Recording music

I've read on the internet that recording music on a home computer is relatively easy... It says the key to good sound is having a good microphone.

I have a stock computer with stock sound cards, so would it be practical to record music on a computer by simply upgrading my microphone?

If anyone has tried this method I'd love to hear some tips or insight.... and I'm especially wondering if its worth buying a new microphone if what really counts is the sound card (which I don't plan on upgrading).

Thanks

I'm no expert on PC recording but its a fairly open question. The immediate answer would be, it depends what type of music you're recording.

For example, to record live drums you'd need at least four mics (two of which need to be overhead condensers) and a mixer. To record guitar/keys etc you can use the same mixer.

But however you do it, you're not going to be able to do it that well unless your PC is up to the job, and that means a proper soundcard for multi channel recording.

If its a one-off it'd probably be cheaper to hire a pro studio. I was in a studio recently and it cost £120 for 5 hours, and we managed to get four songs recorded and onto CD.

As Dave said it really does depend on what you're recording.

However, pretty much regardless of what you're recording you're going to need a powered condenser mic, your soundcard is unlikely to have phantom power so unless you do upgrade your soundcard you're unlikely to get good sound.

You can get USB condenser mics but these are really only good for spoken voice.

Personally I have an Alesis Firewire 12 track desk which allows me to record 12 channels, 4 of which are powered (it basically works as an external sound card as well as being a pretty good mixing desk), and because it's firewire you only do A/D once and the rest goes straight onto the computer. http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/69216

It's the thing on the right and it's only costs about £200

I work as a sound producer in a studio (apart from PL/1 programing for OS3090), and a good condenser cardioid microphone is essential.
You may need a pre-amplifier for the mic and a good AD/DA conversor for the audio. This is not as expensive as it may sound. You can get a good external card such as the M-Audio core solo, wich has decent AD/DA conversors and a integrated microphone pre-amp. A good and cheap condenser microphone could be a Rodhe MK1

Obviously multi-channel recording would need a milti-channel AD/DA conversor and that is a lot more expensive. depending on what you're after, I would go to a pro studio. If it is just home recording of MIDI + voice or arcustic guitars or piano, the core solo interface could do the job.

You've got my keyboard (The MS one I mean)!

I have a micromixer (which amplifies the signals going through it (£15 out of Maplins). I bought Sennheiser mic for vocal work (£56 at time of purchase), and a Sony stereo condenser mic (£69 at time of purchase).

I record myself singing, and playing acoustic and it's pretty decent. My stock sound card is up to the job of giving decent sound quality, but i have since bought a dual channel card, that doesn't resample the sounds coming in. It can record at varying frequencies, so it's not messing with the sound before i get it. (£50 odd)

So, all in all, i've spend about £170.

If your recording yourself, think about the room you do it in. An empty room will give you alot of reverb. A room with lots of furniture will cause the sound to bounce about a bit, and sound a bit flat.

I don't really NEED the multichannel recording, as it's just me and my guitar and i fiddle with the volumes before a play. BUT it's very handy having the ability to tweak the individual volumes afterwards and generally edit the vocals aside from the guitar. Saves recording the whole piece again.

Micromixer:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=31136&criteria=mixer&doy=3m4

Very basic, but super handy for me :o)

Vocal mic:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=22665&criteria=sennheiser&doy=3m4

I find it pretty good. Very bass if you get very close to the mic. Excellent sound quality.

Sony Condenser mic:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-ECMMS907-CE7-Microphone/dp/B00005QBUW/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207242276&sr=8-1

Probably better mics out there, but does a good job of capturing the dynamics of the guitar.

Btw Rob. What's with the clean and tidy desk? Well saying your artistic!

WHEN YA GOOOOOOO WILL YA SEND BAAAAACK
A LETTAH
FRAHM AAAAAMERICA

etc.

:D

Cheeky bugger ^_^

More like "THE FLOWEEEEEEEEEEER OF SCOTLAND..." etc etc "AND SEEEEEEEEEENT THEM HOOOOOMEWARDS, TAE THIIIIIIINK AGAIN!"

:D

Nice setup Rob Farley. I have a V-AMP 2 as well :-). Do you actually use it for guitar?

I'd just tidied it so I thought I'd take a photo! That said, I've just had another annual tidy so it's all clean and tidy again!


Yup.

Left handed I see. What brand is your electric guitar? I have a Richwood Standard Stallion (stratocaster model) and am planning on buying a new one later this year.

Do you by any chance use the MIDI interface for the V-AMP2? Is it worth buying a MIDI USB interface to connect the device to your computer for handling presets?

so far ive flung my bass through an fx board into the zoom h4 SD based 4 track recorder
it seems to be ok via the head phones but ultra quiet on the pc end (nothing that a bit of tweaking cant fix)

means i dont have to be tied to the pc when i do anything
fx and that run off AA's so i could cycle to the river bank and thrash around throwing it in the air and not worry to much about it crashing ... save into a cow pat

i recently tired its built in microphone for an annecdote and found it lacking for vocal work ... a better mic in the guitar jack would be better

but im doing alot of rants for a mate in manchester ... alot in the past should have been recorded but lacked me owning or taking the h4 or anything (h4 would need 2 mics as it was me and 'the idiot' talking ... well 90% me :p )
(this project has been described as bill hicks meets atari teenage riot ... although im a very poor mans bill hicks wannabe)

so im toying with side/down grading to their h2 model wich is geared to podcasting and live studio recording (dunno if its good or not tbh)

I use the midi interface (m-audio midisport 4x4) to take control of the keyboard and sound modules. I could use it on the VAmp but to be honest I don't change the patch half way through tracks as the response isn't fast enough, I just multi track.

The guitar is a yammy pacifica. Dirt cheap but does the job!

Honestly, I don't understand a thing about mixers...

I'm not a recording musician normally, I'm just starting out... usually I play in small live settings so this recording stuff is completely new. I want quality recordings of my compositions and also make game music... nothing extremely fancy.

But really I just want to record my ukulele, darbuka, ocarina, or trombone... I was planning on just overlaying tracks on a sound recording program... I guess this is a bad idea?

@Sauer: No, in fact, this is THE IDEA. I would suggest you to use Adobe Audition, becouse it is easy to use. Get a good condenser microphone and a good sound card with phantom power, and you'll have a semi-pro home studio.

Ok so I don't need a mixer?

And how much does a phantom power sound card cost? What exactly is it?

Something like this
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/14453/category_id/f5fd74384cf5fcd74b3d54f516cd5c95


Phantom Power:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_power

A mixer is dirt cheap, but you don't need one. It just makes life a little easier is you want to sing and record an instrument at the same time. If you got a dual input sound card, then you don't really need it. I just like the fact i can plug in multiple instruments and record them into the one track, and hear it through the headphones as i record.

Small question though. What difference does phantom power have over a battery operated condenser mic?

Phantom power is 48v so will power any condenser mic. The battery operated ones will (generally) be less powerful, that's not to say they're bad, generally just not as good, I've got a battery powered condenser on my DV Cam (takes 4 AAs) and the results are really good.

No, the battery condeser microphones have electret technology, that means a small diafragm, so doesn't get well frequencies bellow 150-200 Hz. A big diafragm cardiod microphone needs full 48v of phantom power to feed its internal amplifier and charge the condenser. As the diafragm is bigger, they can get properly the full audible range.

Ah right, thanks guys :o)