Vocal Recording Help!

[Skerne]

Hi everyone,

I'm a complete newbie to recording, and would like to do some vocal recording at home. I was hoping to ask for advice on equipment. I don't play any instruments, so it would be purely to record to ready-made tracks made by friends and the like.

I have a pretty decent computer, so i'm hoping I don't need to upgrade it to be able to do this (Core 2 Duo processor, 500GB HDD's, etc).

What I was hoping to do is use my bedroom as a base for all my recording equipment, and as my computer is particularly noisy, relocate the microphone to a spare room smaller than my room where nothing makes sound, so there wouldn't be an almighty humming in the backround. I would also use headphones on an extension cable so I could hear the track so I could sing along to it.

I was hoping to ask what equipment I need to accomplish recording to ready made tracks, and that sounds pretty decent. Of course, i'm not asking extreme studio quality, just something that doesn't sound like i'm singing through a £20 PC headset.

I have a maximum budget of £500, which is probably pretty low for this kind of thing, but I wanted to give it a try and see what I could do. There is always the opportunity to shell out and upgrade later but for now this is the best I can do.

Any advice on getting started on some home vocal recording would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

 

[J-Lane]

I would start by checking out Reaper. It is a very good program for $60 (us). Then you will need an audio interface. These can vary in price as well as features so I recommend going to your local music store for advice on that. They may also be able to recommend a good mic for you. As you get into this hobby you will start to realize that it is not a cheap hobby because your audio quality will only be as good as your weakest link in the chain. For example when you try to mix stuff down and listen to it on another stereo you will find it sounds terrible so you will need to get some studio monitors. Then you will notice that there is a lot of noise and echo from the room you are recording in. That means it's time for some room treatment. Then you will find some thing else that you need, better cables, better mic, new plugins, etc.... Good luck and hope you find it as enjoyable as the rest of us.

 

[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time):

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and tested suggestions that WORK: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm
(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)
Another good article: Choosing an audio interface - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/audiointerfaces.htm


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)