Too complicated for me to figure out, please help

  • Thread starter Thread starter El Baroda
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El Baroda

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I have just bought a condenser microphone, a simple mixer, and a dedicated SD-based recorder. My mixer only has one set of RCA output (L/R channels) and one set of RCA input (L/R channels) plus 1 mic input. I connect my karaoke player to the RCA input of my mixer and the mic to the mic input. I then connect the mixer to the amp input, and then the amp output to the recorder. Since there's only one RCA input/output connection between the components, the final recording is in mono. I would like to have separate tracks (stereo) for the backing track and for the mic, so that I can manipulate either track on my PC afterwards. I have been surfing the net for an easy way to do this but so far no luck. I was thinking of connecting the karaoke player and the mixer (mic signal only) to the amp via two RCA Y splitters (i.e, the karaoke player to the L channel and the mixer to the right channel of the amp, or vice versa). Would this work and would it be safe? I've read that combining the L and R signals via a Y splitter is not advisable. Your comments and suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
What recorder?

I may be misunderstanding what you're trying to do, but I'm not seeing that you need either a mixer or an amp if you're just trying to record karaoke sing alongs...
 
I am using a Gemini DRP-1 but without a mixer I was unable to control the mic recording level, as the karaoke machine has very basic mic interface. With the mixer I am now able to do that but I think the recording is one track only. I am trying to find a way to split the recording to I have separate tracks for the background music and for the mic. That would allow me to separately enhance each track via a computer.
I hope this makes it clearer. Thanks.
 
If I understand you correctly, what you would like to do with your computer is have the backing as a stereo track, have the vocal as a separate track, do some tinkering with each, then mix them together. Is that right?

If so, you can simplify the process.

1 Transfer the backing track straight into the computer.

2 Load the backing track into a program such as Audacity (which is free).

3 Play this track in Audacity, while recording the vocal on another track in Audacity.

4 If you want low-tech, just plug the mike into the PC's sound card. This probably will be a bit clunky and may not sound very nice.

Alternatively, you could get pretty good sound by using the mixer this way.

Firstly, do steps 1 & 2 above.

Then connect the karaoke machine to the mixer and the mixer to the SD recorder.

3 Play the backing track through the mixer, and sing along to it.

4 Record the vocal but not the backing track (you should be able to configure this on the mixer).

5 Transfer the recorded vocal on the SD recorder into the PC and into Audacity and tinker away.
 
What is the make and model of mixer, amp and recorder? Each one is a little different, so it's hard to give specific advice without knowing exactly what you have.
 
Thank you very much for your reply. Yes, you understood me right. Your suggestion is most probably the best way to do it. With respect, I have tried recording via the computer (I think I used Mixcraft) but I really would prefer singing and recording in front of my stereo system in my music room, where I can sing sitting down or standing up. My computer room is very small and messy and not really conducive to singing. Will surely give your suggestion a try. Best regards and happy holidays, mate.
 
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