Clean vocals/mic options cep 2

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ckw0n

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Hello all,

I'm an ultra noob when it comes to recording. I've been doing it for about 5 years with a standard pc sound card and 1/8" mics. I record rap vocals, and thats the ONLY thing I record.

What do I need to get an XLR style mic to record some clean vocals on these tracks? I have an onboard soundcard on asus sli-premium mobo.

I understand I'll probably need some type of usb interface box or something, but then we get into pre-amps, etc. Which I'm totally not versed in.

Essentially i would like to purchase one box, and the mic. Plug the mic into the box, and record straight away.

Is this possible?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT. I AM FOREVER INDEBTED TO YOUR EXPERTISE!

Daniel
 
A decent mic and a preamp is all you need. A new sound card would help too but with a small, $3 adapter you can use whatever sound card you have now.

You'll want to find a decent mic for your vocals. ANYTHING will be better than those PC mics. Usually this will be a condenser mic. Most of these require 48v phantom power. So the preamp (aka "box") will need to supply 48v phantom power.

For a good, clean recording, I'd get the M-Audio DMP3 preamp. You hook the mic into the XLR ports, and the outputs of the DMP3 into your sound card (line-in jack). The DMP3 is a great preamp despite it's cost, very clean and it supplies 48v phantom power for microphones.

If you want a good entry level sound card, you can get the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96. Much less noise than standard PC sound cards and it is MEANT for recording.

Here's some links:

DMP3 Preamp - http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MAudio-DMP3-2Channel-Mic-PreDirect-Box?sku=241101
M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 sound card -
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MAudio-Audiophile-2496-PCI-Digital-Audio-Card?sku=701341

If you want to keep your current sound card, you'll need a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter like this:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...apter&kw=1/4+to+1/8+adapter&parentPage=search

Although it doesn't need to be STEREO it can be a MONO adapter. Ask someone at radio shack if you're not sure.

So, in summary:

Microphone -> XLR jacks on DMP3 -> 1/4" outputs on DMP3 -> 1/8" inputs on your sound card (with adapter)
 
My god man!!!

Thank you for the info so quickly!


I'm heading out to lunch now, will check it all out when I get back.

I seriously appreciate your time.

Daniel
 
yep...Danny Guitar is good like that!!...Well done Dan!
 
ckw0n said:
Hello all,

I'm an ultra noob when it comes to recording. I've been doing it for about 5 years with a standard pc sound card and 1/8" mics. I record rap vocals, and thats the ONLY thing I record.

What do I need to get an XLR style mic to record some clean vocals on these tracks? I have an onboard soundcard on asus sli-premium mobo.

I understand I'll probably need some type of usb interface box or something, but then we get into pre-amps, etc. Which I'm totally not versed in.

Essentially i would like to purchase one box, and the mic. Plug the mic into the box, and record straight away.

Is this possible?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT. I AM FOREVER INDEBTED TO YOUR EXPERTISE!

Daniel
Click to expand...


There is a way to clean up the tracks manually in Cool Edit. I'm not sure if I'll get chastised here for this info, but I use it all the time and it gets rid of the hiss and stuff in the background. But when you do this, make sure you don't have any bleeding from the mic picking up your music while you rap. If so, the vocals will sound find, but have robotish artifacts in the background ... although sometimes I leave it to add an interesting sound when it's buried in with everything else :cool:

Ok, so you record your track, and then go into the main edit mode (where the wave is just on the one big screen ... you can get there by double-clicking your vocal in the multitrack timeline). By the way, make sure you have a little silence recorded before you start singing or rapping. When in the main window, I normally highlight the little silence that looks like a line or whatever. Then I hit the zoom button, the one with the magnifying glass and the yellow sheet of paper behind it. Then I highlight a tiny bit of that, and go to effects, and find the noise reduction tool. You'll want to hit the button that gathers the statistics for that little bit you highlighted ... if it's grayed out, then hit cancel and highlight a bit more of it and hit F2 to go back into noise reduction. When you gather the statistics, look at the green and yellow stuff in the picture little frame. You want those as close together as possible so keep going back and forth highlighting until it's good. Then hit 'Cancel' and zoom out until you see the whole vocal, and highlight all of it, and hit F2 again and then hit 'Ok.' This should help somewhat.
 
hobbestheprince said:
There is a way to clean up the tracks manually in Cool Edit. I'm not sure if I'll get chastised here for this info, but I use it all the time and it gets rid of the hiss and stuff in the background. But when you do this, make sure you don't have any bleeding from the mic picking up your music while you rap. If so, the vocals will sound find, but have robotish artifacts in the background ... although sometimes I leave it to add an interesting sound when it's buried in with everything else :cool:

Ok, so you record your track, and then go into the main edit mode (where the wave is just on the one big screen ... you can get there by double-clicking your vocal in the multitrack timeline). By the way, make sure you have a little silence recorded before you start singing or rapping. When in the main window, I normally highlight the little silence that looks like a line or whatever. Then I hit the zoom button, the one with the magnifying glass and the yellow sheet of paper behind it. Then I highlight a tiny bit of that, and go to effects, and find the noise reduction tool. You'll want to hit the button that gathers the statistics for that little bit you highlighted ... if it's grayed out, then hit cancel and highlight a bit more of it and hit F2 to go back into noise reduction. When you gather the statistics, look at the green and yellow stuff in the picture little frame. You want those as close together as possible so keep going back and forth highlighting until it's good. Then hit 'Cancel' and zoom out until you see the whole vocal, and highlight all of it, and hit F2 again and then hit 'Ok.' This should help somewhat.
Click to expand...
That's what I do as well. It is recommended! Cool feature...
There is a simple version of it as well:
1 Highlight the silence part
2. Get a noise profile
3. Select whole track
4 Click OK

Important thing is to have this silent part as long as possible.
There is an option in A Audition for selecting whole track in NR window.
I don't think the same was in CEP so you need either to save the profile
and reuse it afterwords or use the profile on silent part so CEP will remember next time you'll use it on whole track.
 
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