Total Newbie seeking help!

[Kokonuht]

Hey guys, so I'm a TOTAL newbie at recording. I have NO idea at ALL. I was hoping you guys could help me out here!

I just got a Samson C01U USB Condenser Mic. It came along with SONAR Cakewalk. So I'm planning to make an A Capella for the song "F**kin' Perfect" by P!nk.

I just recorded the main track over and over and over again. It sounds decent but it's not up to par to those that I hear on youtube. My vocals aren't THAT great but it's like I sound better when I recorded with my iPad in the toilet. I'm assuming it's the reverb or echo or something (I don't know what you call it).

The voice just sounds really really raw. Like just fished out-of-the-sea RAW.

There's also noise when I record. How do I remove noise? Oh and you don't always hear the vocalists breathing on recordings, how do I fix this? I tend to hear myself breathing quite a bit. Doesn't happen when I record on the iPad though. Could it be that I'm too close to the microphone or breathing too loudly? It could be my vocal technique as well and I'll check on that. I was wondering if there was a way to edit the breathing sound and noise.

Or it could be that it doesn't have a backing track hence why it sounds so weird?

Example, when I hear youtubers singing, there's this slight echo and the voice doesn't sound that raw.

So yeah, I was hoping if someone here could guide me with this stuff!

Also, is it recommended if I use Audacity since I'm a total newbie.

Here's a short demo I recorded of another song called Torn - Natalie Imbruglia. I apologize for random lyrical errors, just did it for the sake of recording as a demo.


Thank you

 

[mjbphotos]

All of the above. Home recording isn't something you can just "do perfect" with a mic and a DAW. It takes lots of practice and experimenting. Yes, reverb, compression and EQ may help your vocals. To get rid of the breathing noise between phrases, apply a gate or automate the volume.
Noise? Most likely caused by using a cheap USB microphone. Decent microphone + good audio interface = less noise, better A-to-D conversion, hence better sound.
Read the stickys at the top of this section of the forum regarding computer recording.

 

[Armistice]

Read. And Audacity is fine for very simple, but it's not actually a multi-track recording program, more an audio editor.

 

[ConorC]

Hi Koknuht,
This sounds pretty good to be honest. Just a couple of points.
1. To get rid of the breathing, jsst select the parts where you are not singing and delete them, breathing gone.
2. When singing the louder parts there is a little distortion, which is called clipping. To combat this you need to turn down your recording volume a little so that this distortion doesn't happen. Once you have the recording you can increase the volume.
3. As MJB said, a little EQ to remove unwanted frequencies and a little compression to even out the volume, then add a little reverb and it will sound beautiful.

 

[NewEra]

Hey! I'm not much of a newbie, but I'm trying to work my way up and get practice in mixing and mastering! If you can private message me, I can get it mixed and mastered for you real quick(within an hour). Message me!!

 

[Wonka]

"I'm assuming it's the reverb or echo or something (I don't know what you call it)." Your recording is very dry. It is not reverb making it that way - you are not using reverb. You will be blown away once you add some verbs.

Also use a pop filter on the mike.