Eurythmic
majordomo plasticomo
WEBCYAN said:I spent all my time on actual songwriting and forgot to include ways to get it to my computer.
Hey, you got that part right, though. Nothing's more important than the song.
Hey, you got that part right, though. Nothing's more important than the song.
Slackmaster2K
Gone
Sorry dude, but you have one of the worst soundcard chipsets in the history of soundcards. You could get by with a cheap SB Live! Value or something similar for a while, but it'll sound like shit. A big step up is something like the m-Audio Audiophile ($150) or Delta44 ($250+) which are both 24bit cards (the Delta44 being a 4in/4out card w/breakout box). But can you add a soundcard to your machine? What kind of machine is it?
Regardless you need pres because you can't just go plugging a dynamic mic into your soundcard mic or line input and expect good results; it doesn't work that way. The audio buddy that Gidge recommended is probably something that can get you started. The ART Tube MP is another common starter pre that sells at about $80-100 a channel. But blah, this is a whole 'nother topic.
Anyhow, for a decent 24bit starter soundcard and a good starter preamp you're looking at around $250 minimum. That's before you even think about a mic. If you go with an SB Live Value you can shave a good chunk off that price, but I really don't recommend sinking your money into another cheap card.
As far as mics go, lose the whole notion that "dynamic mics are more for the stage and condensor mics are more for the studio." This is completely false. First of all, various dynamic mics are used FREQUENTLY in the studio, as are various condensor microphones. Take a look at the mic list of any reputable studio and you'll soon find that microphone choice is a top concern. Your sound sources are really going to make or break ya. Microphones are chosen based on how they perform under certain conditions. If it was as simple as dynamic vs. condensor, this forum wouldn't have to exist! Entire books are written about this topic!
The SM57 is a standard, but you won't want to use it for acoustic guitar and depending on your vocal style, you probably won't like it much for vocals. The cheap chinese condensor mics mentioned above are pretty damn good in my amature book!
So then once you get your cheap chinese microphone, you realize that your room sounds like shit, so you gotta do something about that. Oh, and your computer makes too much noise, gotta find a fix for that right away. And then suddenly you can hear your cheap preamp and you want something bettter. And your cheap soundcard. Ah joy!
Slackmaster 2000
Regardless you need pres because you can't just go plugging a dynamic mic into your soundcard mic or line input and expect good results; it doesn't work that way. The audio buddy that Gidge recommended is probably something that can get you started. The ART Tube MP is another common starter pre that sells at about $80-100 a channel. But blah, this is a whole 'nother topic.
Anyhow, for a decent 24bit starter soundcard and a good starter preamp you're looking at around $250 minimum. That's before you even think about a mic. If you go with an SB Live Value you can shave a good chunk off that price, but I really don't recommend sinking your money into another cheap card.
As far as mics go, lose the whole notion that "dynamic mics are more for the stage and condensor mics are more for the studio." This is completely false. First of all, various dynamic mics are used FREQUENTLY in the studio, as are various condensor microphones. Take a look at the mic list of any reputable studio and you'll soon find that microphone choice is a top concern. Your sound sources are really going to make or break ya. Microphones are chosen based on how they perform under certain conditions. If it was as simple as dynamic vs. condensor, this forum wouldn't have to exist!
Entire books are written about this topic!The SM57 is a standard, but you won't want to use it for acoustic guitar and depending on your vocal style, you probably won't like it much for vocals. The cheap chinese condensor mics mentioned above are pretty damn good in my amature book!
So then once you get your cheap chinese microphone, you realize that your room sounds like shit, so you gotta do something about that. Oh, and your computer makes too much noise, gotta find a fix for that right away. And then suddenly you can hear your cheap preamp and you want something bettter. And your cheap soundcard. Ah joy!
Slackmaster 2000
Eurythmic
majordomo plasticomo
Uh, wow? I had no idea those cards were so inexpensive. And the Delta44 for just a shade more than the Audigy eX? Maybe I need to rethink my next soundcard purchase. I always assumed that those cards were much more costly.
M
Mark H.
New member
I want to back up Slackmaster and the others who recommended the Shure SM 57 as the right place to begin. I recently bought the 3DAudioinc.com microphone test CD (49 mics), and the surprise was that the $80 SM57 sounded significantly better (more musical, less colored) than several of the other microphones tested, even though the other mics ranged from $500 to more than $20,000 each.
The point is that Shure is able to provide an unparalleled level of musical quality at the price point due to the sheer volume of SM57s that they sell every year. If the SM 57 were made by a smaller company, it would be competitive with mics costing $250.
You said:
"If i move away from the mic the bass does decrease, so does the entire sound. It will litereally pick nothing up thats not within 2" of it."
That's not a microphone problem -- that's the lack of any sort of mic preamp.
Because this forum is computer-based, it's sometimes easy to forget that the least expensive way to get your music recorded is still cassette tape. Even a decent $40 to $80 Radio Shack tape recorder will have a microphone input (which means it contains circuitry to bring the microphone signal up to line level). Granted, the mic preamp circuitry in a $40 cassette deck isn't going to be studio quality, but it's going to be vastly better than trying to run a mic output directly to your computer's sound card without ANY preamplification.
Also, the least expensive PZM mic from Crown (the Soundgrabber II) can be found on the Internet for $60, and the sound it will capture and record on a $40 cassette deck, even though mono, will be superior to some set-ups costing much more.
At the next level, a $200 minidisc recorder/player and an $85 Sony ECM-907 stereo microphone can lay down stereo tracks that are truly impressive for the cost. Scottish singer/songwriter Martin Stephenson stuck a Sony MZR-70 and the above-mentioned mic in the side pocket of his guitar case, hiked up to a centuries-old, abandoned stone church in the Scottish highlands, which provided natural reverb, and recorded an entire album of song and acoustic guitar that will blow your mind with its quality.
In our quest for "the best," it's important not to miss the opportunities to do things on a shoestring along the way. Otherwise, we're always waiting to have the perfect "stuff" before we start experimenting (and learning) the art of recording. The challenge is not to make a great recording with half a million dollars worth of studio equipment; it's to make a solid recording with whatever you can afford and have on hand, even if it's next to nothing.
Best wishes,
Mark H.
The point is that Shure is able to provide an unparalleled level of musical quality at the price point due to the sheer volume of SM57s that they sell every year. If the SM 57 were made by a smaller company, it would be competitive with mics costing $250.
You said:
"If i move away from the mic the bass does decrease, so does the entire sound. It will litereally pick nothing up thats not within 2" of it."
That's not a microphone problem -- that's the lack of any sort of mic preamp.
Because this forum is computer-based, it's sometimes easy to forget that the least expensive way to get your music recorded is still cassette tape. Even a decent $40 to $80 Radio Shack tape recorder will have a microphone input (which means it contains circuitry to bring the microphone signal up to line level). Granted, the mic preamp circuitry in a $40 cassette deck isn't going to be studio quality, but it's going to be vastly better than trying to run a mic output directly to your computer's sound card without ANY preamplification.
Also, the least expensive PZM mic from Crown (the Soundgrabber II) can be found on the Internet for $60, and the sound it will capture and record on a $40 cassette deck, even though mono, will be superior to some set-ups costing much more.
At the next level, a $200 minidisc recorder/player and an $85 Sony ECM-907 stereo microphone can lay down stereo tracks that are truly impressive for the cost. Scottish singer/songwriter Martin Stephenson stuck a Sony MZR-70 and the above-mentioned mic in the side pocket of his guitar case, hiked up to a centuries-old, abandoned stone church in the Scottish highlands, which provided natural reverb, and recorded an entire album of song and acoustic guitar that will blow your mind with its quality.
In our quest for "the best," it's important not to miss the opportunities to do things on a shoestring along the way. Otherwise, we're always waiting to have the perfect "stuff" before we start experimenting (and learning) the art of recording. The challenge is not to make a great recording with half a million dollars worth of studio equipment; it's to make a solid recording with whatever you can afford and have on hand, even if it's next to nothing.
Best wishes,
Mark H.
Henrik
Member
Webcyan,
if it's basically for this one project you want the mic, maybe you're better off spending the money in an inexpensive commercial recording studio?
You could record all your synths and machines at home, and make some demo recordings of your vocals, so you are well rehearsed and know exactly what you're going to do. Then bring the soundfiles of your keyboards to the studio and record the vocals there (make sure you know exactly what format the studio uses so you don't spend all your studio time getting the file transfer to work properly). $100 should be able to buy you 5-10 hours of recording, and this would include an engineer who hopefully knows what he's doing. If you can afford it, you could also get a decent mix done by the engineer.
Another way - you could rent a high quality mic and voice channel (preamp+compressor+EQ) over the weekend from your local dealer and do it all yourself.
Just another way of approaching the problem! When your record gets succesful, you can buy all the mics you want and do the next record yourself.
Good luck
/Henrik
if it's basically for this one project you want the mic, maybe you're better off spending the money in an inexpensive commercial recording studio?
You could record all your synths and machines at home, and make some demo recordings of your vocals, so you are well rehearsed and know exactly what you're going to do. Then bring the soundfiles of your keyboards to the studio and record the vocals there (make sure you know exactly what format the studio uses so you don't spend all your studio time getting the file transfer to work properly). $100 should be able to buy you 5-10 hours of recording, and this would include an engineer who hopefully knows what he's doing. If you can afford it, you could also get a decent mix done by the engineer.
Another way - you could rent a high quality mic and voice channel (preamp+compressor+EQ) over the weekend from your local dealer and do it all yourself.
Just another way of approaching the problem! When your record gets succesful, you can buy all the mics you want and do the next record yourself.
Good luck
/Henrik
Last edited:
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