I am looking for a little info on what exactly I need to buy to use my computer as a home studio so that I can record into it. My friend already makes beats using fruity loops and a few other programs that I forget the names of. All I would like to do is be able to take the beats he gives me and maybe some instrumentals from real songs and record hip hop vocals over them. I used to record vocals into my computer a few years ago using only a stero with microphone inputs and a cable that was connected from the audio out of my stero into the audio input on my computer. It was a very cheap and very bad sounding setup. I have just started rapping again and would like to start recording again but I have no idea what I need to buy to have a decent sound quality. Right now all I have is a Dell computer with a soundblaster audio card and thats it. I tryed reading through some of the posts on this forum but it just confuses me when I hear people talking about monitors and preamps and everything else. Any advice on what I need to get good quality vocals recorded into my computer would be very helpful. Also, I dont have a lot to spend maybe at the most a couple hundred dollars. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.
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Thank you for your reply and your suggestions. I will hopefully
Thank you for your reply and your suggestions. I will hopefully be purchasing that microphone and preamp pretty soon and I will see how it all works out. The only other question I have is about a mixer. I am not sure if I have to buy one or can all the mixing I need to do be done from my computer software? I will probably be using cubase to record into because my friend already has a copy of that on his computer. Also I would like to record my vocals on a seperate track than the beat is on. I remember when I used to use the stero setup that I had before and I tryed recording the vocals on a seperate track from the beat my vocals would be out of synch with the beat so I had to record everything on one track which made the sound quality even worse. Thanks again for all of your help
Forget everything I said. :) I just remembered a product that
Forget everything I said. :) I just remembered a product that would be perfect for you, the . This combines the soundcard, mic preamp, and headphone amp for only $100. Thsi would be perfect for you. The only drawback is the lack of phantom power, which means that you would need another preamp if you ever want to use a condenser microphone in the future. If this worries you, check out [url=http://www.m-audio.com for $50 more. You could also try a condenser mic now, but I pointed you to the SM58 because it is a fuss-free way to get a decent vocal sound for a demo. Condensers will hilight the shortcomings of your acoustics and generally require more finesse in use due to their great sensitivity. Sorry I didn't come up with this first; I've been recording harp all day and i'm just about out of brain power.
Ok thanks again for the help. I have one more question that I ne
Ok thanks again for the help. I have one more question that I need to make sure of when you say that the m-audio fast track usb combines the soundcard does that mean it has a sound card that comes with it or do I still need to buy a new one? Also if it makes a difference the soundcard in my computer right now is a Creative SB Live! Series.
Hello, and welcome to RO! The cheapest respectable way to do th
Hello, and welcome to RO!
The cheapest respectable way to do this would be to get [="http://www.shure.com/microphones/models/sm58.asp"]this mic[/]="http://www.shure.co…"]this mic[/] (an industry standard), this preamp (the cheapest preamp I know of), and [url=http://www.m-audio… soundcard. This will cost about $250, and it will give you all the quality you will need. If you soundcard can do full dplex (simultaneous playback and record, then you can knock off the $100 soundcard if you're in a pinch. If you need software, you could use the free program Audacity.
Let me know if you have any more questions.