Getting good sound with home recording (Blue Snowball)?

Dave!

Hey guys,

Apologies if this is a "how long is a piece of string?" question, but maybe ye can point me in the right direction anyway.

I'd like to start doing a bit of recording at home, and am trying to figure out what I need in order to get a decent sound. I bought a new microphone today, a Blue Snowball USB mic.

I've got Audacity on my (Windows) laptop, and just had a quick play with it earlier. I can't say I was terribly impressed, was hoping for miracles after spending a hundred quid on a mic :pac: But it didn't significantly better than the internal mic on my laptop if I'm honest (yes I'm sure it wasn't using that!)

I'm wondering if I'm overlooking something, or if there's some basic stuff that I need to do in order to get a recording that sounds professional. I'll be mostly recording acoustic guitar and vocals. Maybe piano at some point (although I think I can plug that straight into the laptop, it's a digital one).

I did some recording before, but it was almost 10 years ago (I used Cool Edit Pro, dunno if that still exists ) ! I work in IT, so can handle the technical stuff.

Just looking for some pointers

Thanks

TroutMask

Sorry, read OP properly now. Mic position is all important with acoustic, try positioning it closer but not over the soundhole

TroutMask

further to this, what kind of sound are you going for? Are you recording vocals and guitar at the same time, i mean, are you going for a natural 'in the room' effect - or are you seeking a more produced sound, perhaps with a view to releasing it as an album.

Dave!

I think the latter, would like it to sound quite well produced (an album is a bit away though ). I'll be playing around with vocal harmonies. It's the guitar that wasn't sounding very good to me.

Thanks

maccored

you should try a firewire or usb audio interface - most likely sound way better than the laptops soundcard. Theres a lot to recording something and making it sound good though - all the way from how the sound is recorded to what you are listening to it through when mixing, and the room you are listening to it in.

TroutMask

Hmm, i think the Blue has a lil audio interface built in, that's how it works. Bit like a Skype phone, except for recording only. Thing is, you have little or no control over the interface settings.
You'll want it switched to cardioid mode not omni, and close micing will be necessary to rise above the significant self-noise of the mic. Also, you're in 16 Bits so close micing or a loud source necessary so that you take full advantage of your (somewhat outmoded) bit depth specs.
One more thing, omni is not really omni on this mic due to the architecture of the housing. They should have really called it 'pseudo omni'.

Play around with it and see how you get on. Down the line, you might outgrow it and then it might be best to go for a proper audio interface and a couple of nice mics.

Blackhorse Slim

First thing I would say to get a better sound with what you have is to double-track the guitar part - record it twice, exactly the same (as close as you can get to identical) and pan them left and right in the mix.

If you're using an acoustic guitar on its own (with vocals) it will sound a bit dead and lifeless if it's a mono recording - the ideal would be to record it in stereo using 2 mics. Mono acoustic guitar can sit well in a mix with a full band, but on its own stereo or double-tracked is much better. You'll probably need some kind of click track for timing.

Btw cooledit does kinda exist - it was bought out by Adobe and renamed "Audition" - assuming Audition is still around! I used to use cooledit, Audition is pretty similar but to be honest there is much better around these days.

Longer term, if you want to keep this up and improve get a couple of decent mics and a proper usb audio interface - they are really not that expensive.

GraphicsFactory

I would say recording the vocal or acoustic guitar part is just the first step. It won't sound great normally unless you tweak it with some of the resources within the software you are using. For example if i record vocals or guitar the first thing i would do is think about putting some compression, eq, reverb or chorus on it. Just some suggestions but these tend to make things sound warmer and not so much as if they were recorded in a telephone kiosk. With the tools available on the software you really can take something that sounds tinny and badly recorded and transform it to sound quite good. How easy that is depends on the software though.

captivated

Yeah best advice would to be work with what you have. You sort of have to make up for the shortcomings of the equipment you have through the use of eq compression and so forth. I think its important to build up a reference library of music of which guitar and vocal sounds you like and then work to emulating that style. Its about trying to train your ears to hear whats missing and then adding it with the tools you have there.

Be like Nutella

Samson Meteor... just got a pressie of one recently and man it's so solid for what it is.. guitar comes out so sweet and handles loud voice real well too... so handy so easy to use...bang it in set it up on its tripod legs it's deadly and heavy and solid and tough.. that's my 2 cents