HELP With Dynamic Mic to Pc

[x3x]

What do i need to use a dynamic mic on my pc ?. I know i need an XLR > 3.5 mm cable but what about audio interface/mixer or preamp . I won't be doing any professional recording tho, i just wanna replace the crappy pc usb mic that i have. If i plan to buy a wireless dynamic mic system , can i hook it up the same way ?

 

[Bobbsy]

The problem you'll have using an XLR to 3.5mm jack is that this will feed your mic through the in built sound card on your computer. If you think your USB mic is crap I can pretty much guarantee that you'll find the built in sound card even crappier. Built in cards put their emphasis on playback for videos and games and have a mic input designed more for Skype calls and such rather than quality recording.

You're best bet, I'm afraid, will be to buy a basic USB interface with an XLR input. This'll have a mic pre amp built in and will give you much better quality than the inbuilt sound card even at the basic end of the market. There are lots of suitable interfaces...have a look at a Lexicon Alpha, Tascam US100 or M Audio Fast Track Mk II maybe.

If you buy a radio mic, it'll have a receiver box that you can plug into the same interface--some will use the XLR mic level input and others will use a different cable and go into a line level input. Any of the interfaces I mentioned can handle either.

 

[x3x]

The problem you'll have using an XLR to 3.5mm jack is that this will feed your mic through the in built sound card on your computer. If you think your USB mic is crap I can pretty much guarantee that you'll find the built in sound card even crappier. Built in cards put their emphasis on playback for videos and games and have a mic input designed more for Skype calls and such rather than quality recording.

You're best bet, I'm afraid, will be to buy a basic USB interface with an XLR input. This'll have a mic pre amp built in and will give you much better quality than the inbuilt sound card even at the basic end of the market. There are lots of suitable interfaces...have a look at a Lexicon Alpha, Tascam US100 or M Audio Fast Track Mk II maybe.

If you buy a radio mic, it'll have a receiver box that you can plug into the same interface--some will use the XLR mic level input and others will use a different cable and go into a line level input. Any of the interfaces I mentioned can handle either.

What i wanna do is to record music/vocal thru sound card's stereo mix ( its like karaoke, if you heard of paltalk then you know what i mean ), so if i get an usb audio interface .. it still work like that ?. usb mic and stereo mix won't work well together , thats why i want to connect it to mic/line in port using 3.5 mm cable.

 

[Massive Master]

You'll need some sort of preamp to bring the mic to line level.

 

[ecc83]

What i wanna do is to record music/vocal thru sound card's stereo mix ( its like karaoke, if you heard of paltalk then you know what i mean ), so if i get an usb audio interface .. it still work like that ?. usb mic and stereo mix won't work well together , thats why i want to connect it to mic/line in port using 3.5 mm cable.

Let me get this clear. Do you want to record voice AND stereo music on the PC? If so an Audio Interface would not really be the best answer. Not, I hasten to add because of any quality factor but because you need to record effectively three sources at once. This you can do with a small mixer.

The mic goes into an XLR input and is "panned" to appear to come from the centre of the stereo image. The stereo music goes into a pair of "line" inputs. The result is a recording of the music with voice "dubbed" onto it. It has been pointed out that the soundcard in most computers is pretty dire, but they are not all universally awful. The sound from this HP g6 W7/64 laptop is actually quite good.

If the above is what you want to do you would need a pretty sophisticated (read expensive!) AI. A mixer on the other hand will run you about $50US and $10 for suitable cables. If you then find that the PC sound really is unacceptable you will have lost nothing because you just need a very basic AI and feed the mixer into that.

Note however that the mixer needs to feed a line input on the computer. Now these are rare but it is usually possible to crank the gain of the mic input right down to accomodate a mixer signal.

Dave.

 

[mjbphotos]

Actually easy to do with an interface. If the music (backing track) is on your computer already, you just need to insert the file into a track in your DAW, then record your voice over into a new track, then mix.

If the music (backing track) is in an outside device and you want to record it into your computer/DAW at the same time as your voice, this will require an interface with at 2 least 2 line inputs and one mic preamp that can be used simultaneously. Plenty of them around in the sub-$250 range.
If you don't need to record your voice at the same time as the music (backing track) you can get away with an interface that will allow 2 simultaneous tracks to be recorded, has 2 line inputs and 1 mic preamp (a shared input might work). There are many interfaces around in the sub-$200 range that will do this.

The mixer solution that ecc83 proposes would be used for an external source of the music plus mic, but woudl nto allow you to adjust the vocals after recording because they would be on the same (stereo) track as the music.

 

[ecc83]

Actually easy to do with an interface. If the music (backing track) is on your computer already, you just need to insert the file into a track in your DAW, then record your voice over into a new track, then mix.

If the music (backing track) is in an outside device and you want to record it into your computer/DAW at the same time as your voice, this will require an interface with at 2 least 2 line inputs and one mic preamp that can be used simultaneously. Plenty of them around in the sub-$250 range.
If you don't need to record your voice at the same time as the music (backing track) you can get away with an interface that will allow 2 simultaneous tracks to be recorded, has 2 line inputs and 1 mic preamp (a shared input might work). There are many interfaces around in the sub-$200 range that will do this.

The mixer solution that ecc83 proposes would be used for an external source of the music plus mic, but woudl nto allow you to adjust the vocals after recording because they would be on the same (stereo) track as the music.

That last is so Mike but I am not aware of any AI's that allow panning of a mic input? Thus the OP will end up with the vocals on either left or right. (save with Samplitude where you can record one input on two channels)

Certainly if he gets a 4 input AI he can record everything he needs but I would guess AI's of the price of the eminently suiatble NI KA6 would be out of budget?

There has also been no mention of recording software so far and those insert tricks will be a bit daunting to a noob.

Dave.