Music Banter - View Single Post - Recording Singing Vocals on a PC

the_13th · 12-23-2010, 05:26 PM

Okay so in my introduction thread I mentioned I was looking at possibility of recording my own music, its literally a first for me Ive always been in theatre but the ide of putting something of my own together intruiges me.

Id be looking at doing it through my PC mainly because I want to keep the costs down, when asking on the PC forum Im a member of I quickly realised I was going to keep looking. Im intend to experiment a little but I imagine that its going to remain balads to a large extent, I'm a tenor if that makes any difference, at this point I do not know how to play an instrument but would play around with instrumentals perhaps? I am looking at learning some guitar basics after a while and maybe incorporating it in later down the line.

Someone had suggested a Rode Podcaster, which although looks like a quality USB mic presents problems, as far as I can tell its not designed for singing only for voice, the youtube clips ive seen display it struggling to cope with vocals, I also tend to have a powerful voice especially when going for higher notes so I suspect this would becomes a problem.

The second solution was actually someone offering to sell me some equipment.

Rode NT2 condenser
Focusrite Tone Factory preamp

I have no idea how effective it would actually be, the mic APPEARS to be good but I couldnt find any info on the preamp, or if it would even be compaible with a PC.

But I spoke with a friend who has been doing all the audio for church and he suggested grabbing a Shure SM58 for the mic, apparently they're good all round. Does a mic have to be3 specifically designed for recording or would a "live" mic be okay too?

And what about the Pre? I understand one is required right? There is the one above, which is second hand from someone I dont know. I saw a Yamaha Audiogram 6 (another suggestion) that is designed specifically for PC use.

I guess my question is what would actual audio people be suggesting? Is the yamaha a serious option? I saw threads here suggesting to just hook a preamp up to the firewire/usb of the PC, so are all preamps PC compatable? Is there advantages one way or the other?

Is Audiocity a good option or very limited/hard for new use? Whats CUBASE AI like as far as software of concerned?

Sorry for the wall of text, I think it'll be obvious that Ive been left a little more confused what I started when my research began

12-23-2010, 05:26 PM	#1 (permalink)
the_13th Groupie Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 14	Recording Singing Vocals on a PC - Looking for some straight answers Okay so in my introduction thread I mentioned I was looking at possibility of recording my own music, its literally a first for me Ive always been in theatre but the ide of putting something of my own together intruiges me. Id be looking at doing it through my PC mainly because I want to keep the costs down, when asking on the PC forum Im a member of I quickly realised I was going to keep looking. Im intend to experiment a little but I imagine that its going to remain balads to a large extent, I'm a tenor if that makes any difference, at this point I do not know how to play an instrument but would play around with instrumentals perhaps? I am looking at learning some guitar basics after a while and maybe incorporating it in later down the line. Someone had suggested a Rode Podcaster, which although looks like a quality USB mic presents problems, as far as I can tell its not designed for singing only for voice, the youtube clips ive seen display it struggling to cope with vocals, I also tend to have a powerful voice especially when going for higher notes so I suspect this would becomes a problem. The second solution was actually someone offering to sell me some equipment. Rode NT2 condenser Focusrite Tone Factory preamp I have no idea how effective it would actually be, the mic APPEARS to be good but I couldnt find any info on the preamp, or if it would even be compaible with a PC. But I spoke with a friend who has been doing all the audio for church and he suggested grabbing a Shure SM58 for the mic, apparently they're good all round. Does a mic have to be3 specifically designed for recording or would a "live" mic be okay too? And what about the Pre? I understand one is required right? There is the one above, which is second hand from someone I dont know. I saw a Yamaha Audiogram 6 (another suggestion) that is designed specifically for PC use. I guess my question is what would actual audio people be suggesting? Is the yamaha a serious option? I saw threads here suggesting to just hook a preamp up to the firewire/usb of the PC, so are all preamps PC compatable? Is there advantages one way or the other? Is Audiocity a good option or very limited/hard for new use? Whats CUBASE AI like as far as software of concerned? Sorry for the wall of text, I think it'll be obvious that Ive been left a little more confused what I started when my research began