How come my vocal recording doesn't sonically match?

[dannieboiz]

I just bought a Nady USB-1C as my first ever attempt to record anything at home. I made some recording of some singing using garageband. When I reply it and try to mix the track with the vocal, somehow, I'm not getting the two sound to sonically match. It sounds more like a karaoke singing. But when I play just the vocals alone it sounds decent.

I've went through all the vocal settings in garageband but nothing match. Some had too much echo some had weird echoes.

Are there other recording software that may be more flexible but simple to use.

I have a lot of mp3 karaoke tracks that I use for this. So basically that's what we do at home for fun. Record everyone's singing using garageband just the single vocal track and then remix it together with the mp3 tracks that we have.

 

[moresound]

Try the recording software "Reaper". You may have more fun and a better finished product once your remixing is complete.
And use your FX sparingly to much and the vocals will seam out of place with the song as you have stated.

 

[legionserial]

I've went through all the vocal settings in garageband but nothing match. Some had too much echo some had weird echoes.

Mixing is about more than just using presets.

I don't want to sound like a big meanie, but the solution to your problem is research, learning, and practice. You won't get things to click together straight out just by using presets. You need to know the why and how of it all. Unfortunately without a clip I can't really offer any specific advice.

 

[TheChikenMaster]

Welcome to the forum and congradsfor listening and hearing that your recording arent good, that is the first step toward improvement.
Garage band isnt the best software for flexibility in recording, but it shouldnt make a difference. The main concern should be your recording chain. Being that you are using a nady usb mic, the quality would suffer alot. Also mic positioning and the room you are recording in is a problem. If you are in a big or very reflective room, even some high end mics wont sound good.
If you were to upgrade you signal chain, lose the usb mic. Get a decent 100$ mic condenser or dynamic, and a decent interface. That would make a huge difference, and im sure you dont want to spend so much anyway on gear.
And dont worry about garageband for now.

 

[Rokket]

Welcome to the forum and congradsfor listening and hearing that your recording arent good, that is the first step toward improvement.
Garage band isnt the best software for flexibility in recording, but it shouldnt make a difference. The main concern should be your recording chain. Being that you are using a nady usb mic, the quality would suffer alot. Also mic positioning and the room you are recording in is a problem. If you are in a big or very reflective room, even some high end mics wont sound good.
If you were to upgrade you signal chain, lose the usb mic. Get a decent 100$ mic condenser or dynamic, and a decent interface. That would make a huge difference, and im sure you dont want to spend so much anyway on gear.
And dont worry about garageband for now.

I agree that the software is the real problem here. I've done more with less...

dannieboiz:
It sounds like you may be using the karaoke machine as a pre amp to record with. That's your first big mistake. The echo settings on those things work well because they tend to disguise bad singing for a bunch of drunks in a bar, but don't use them to record with. You need a good place that is relatively dead (no natural echo, or reverb), a good pre amp to record with, and NO EFFECTS on the vocals when you record them. Especially really bad karaoke echo. That and lots of practice with mixing to get good.

 

[Bristol Posse]

It sounds like from the OP that you are using pre made backing tracks. These are a finished product that have already been mixed and mastered and it is extremely difficult to get the vocals to sit comfortably in these finished tracks because they are not a part of the original mix. The vocals sound like they don't sonically fit because they don't, They are not a part of the mix, just sitting on top of it.

Running the vocals through some compression and then running the whole mix of backing and vocals through a saturation or coloration plugin might help a tiny bit and give a little bit of "glueing" together but since you don't have the ability to EQ and control levels of the individual instruments in the backing tracks, it is going to be hard to get the finished result to sound like it all fits together perfectly and isn't karaoke singing

 

[dannieboiz]

I also bought an E-MU 0202 USB interface that i have yet to open up.

Do you think I'll get better result using that with my Shure SM58/PGX4? It's a wireless microphone that we use for our karaoke system which is totally seperate from the noob recording setup.

I bought the Nady because I didn't want to have a bunch of equipments sitting around.

Or would there be better USB microphones that you'd recommend in the same price point as the Nady?

I heard a Demo of the Samson C01U online but couldn't find it at the place I was at so I picked up the Nady instead since they had similar spec.

There's also the MXL 990 that I read good reviews of.

The room I'm recording in is a 15x8 room. I'm hoping to get decent recordings without spending a fortune.

Or maybe it's just the damn singers?

 

[kcearl]

you need this, but it is important on this setting that you flip the switch on the far right up the way

volume level, EQ, and reverb all play an important part in getting vocals to sit in a mix....you've got to read up on them a little and just experiment....first get the volume right...if other instruments are masking its frequencies, or vice versus, then make small EQ cuts or gains to get it to sit right (read up on vocal frequencies, eg: a boost around 6-8Hz can give them presence)....if it feels that its too much in front of the music then reverb can be used to make it sit further back....thats the general way to start imo

 

[mjbphotos]

Forget the USB mic. A wireless mic will not give great results either. Like already said, get a $100 mic and an interface.