I NEED HELP WITH RECORDING please help!!!

[wakeboardguy49]

hey guys, can anyone please tell me how to record my words in my song separately becuz it sounds like crap when i make videos with the sound. does anyone kno what kind of software to use? please? do i need an expensive microphone or do i need to update my sound card or what? i want to make a music video and my lyrics are awesome. but i kno i wont get the respect if its not clear and stuff. i kno to make my video separately from my words but i have no idea what to record into and i would like it to sound clear and i really dont wanna spend a lot of money. any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. im using a brand new hp laptop. thanks

 

[stealth_prod]

First suggestion is go to the newbie section of this forum and look around. Most of your questions could already be answered. Second, if your just looking for something cheap and not to interested in quality go pick yourself up a USB condensor mic and just plug it in and go. Most of them come with software to get you started. They can get your vocals recorded but you are sparing alot (and I mean ALOT) of quality for price so you must decide where your priorities are with your music.

I will tell you this, if you are trying to be serious about your music, you should not just go the cheap route. How can anyone take you serious if you dont first?

 

[Dani Pace]

I hope you have a couple of hundred bucks you can spend, I'm going to try to get you started for around that amount. First you need an interface, the built in soundcard is not good enough for decent audio recording. For around $80=$90 you can get a USB interface (M=Audio is a good place to start) to replace the soundcard and give you the right place to plug in a decent mic. Second you are going to need at least 1 decent mic (a Sure SM57, around $100 or Audio technica PRO30 around $80. You may need mic cables and a stand) which you can use for voice or instruments. Third you need some recording software (the media player recorder will not do what you need) to be able to record multiple tracks, overdubs, edits etc... There are programs like Audacity and Reaper which you can download for free which should get you off to a start. Download tutorials along with the software, this makes learning the software a lot easier. You will also need a way to hear what you are recording (mixing etc...) real monitors would be best, decent headphones are a more affordable option and may work well in your situation. That's about as minimum as is practical. One more thing you will need is patience, how much of this you supply is entirely up to you, but from personal experience I can safely say that patience is a vital part of any studio set up.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

I hope you have a couple of hundred bucks you can spend, I'm going to try to get you started for around that amount. First you need an interface, the built in soundcard is not good enough for decent audio recording. For around $80=$90 you can get a USB interface (M=Audio is a good place to start) to replace the soundcard and give you the right place to plug in a decent mic. Second you are going to need at least 1 decent mic (a Sure SM57, around $100 or Audio technica PRO30 around $80. You may need mic cables and a stand) which you can use for voice or instruments. Third you need some recording software (the media player recorder will not do what you need) to be able to record multiple tracks, overdubs, edits etc... There are programs like Audacity and Reaper which you can download for free which should get you off to a start. Download tutorials along with the software, this makes learning the software a lot easier. You will also need a way to hear what you are recording (mixing etc...) real monitors would be best, decent headphones are a more affordable option and may work well in your situation. That's about as minimum as is practical. One more thing you will need is patience, how much of this you supply is entirely up to you, but from personal experience I can safely say that patience is a vital part of any studio set up.

+1 on all that (Though Reaper isn't technically free; you can download and use it free for 30 days. After that, they want you to pay $50 (but they don't force you.) It's definitely worth that $50 if you're even a little serious about recording)

As for monitoring. If you're going to go the headphones route, I'd recommend MoreMe headphones.