recording really quiet vocals

J

jsebastiano

New member
Well, first off.... I'd just like to mention, I had already written 100 times on the blackboard, "I will not post torrent links in hr forums"... doh! ok, anywhoo.. good to be back...my apologies for that brain fart.... down to business..

I've been working on rapist a bit and fixed the out of tune guitars... not really fixed just rerecorded them... now i'm tweaking the shit outta the vox and doing a few new takes as well...

Problem:

The verses are intentionally very quiet...kinda in an amused to death kind of delivery (those of you not familiar with that roger waters track... maybe some more of the quiet nin stuff...) anyway, the voc is so quiet that it sorta blends with the line level, which is some unpleasant noise....

I am recording direct into my soundcard with no interface.. uncompressed it is passable but not tight... compressed it is tight...but fucking noisy... any suggestions... should i cave in and actually buy an interface? maybe my mic just sucks...i'm at a loss...araghaghahghh!!!!
 
Buy an interface. The key thing isn't the absolute level, it's the signal to noise ratio. If your mic input on your computer is typical, you're lucky if the inherent noise level is better than -60dB and I've seen a lot worse.

Any decent interface should give you a noise level of -85dB or better--so you get 25 or more extra dB to play with when you buy an interface.

As for your mic, it depends what it is. Some are noisy, some less so. What you're trying to do will show up any problems though.

The other things I'd mention are that for the sort of thing you want to do you want a really quiet, dead space to record in even if it means sitting in your closet with a quilt over your head. (I kid you not. I've recorded reporter voice overs that way in Baghdad hotels when the cruise missiles were roaring by.)

Second, even if you start with a really quiet track, once you start mixing you'll have to bring up the level anyway. The trick is that your performance has to SOUND like you're speaking really quietly even when you bring up the level.

Bob
 
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