Very Basic Voice Monitoring

  • Thread starter Thread starter doopcircus
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doopcircus

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Hi everyone, I looked up for this info in the forum's archive and didn't find anything. I'm looking for some very simple and basic way to monitor my voice and my strumming while I'm trying new songs. Years ago I used a simple recorder (tape recorder ! :)) with a headphone that allowed to monitor live what I was doing ... with a little amplification. The internal perception of our own voice is always a little distortes, so this way I could have a better perception of what I was doing.
I'd like to do the same with my laptop: there's some basic and free software out there that allows to do that ? Not recording, just sending back the live sound he's getting from your mic ?
Thanks for the help !
 
I think monitoring live will not give you the result you are looking for. Recording then listening will provide much better feedback.

Depending on your country of residence, since you have a laptop, you can get a USB interface with Preamps, plug either straight in if you have electric and get an Amp simulator, or mic it. But your looking at for a decent audio interface, $100-200 2 channel interface. No mixer required. Play it back out on decent speakers (you can always upgrade to the level most of the guys here have later if you choose to pursue.

A DAW - Reaper is always a good cheap in ($60) but you can try it forever without purchase, you just get a nag window. But after it goes away, it is fully functional. There are many trail versions or light versions of others out there, but this is the go to DAW for a low end. You can do a little research and find one, they all are pretty good.

If you do as suggested, you can play, listen and monitor through head phones as you play, record it and do a more in depth critique of your performance. Just hearing yourself playing I don't think adds much to help with your objective.
 
Thanks for answering. I need the live monitoring to fine tune my voice and try different approaches with the singing. That's way is something more related with monitoring than recording and I have to do it in real time :)
What I needed, for this first set up, is something not hardware related (for the first step my usb mic will do), more a software that gives the audio feedback in real time :)
 
doopcircus said:
Thanks for answering. I need the live monitoring to fine tune my voice and try different approaches with the singing. That's way is something more related with monitoring than recording and I have to do it in real time :)
What I needed, for this first set up, is something not hardware related (for the first step my usb mic will do), more a software that gives the audio feedback in real time :)
Click to expand...

What is your USB mic? Most I have seen have a built in headphone jack for monitoring.
 
If you are definitely set on a USB mic then the very thing is reviewed in the current, April issue of Sound on Sound.

The Audio-Technica AT2020 USB+ gets a very favourable report by no less than the editor Paul White. I am with the others here and think an AI, mic and later monitoring on speakers will give you a better idea of your performance and be vastly more flexible in the future should you get the "H R Bug"!

But the 2020 USB+ is the best bet I have seen so far.

Dave.
 
Very interesting, I'm gonna bookmark right away. Now, about a good free software to use with the mic ? Something to get the singnal live and not after the recording ?
 
doopcircus said:
Very interesting, I'm gonna bookmark right away. Now, about a good free software to use with the mic ? Something to get the singnal live and not after the recording ?
Click to expand...

Oddly the mic does not seem to come with any basic recording software. Reaper has been mentioned but perhaps an overkill for your present, simple requirements?

Audacity might be better, not my common reccy for recording but probably ok in this instance. But, if you want a built in MP3 encoder and easy Cloud access, do investigate MAGIX Samplitude Silver Cloud.
Totally free (no nagging!) and looks and works like a "proper" DAW.

Dave.
 
Audacity will do fine for me: I just need to check out if there's the option to hear yourself live.
 
I tried installing to Audacity but I can't feed any option to monitor (read: listen) that I'm recording in real time ...
 
Should be in one or other of theses setup menus which you get to from...
"Edit"> "Preferences".

Dave.
 

Attachments

You're my hero :)
The problem now is I'm noticing a terrible 1/2 sec latency. I'v also got on ipad: there's an audacity versione for ipad too or something analogous: the latency there is much lower, I guess
 
doopcircus said:
You're my hero :)
The problem now is I'm noticing a terrible 1/2 sec latency. I'v also got on ipad: there's an audacity versione for ipad too or something analogous: the latency there is much lower, I guess
Click to expand...

Ha! Ha! Ha! Welcome to the millisecond merry-go-round!

The USB mic with ZLMon should fix that but this is just one reason why the general reccy here is for a decent audio interface that will run ASIO drivers.

Dave.
 
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