love to sing would like to record
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Posted on Jul 23, 2006 12:57 pm
sskid1
Member Since: Jul 23, 2006
I was hoping someone would be able to help. I have 5 people in my household that love to sing. We have all done the karaoke thing and recorded it to cassette. I really don't like the sound of it at all considering you can't do much with it. I was thinking of purchasing some home recording gear to be able to take better advantage of being able to record better quality. Is this necessary for us to do or would we just be better off sticking to the old cassette routine? Does anyone have any suggestions? These are not going to be given to any record promoters and we don't want to be the next american idol. We just want to be able to record ourselves singing our most favorite songs and be able to edit them properly to sound good enough to pass around the family or to friends (for a good laugh). All the help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Jul 23, 2006 01:42 pm Welcome to HRC.
This is a great endevour, and would could ultimately wind up being great keepsakes of your family members.
My first thought is wondering how you want to record...are you trying to capture live karaoke gigs, or plan on trying to record yourselves in home?
If thru live gigs then I would suggest just taking a lead out of the karaoke mixing board into any old cassette player, or, even in to a laptop.
If you are wanting to record at home, then, there is a plethora of options. No matter what option you choose, and few things are necessary. One being a microphone, another being a device to mix the mic and the backing tracks, and the next being media on which to record. Thrown in for good measure might be a device to compress the sound, and possible add a little reverb for a natural sound. The compressor being virtually necessary, the reverb less so.
Backing tracks are often professionally produced, and without a little reverb or other spacial type effect the vocals can lay over the music and sound WAY out front, reverb would help sink it into the mix a little to sound a little more real.
A device such as www.zzounds.com/a--884907/item--ALEMM6FX would be a mixer and have effects like compression and reverb...plus it's a great price. Run your backing tracks and the vocals into this, mix levels and run the out into a cassette deck and there ya go.
If you plan to edit later, well, that's a whole different matter...
zekthedeadcowEat Spam before it eats YOU!!!Member
Since: May 11, 2002
Jul 23, 2006 02:57 pm yes... I've done this before...one of my few paying gigs acually... reverb is your friend... but almost just as important is controlling room tone... I place a large dia[phram condenser right next to an auralex corner fill bass trap thats attached to a mic stand (so it's head level and very close to the mic)... and the singer will sing into that... sometimes I'll use two bass traps...
sskid1Member
Since: Jul 23, 2006
Jul 23, 2006 05:22 pm Ok that was very helpful and great information. Just a couple of more questions if you don't mind. I have a 12x15 room dedicated to this "project" and already has several things for insulation. The room is going to be moved later since we are expanding.
Now, do I need a computer dedicated for any of this? I have one readily available aside from the one I use. Plus we would like to record to CD so do I need to purchase the mixer with CD recording availability? Also what would compress the sound? And this will be "live" in home use only. Plus where can I get better tracks with a wider variety to sing with rather than just a karaoke CD and do they have some with background vocals as well as the regular vocals from the original artist as well?
Sorry to ask so many questions just wanting to learn a little more to have fun a little more. The 2 adults can actually carry a tune very well thanks to a lot of singing in the choir. The 8yr old has picked up tremendously. The 5 & 3 are coming around but theirs is just too cute to pass up NOT recording. The 8yr old is really good but won't sing without the actual artist singing along and won't sing with the adult accompanyment.
Again all help is appreciated and again thank you.
Jul 23, 2006 05:27 pm Well, sound is compressed with a "compressor" (seriously, that is what you would ask a salesman for), if you want to create CD's you can do that on a computer, or you could buy a digital recording mixer type thing such as www.homerecordingconnecti...CDR+and+Effects or www.homerecordingconnecti...CDR+and+Effects which is pretty much an all-in-one unit for the type of thing you are doing.
As far as the quality of backing tracks, well, thats not my area of knowledge, so I can't really say.
zekthedeadcowEat Spam before it eats YOU!!!Member
Since: May 11, 2002
Jul 23, 2006 06:47 pm backing tracks are bought at karaoke stores... though I'm not sure if the CD+G format will work for this (audio and lyrics)... I'm pretty sure you can just buy a karaoke CD...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 23, 2006 08:01 pm If they have line outputs from their karaoke machine they can record them into whatever source they choose for recording the vocal parts.
I have never tried ripping the audio only tracks from the CD+G though as zek stated. It might be possible but I cant say for sure.
Noize
