NEED HELP: Recording With Minimal $ but Solid Quality

[ANDtheMC]

I'ma MC (Rapper) from Jerz and I'm jus' tryn' mess around with this...

I gotta producer that has a studio setup 'n everything but once in a while, I just wanna record some shit on muh own to see if timing on delivery, vocals and everything else are good before I take it to the actual studio....

I have a cheap mic and Acid Pro 4.0.... the mic's made by Dynatec or some shit like that

so tell me what'chu think I should do? cuz the mic doesn't record smoothly... (sounds like my voice is erratic but I know I'm not delivering muh flow erratically so I don't understand)

anyway, help please?

tell me of some cheap stuff I could buy that may help the quality and what else I could do while recording.... I don't even have a Pop Filter yet cuz I'm wonderin' how much help that would even do....

well I'm out for the day, leave as much indepth responses as possible please... thanks

PayCe ~1~

[boingoman]

First of all, don't post the same thread in three different places. Makes people ornery when they see your post, answer, and realize they wasted their time because someone posted the same info in a different thread.

That being said, I assume you are plugging your mic into your sound card. One of the cheapest upgrades would be a better mic (there are a bunch of options around $100- look through the mic forum) and a mic preamp that you can feed into your soundcard. Again, there are options around$100, like ART products. Don't forget a decent mic cable and you should be all set.

[ANDtheMC]

oh, muh fault....

okay, what mic is recommended for rap/flowing over IYO? and will the pop filter/spit guard really make that much of a difference?

and though it may sound really ignorant, I'm not even sure what'chu mean by pluggin' the mic into the sound card? I'm actually pluggin' the mic in with the 1/4 adapter onto the speakers which is connected to the computer

[boingoman]

How do you record your stuff? What do you record your music to, a tape deck, your computer, etc.

[Treeline]

I'll assume you record on a PC. Forget the gadgets and keep the mic. Get an M-Audio Audio Buddy at Musician's Friend, 8th Street Audio or Zzounds.com. Take it to the local Radio Shack and ask them to sell you a cable & adapter to run the signal into the computer's soundcard. Use the "line in" instead of the "mic in" of the card; this will replace the card's (poor) preamp with the audio buddy (better) preamp. Make sure you record with a mic stand; do not try to hold the mic. Should sound better.

[ANDtheMC]

okay, thanks alot...

but pop filter? yes, no? how much better would it make it sound???

[crankz1]

A pop filter just tames plosives like P's and B's ... it helps block the rush of air when you say\sing words with those types of letters in them.

[Treeline]

Start with the basics; figure out which way the preamp plugs in and get to know it a bit. Read up on preamps. Read the mic thread FAQ. Do a sitewide search here on the term "Gerst" and read everything you find in the search results.

Instead of buying a pop filter (now) get to understand why and how a pop filter might have an effect. Try getting the same result without the gadget - when you make plosives, that is, "p", "b" and so forth - the sounds that overload a mic - try turning your head slightly so you hit the mic off axis. Like three degrees. The plosive will be minimized. Once you figure out how to do that with consistent results, you'll be ready to think about whether a pop filter is needed.