Beginner With Basic Questions

[SN4P3]

Hey all,

My friend and I, live in separate cities and would like to do a song where she sings, and I do the music.

I have Audacity, an acoustic guitar with electric output (to an amp, etc.), Bass guitar, and mandolin.

I recorded the acoustic guitar part (just simple strumming with chords) and the bass guitar part (fairly simple as well). I have this cable I bought where one end plugs into the guitar (line out) and the other end is a USB where it goes into the USB port on my computer.

It sounds pretty good. Good enough for the project. The problem arises when it's time to record the mandolin part.

Because my mandolin does not have any electric capabilities, when it comes time to record it with a microphone, it sucks. The mic I tried using was what was built into to my laptop. It is used for recording voice, I know, but I tried it anyways. It has WAAAAY too much noise when it is recording when I am not playing, it's this annoying hiss. I tried a microphone on a headset I use for Skype, games, etc.) and it cut down on the problem maybe only by 10% haha.

I have such a clear recording on my guitar parts, due to the direct line in, but when I record with an external mic, it all goes to hell.

What if I were to invest in a USB microphone like BLUE's Snowflake: http://www.bluemic.com/snowflake/

I am running low on funds at the moment, so is there another way to solve this problem without spending 60+ bucks?

 

[Jeff_D]

do you own an actual real microphone? or can you borrow one from anyone. Generally speaking, I wouldn't bother with any of the usb mics. Your computer most likely has a stock soundcard with a line input. You just need a mic and a preamp to connect to it... but you wont find much in the $60 range unfortunately. Where are you in in the world? Maybe there's someone nearby that can help you with some tracks.

 

[SN4P3]

Thanks for the response! I live in California, so maybe I can get ahold of one if I ask around. So should I stay away from USB mics all together? I've been looking around and heard that these mics are good to use with acoustic instruments:

Oktava MC012 ($200), Groove Tubes GT55 ($250), or the RODE NT1 ($199)

Have you heard of these? Are there any cheaper ones?

And do these mics have preamps built into them? If not, how much do they cost? When I do buy a nice microphone, will I get that annoying hiss or will it sound similar to the absence of static/hiss that my acoustic achieved when it was plugged directly in to my line in port on my computer?

 

[mjbphotos]

You need to do some reading. With all of those mics you are going to need an interface/preamp - you cannot just plug them into the 'line in' or 'mic in' inputs of your computer.

 

[Jeff_D]

those are all probably fine mics (I own a pair of the MK012s), but they're quite outside your original $60 budget... and mjb is right, you're going to need an interface or at least a preamp to go with that to get sound into your computer. Look up the tweakheads article- thats a good primer. The puzzle pieces you're after are... mic--> preamp-->computer intertface-or-soundcard. There are a bunch of interfaces that combine the preamp and soundcard functions into one box via usb or firewire; like a Presonus Firebox for instance. For doing acoustic type stuff, a 2 channel interface is probably sufficient (they make 8+ channel interfaces for those of us looking to recording drums, entire bands, etc...) If you want to get into recording, I'd budget $300-$400 for an interface and halfway decent mic. Look at the MXL mics if you want to save a buck.