Distorted sound...

[Sputnik10]

Hi... I have just get all things to work and Im recording stuff constantly.
The thing is, I plug my pre amp into my soundblaster cards line in and it works fine... almost too good I thought at first but now Im getting disturbed by some distortion when I sing high... I think I know some of the reasons though.
One is that even though the mic isnt "above" that ratio on the computer where you see the recording is set too high the mic have its own ratio offcourse... must be further away from the mic.
The second reason might be that Im using this "beginner" soundblaster card that really shouldnt be able to record as good as any real musik cards in the market... there must be some difference in sound quality

So my questions is... is there any recommendations how to record vocals both low and high with no dist and close enough for a "tight" sound?

Secondly, how big difference is the soundquality between a standard comp. card and real musik card?

Sorry for the very "newbie" questions
Thanks!

 

[notbradsohner]

moving to a delta or audiophile card will have an amazing effect on your vocals. If you care using a soundblaster now, get a Audiophile 24/96 by M-audio. Only 100 bucks, and its a nice card.

 

[mattamatta]

just get as close to the mic as you want to ge the type of sound you want, and set the levels so that the loud parts are a bit below clipping.

When you mix it, you'll almost always want to use a compressor (there's tons of nice plugins out there, even some pretty good free ones, if you dont have any) on the vocals. It will basically squash the loud parts down, and then bring the whole thing up, so the difference between loudest and quietest parts is smaller.

A compressor is one of the most important types of gear / plugins that you'll use when mixing, as it is what helps you fix these problems with the dynamic range.

For example, if you sing uncompressed along with a typical rock mix, the quiet parts of the vocals will be so low, that even the very lowest parts of say, an electric guitar, will completely drown it out. So compression helps it fit in better, as long as it's used right - too much compression will kill all the dynamics, and make the sound "flat" and "lifeless". But that's a topic that can take a lifetime to master.

And yeah, using something like an Audiophile will make it much easier to get good quality recordings.

 

[13th_Omen]

*Tip

I use multiple vocals tracks. For screams and louder angry vocals I record a seperate vocal track. This makes it easir to blend singing types without having to alter the other "quieter" parts. Make sense?