Recording Metal Screams

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Bloom

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Okay so i am in a band and we have recorded our demo song. well everything except for the vocals. i do not have any recording equipment yet except i have bought a USB Microphone Mic Link Cable XLR on ebay and awaiting its arrival. this will plug into my mic and then into the computer. so here are my problems:
1) i have no clue on what program to use.
2) i would love it to sound exactly how it sounds coming through my p.a yet i have no idea how i can do this.
so what will be required to achieve this?

and i am very new to all of this so if there are basics that i will need to be knowing please inform me of those too.

cheers.
 
How did you record all the other instruments? Did you do it yourself or did you go to a studio? Because I don't see a problem with recording the vocals the same way you did all the other instruments unless you recorded all the other instruments "direct-in" to a digital recorder.

What type of computer do you have? If you have a Mac, you might as well use GarageBand. It's simple enough and gets the job done. Most people here will also recommend a program called "Reaper." It is free to use for 30 days.

To get the sound like you hear it through your P.A., you can use effects, or "plug-ins," such as equalization, compression, reverb, and echo. I can't quite explain what exact settings you should use since I don't know how your P.A. is set up, but once you choose an application and start playing around I'm sure you will get the sound you want.

BTW, I'm not sure what type of microphone you have, but it is usually best to record screams at a low volume through a "dynamic" microphone. Good luck!
 
the other instruments were done by ourselves on audacity, and used an electric drum kit and then guitars through an amp and the bass was through usb. so we all kind of did different stuff.

i have windows 7. so if this reaper program is good then thank you very much.

and how would i apply these effects or plug-ins?

i have a jts nx 8 vocal condensor mic, it a fairly high quality microphone and sounds awesome when we jam.

so pretty much i mess around with some stuff and i can recreate similar sound that is created by my p.a?
 
Yes. I'm actually not all that farmiliar Reaper so I couldn't tell you how to add plugins, but maybe somebody else can. I'll try to get somebody over here to help you.
 
Reaper is a great program for multitracking. It comes with a pretty usable host of plugins for eq, compression, reverbs, etc. There are a bunch of other free plug-ins that you can use with Reaper also... I'm not to familiar with Audacity, but I'll go on a limb and say that Reaper is miles ahead in terms of functionality. Reaper will work fine on Win7 64. http://www.reaper.fm/

So, the stuff you've already recorded, you should have a .wav file of each track you've done? right? You can drag those into Reaper, line em up so they're all in the right time, then you can adjust each track individually.

Unfortunately, I kinda doubt you're going to get the results you want with the mic-to-usb cable thing. It really depends though on how much you want to spend and how high you're expectations are.

Most people getting into this today are going to start out with some type of audio interface like an MAdudio Fast Track Pro or a Presonus Firebox or something along those lines- those have mic preamps built in and function as a "soundcard" to get audio into your computer. Those will give you at least 2 tracks at a time. If you want to record actual real drums, you'll look at an 8 channel interface like the FireStudio or one of the other dozen similar interfaces.
 
Thanks Jeff :)

I just thought of one more thing - does that USB mic link have Phantom Power? If not, you're going to need to get a battery powered phantom box for your condenser.

If you don't know this already, you can export all of your Audacity tracks as individual .WAVs by opening the Audacity file, going to the File menu, and clicking "Export Multiple."
 
my expecations are not high at all, it is just a demo. i would just like to have it so it sounds like it would live, or at least similar.

i don't know for sure but i would assume that this cable would be giving it power because the p.a is it's power source and the computer is a power source too. here is a link to one that is exactly the same

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-Microphone-...822?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f03547726

so i guess when i get the cable i will see how it works, i guess mucking around with the plug-ins and that could help because it is a direct link to the mic.

but this demo doesn't need to be perfected in any way it is pretty much just an example of our sound so we can submit to enter a comp where we can win a deal to record an e.p.

so i know you don't know what settings i have and whatever but will the plug-ins make similar effects as the p.a would?

and i have win 7 32 bit will reaper still function on that?
 
Hey Bloom. Reaper will work on pretty much anything. I've been using it on XP for the past 3 years or so. I just installed it on my new Win7 64 computer. Its probably the easiest to use software out there- and one of the more powerful ones too. Usually most pa's only have an eq section- no compresion or reverb.. so, yeah, Reaper will have what you need as far as plugins.

The cable you got doesn't have phantom power, but you only need phantom power for condenser mics. The JTS mic you listed is a dynamic mic, so thats not a problem. I'm not sure how you adjust the gain though on that cable. For $9 though, i guess its worth a try. But, my hopes would be pretty low with that.

Do you have a PA or a small mixer? Behringer makes a small 2 channel interface for about $30, but it doesn't have mic pres in it. If you had a PA or mixer, you might be able to incdorporate that.

I'd go d/l reaper and see if you can get your audio imported. Let us know how it goes when you get setup.
 
i installed it and i can import the other parts already compressed together, i have already bought that cable so i will just have to wait and see, and i do have a PA and it is pretty good. if i was to use the PA would i connect to the computer via the output on the PA?
 
Bloom said:
i installed it and i can import the other parts already compressed together, i have already bought that cable so i will just have to wait and see, and i do have a PA and it is pretty good. if i was to use the PA would i connect to the computer via the output on the PA?
Click to expand...

when you say compressed, you mean all of your other recorded instruments are already on the same track together, as opposed to having a separate file for each instrument? (which would really mean, they're already mixed- compression is something different. :) )

What kind of PA do you have? You'd want to be careful on what you connected to what between a computer and PA lol.
 
I looked at you mixer (online pics are pretty small). It looks like it does have a line output that you could connect to your computer. So, you could use the rca outputs and plug into your stock computer soundcard (assuming its a "line in", and not just a "mic in") with one of these http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:CjgVcgSWHPQGKM:http://www.frontx.com/pro/c216_042p2.gif&t=1 commonly availible at any Radio Shack... OR... you could get something like this for about $30 http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/behringer_uca202_u_control.jpg. Either case, you'll be using the mic pre in the PA and then connecting a line level signal into your computer. Even though the PA has what looks like a stereo output (a left and right rca), I couldn't see any way that you could pan each mic on the mic channels. Can you pan the mic to one side or the other??? If you can, then you could conceivable record 2 mono tracks at one.
 
Strangely enough, that P.A. is very close to a model I have used before at my friend's house.

So here's what you could do: plug your mic into channel 1, take a 1/4 TS to 1/8 TS cable from the left stereo output on the P.A. to the soundcard input on your computer, and set your recording device in Reaper to the onboard soundcard. This won't give the best sound quality possible, but like you said it's just a rough demo. Plus, you will be able to use the P.A. EQ and reverb settings if you wish, although I'd advise against it because you can have more control and less regrets with the Reaper plugins.
 
Oops - sorry Jeff. I submitted my last post before I saw your most recent one :rolleyes:
 
thanks for all your help guitarplyer82 and jeff been a big help, i am going away for a few days so if you find out any new stuff just post it here, and really thank you so much

have a good one.
 
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