Bit of advice needed re: recording

pajodublin

Today i bought a condenser mic and a Mic-preamp
I have a laptop
what else will i need to record high quality vocals on to the laptop?
i have software.
I dont think going in through the mic input on the laptop from the mic preamp would be sufficient

thanks

Pajo

PaulBrewer

Post in the main forum to get answers.

dav nagle

pajodublin wrote: »

Today i bought a condenser mic and a Mic-preamp
I have a laptop
what else will i need to record high quality vocals on to the laptop?
i have software.
I dont think going in through the mic input on the laptop from the mic preamp would be sufficient

thanks

Pajo

You will need a dead space

pajodublin

dav nagle wrote: »

You will need a dead space

quite helpful indeed

MODS can you move this to the main board
thanks

dav nagle

pajodublin wrote: »

quite helpful indeed

MODS can you move this to the main board
thanks

You can spend loads of money on pre amps and microphones but nothing will get you a cleaner sound then a space that is dead for you to record in. You could start by building a room that has aurelex acoustic paneling for your vocals an guitars etc, noise kills everything good about audio so even if you had the best of the best pre amps and mics a noisy space will destroy that investment.

xual

Are you using a usb recording device ad if so what software ( just need to get an idea of what plugins you can get. )

For vocals you should use

1. A good quality mic
2. An optional mic preamp
3. A usb/firewire based recording device
4. protools, cubase, ableton e.t.c
5. solid vst or tras compressor and eq

I have a studio projects dual diaphram mic, pop-hiss guard, mbox pro, protools, and the waves renaisance suite so there is a good compressor and eq plugin.

I have a yamaha audiogram3 and cubase ai on another machine and use the VST waves set on that too.

The space you are recording in really adds to or destroys the recording. Just like putting a good speaker into a ****ty cabinet really wrecks the sound.

Like the lads said. Kitting out a good room will make a big difference. If your rig is mobile you could try using warehouses ( if you have any mates with them )

The best advice I can give you is try and get the sound thats going into the mic to be the best you possibly can. Don't be fooled into thinking that there is some magical effect you can add to make a bad effort sound better. if you get the sound into the mic right the effects will certainly help you balance it to near perfection.

Best of luck with it

pajodublin

xual wrote: »

Are you using a usb recording device ad if so what software ( just need to get an idea of what plugins you can get. )

For vocals you should use

1. A good quality mic
2. An optional mic preamp
3. A usb/firewire based recording device
4. protools, cubase, ableton e.t.c
5. solid vst or tras compressor and eq

I have a studio projects dual diaphram mic, pop-hiss guard, mbox pro, protools, and the waves renaisance suite so there is a good compressor and eq plugin.

I have a yamaha audiogram3 and cubase ai on another machine and use the VST waves set on that too.

The space you are recording in really adds to or destroys the recording. Just like putting a good speaker into a ****ty cabinet really wrecks the sound.

Like the lads said. Kitting out a good room will make a big difference. If your rig is mobile you could try using warehouses ( if you have any mates with them )

The best advice I can give you is try and get the sound thats going into the mic to be the best you possibly can. Don't be fooled into thinking that there is some magical effect you can add to make a bad effort sound better. if you get the sound into the mic right the effects will certainly help you balance it to near perfection.

Best of luck with it

Using an M-Audio Fastrack USB interface
software i'm using is Cool Edit Pro
A bit ****ty but cant afford to shell out 400 on protools etc.

Thanks for your replies

pajodublin

dav nagle wrote: »

You can spend loads of money on pre amps and microphones but nothing will get you a cleaner sound then a space that is dead for you to record in. You could start by building a room that has aurelex acoustic paneling for your vocals an guitars etc, noise kills everything good about audio so even if you had the best of the best pre amps and mics a noisy space will destroy that investment.

apologies dave i got the wrong end of the stick.
Understand you know.
Have a good quiet room to record in so hopefully that works out

dav nagle

Well done now your recordings will sound allot better. When you look at a wav on your DAW look carefully at the line that runs along the wav file while you are recording an instrument. Ultimately before you sing or play that line should run perfect with no visual noise artifacts until you start to sing.





Look at the blue line on the far left there is no audio present until the instrument begins recording, that is silence .

Zombienosh

I've never used Cool Edit pro, but try Audacity & Reaper, They're free I think.(Not sure about Reaper) Also a trial version of Ableton/Ableton Lite is available where I think its just limited to 8 tracks, which is more than enough.

pajodublin

appreciate it lads thanks

madtheory

There's a sticky on this at the top of the Music Production forum.

FORGET ABOUT AURALEX. It is not the first step in room treatment. Waste of money. You would be much better off walling in the vocalist with duvets hung on rails or mic stands.

If it's a Mac laptop, the audio input is definitely worth using. Two channel 24 bit, all you need is the right cable to come out of your pre amp. It would be a cleaner than the M Audio where you have to put line and mic level through the very noisy on board pre amp.

Get Reaper.

mkegvn

do get reaper. well worth the money. fantastic piece of kit.