Recording: What and Where?

This is Kazekoe. I'm new here to the forums. In fact, I only just started covering this week! I had been hearing different covers and then ran into YTC, and thought, 'Hey, this should be fun!' I then set out to conquer the fandub cover world with nothing but my laptop, Audacity, a four year old $30 logitech headset and my skill. Of course, things haven't gone exactly as I planned.

The roadblocks I've run in to are 'What and Where,' or more specifically, "Where should I record and what equipment can I get on VERY tight budget.'

Currently being a freshman in college, the place I've been doing my recording was in my dorm room. This has not been successful. Besides the natural environment of a room inhabited by two 18 year old males and the worry that I'll distract others from their studies (academic or otherwise), I haven't been able to get myself to be able to sing to the best of my ability. It always comes out too quiet, and I make more mistakes on a song that I'm familiar with than I normally ever would. It also doesn't help that I have a guy in the room next door who keeps coming into comment on my singing (It's sort of a damper on your spirits when you're doing a record for 'Black Rock Shooter' and some guy comes in and says the song your singing sounds gay).

The few times that I am able to get a good sound out of me, I am still hampered by my lack of good equipment. Good, strong notes always come out grainy, exspecially on higher registers. Like I said before, I'm currently using a four year old logitech headset for recording which I got, four years ago, at Staples for $25 (I tried to find a webpage for information on the headset, but evidently, it's not in stock anywhere anymore). Besides that, all I have is just the off vocal tracks of the songs I do and Audacity, which I'm learning more and more how to use (I don't plan on doing mixing or any special editing).

So now I come, on hand and knee, to ask you, the people of YT Chorus, for your aide.


...Okay, that was a little weird, but still, please help me! Any suggestions are appreciated!

Well I don't think I can give good advice since I'm kind've new to this whole recording thing too...
The things I use is just my laptop and audacity

But I just wanted to say that you should sing confidently whether or not someone thinks it's "gay". It is just one opinion after all...and I doubt he could do any better.
But, for the people who study and stuff, maybe you should sing in a more secluded place or a music room? I dont know...I just wanted you to feel better is all.

I'll be secretly cheering you on from behind! Good luck!

Wow, that was a long post! But I totally feel your pain. College is kinda.. a sad place to try to record, but! I have some ideas~

Depending on where you're going, you may have access to a studio courtesy of the campus. For example, my university offers this thing called a vroom where there's a nice mic and a more-or-less soundproof room that students can use for free. (They also offer this really crazy nice studio, but that's only for people with proper training.. not that I would know what to do with most of it OTL)

Other options would be to look around if you have a music school of something. Usually they have practice rooms that you may or may not be able to use, depending on the rules (sometimes they're only for the music students). If not, your dorm may have practice rooms in the basement (mine did, but the pianos made me want to cry more than anything).

As for the mic quality, you might be able to save it with good mixing (which can be accomplished by either learning yourself, getting a better program, or making someone else do it, LOL). You can also buy a new mic, and there's quite a few threads here talking about mics and stuff :D

Concerning the loser next door.... *coughmustnotswear/insulttoobadlycough* Just kick him next time

Hopefully this helps and good luccckkkk~ I can't wait to hear your covers~

Not much advice I can offer but I suggest that you record when your roommate and those that live in the rooms next to/near you are not there. You'll probably sing better, with more power and strength with the assurance that no one can hear you XD

As for mixing programs, Adobe Audition is nice and easy to use. You can torrent it or buy a real copy of it (students can probably get discounts, look around with stores aimed at university students).

And as for microphones... Check:
https://ytchorus.forumotion.com/t25-what-microphone-do-you-use and https://ytchorus.forumotion.com/t2732-need-help-buying-a-mic

mong wrote:A condenser mic or a vocal mic are the ones with the nicest quality. With a headset, the quality is not always fabulous but if you take it off and use the headphones as a stand it may be a bit better... *uses that for her own headset lol*

If you're willing to pay more, the cheapest USB mics you can get which are also condenser are the Blue Snowball and the Samson C01U.

Save up for a decent microphone ($100ish... that's something that I still admittedly need to do lol), it'll be good in the long run. Put away $10 everyweek and in 10 weeks you'll be able to afford one lol. (Or I suggest, if you have a significant amount of money, to open a Savings account in the bank with good interest and use the acculumated interest to buy a mic!)

You say "I don't plan on doing mixing or any special editing" but recording a cover is not just about using a mic to record a song and putting that together with the off vocal. If you don't already do this while mixing, you should be using features like noise and/or hiss removal, compression, amplification etc to make the overall quality sound decent.

Thank you all so much for your replies. As it turns out, I found that the practice rooms in my colleges music department are availiable for all students to use (exspecially late at night ). I've actually was able to do some recording today: of course, the mic is still a problem. When ever I go high or loud (or in other words, get serious/passionate about the recording), it comes back with such bad raw quality that I don't think that mixing can save it

A new mic I'm currently looking at is the Behringer C-1U. Does anyone have any input to give?

I also use cheap headset, though. I wanna improve mine, but I dunno whether I'll buy mic. I guess I'll end up buying better headset. Saving money is such a troublesome to me =3=;; I want mic, but... for now I'll just use headset.

My friend said mic has big echo effect? Dunno, it depends on the mic. Besides, mic is better if you're serious about this. Well, for me, if the quality is good, mixing can improve them (and mine is... OTL you know. I need a better one =.=)

i found some reviews for the mic
http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHC1U
and some info
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/C-1U.aspx

well, as for the mic, try placing it further away from yourself or lowering the senstitivity from audacity. also try to tilt it away from your mouth abit.
as for the mixing, it's a must so that your vocals doesn't sound too raw.
try using the compressor and the gverb effect in audacity.
there's a thread here on mixing so you can go check it out.
good luck!

mic? get a large die-fram mic.

Recording? one foot away from your mic. In a Small room. get sponges or pillow to cover around your mic so that it wont gives out natural reverbs.

Mixing? remember to do Compressing and Reverbs.