probably take a weekend (or longer) and start reading through many of the posts to learn what you're doing, and why what you're trying to do isn't probably going to yield the best results.

Soundblaster live may get an "okay" sound for you. It won't be a professional sounding recording, but I suppose if you KNOW what you're doing, it is useable. And cheap. And for you right now, probably fine. There are also laptop pcmcia-type cards, which would work nicely, or maybe look into firewire. Those will cost significantly more. Mine was over $800 all told, using a breakout box and pcmcia type II card. There is no reason for you to spend this kind of money.

But, seriously, if you're wanting to make some money off the cd, you are likely going to have to spend some money, and it'll likely be more than $30.

Get yourself a Soundblaster, since it's cheap, and go download ntracks...it's has a free demo. I think it's fully functional...if you want to buy it, you'll get some extra features, but I highly doubt you'll be using them anyway. I don't know the name of the company. But, there is an ntrack forum in this bbs, I'm pretty sure.

That's my offering for today. As far as a mic...hell, I don't know.
 
I agree with "in order to make money you have to spend money".

No one will want to purchase a poorly recorded CD with poor sound quality. In order to get a decent sounding product you're going to have to:

A) spend some pretty serious money buying recording equipment,
B) spend a LOT of time learning how to use that equipment properly.

I've been striving towards making professional sounding music from my bedroom now for about 6 months, and I've already spent over $4,000 not to mention HOURS AND HOURS reading and talking on this site.

You may find the project just to complex to handle on your own with limited resources...as such, it may be more feasible for you to find someone in your area who already has the equipment and knowledge and pay them to help you produce your music.

Then you have to work out the details with selling your CD!!! This may be more challenging than getting it recorded!

Good luck,

Ben
 
Hi sarahb760,

You have 3 goals that at times diverge from each other especially in the early stages.

1. Artistry
2. Engineering
3. Marketing

You don't say where you are in the artistry department but I'm assuming you will be making some type of music that includes vocals. It may or may not be original you haven't said yet.

There is also a small degree of engineering here since you will probably be using a vocal mic and P.A. and possibly be micing a piano or moving to some other electronic keyboard.

A great way to judge the marketability of your 'product' is to get out amongst the people and do some shows. Assuming the statistics of live performance forget about the worst 20% and the best 20% and focus on the average quality of a typical show - are you getting input that indicates persuing this ? Get a friend to collect input for you to get even better responses.

Once you determine that you have something people might like, or if you don't do that and just plain believe in yourself, then you would want to record it for distribution on CD as you said. If you do this yourself prepare to spend some serious time researching, experimenting with sound, and some dinero. If you have a recording engineer friend or someone else who is interested in spending the money and time then you can do the music and marketing while they do the engineering.

Otherwise hiring a recording studio could be a solution in the short term while you get your engineering chops together.

Time and money is the answer to the technical piece. It sounds like you have the vision so depending on your production schedule and release date you may want to bring more 'players' into the project.

Keep making that music ! :cool:
kylen

PS One thing I noticed with me is that when I'm learning new recording techiques and tools then I don't hear the music as loud in my 'Inner Monologue' as Austin Powers might say. I guess using the technical part of my brain blocks the artistic part for a time...
 
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