Recording Microphone?

AsSiMiLaTeD

All I want to do is buy a Mic and record stuff. I know I need the following:

Microphone
Cable
Stand

I assume I don't need anything to 'power' the mic with, but would need some type of method to capture the sound from the mic, like a PC soundcard, right?

I'm not really looking to get a mixer and all that, just want a simple setup that my wife could use to sing into a mic and record it.

Is this a good mic?

http://www.music123.com/Shure-SM58S-Mic-with-Switch-270104-i1126422.Music123

AsSiMiLaTeD

Better yet, how about a package like this?

http://www.music123.com/M-Audio-MXL-990-991-Recording-Mic-Duo-and-M-Audio-AudioBuddy-Package-703626-i1173655.Music123

amulford

I like the second package. It gives you a little flexibilty. JMO...

unc2701

Do you have kids? The shure can take a LOT of abuse.

reeltrouble1

That Shure 58 is one of the industry standards, great mike. Its what I and several of the band members use.

RT1

AsSiMiLaTeD

If I were to go the Shure route, is there an inexpensive preamp I could get to use it with, something similar to what's in the second package I linked?

AsSiMiLaTeD

Or would the box from the first link work with the Shure Microphone?

reeltrouble1

what is the plan for how is she going to hear herself and the music? alot of the cheap stuff is made by Beringher.

The box will work with any mic, the Shure mic in your link is way above the ones with the box.

RT1

AsSiMiLaTeD

She wants to be able to sing into a mic and hear herself back through speakers, with the possibility of recording. I've got the playback through speakers part down, here's what I'm thinking, tell me if I'm way off:

Use the Shure mic, run the mic cable into the 'Audio Buddy' preamp box, run rca cable from that box through a y splitter into some inputs on my receiver, which power the monitors.

Would that work. I know it's not the ideal recording setup, but we don't know if this is even something she's going to stick with, I can always dump more money into a proper rig later.

devani

shure is dynamic, so you would need phantom power(48V)....i don't know top of my head if there's any PC soundcard that can do phantom power....same for M-Audio you need phantom power for these mics...

I recommend shure too because they are very versatile and forgiving mics but you will benefit the most from getting good software for editing....

petrym

I would prefer the second setup with the condenser mics, they provide a lot more flexibility and the ability to pick up voices from farther away. This prevents popping from plosive consonants (like p's and b's) by placing the mic farther away and off axis or using a screen. The AudioBuddy box provides the phantom power to power the condensers. It looks like you will need a sound card to convert the out signal to digitize on your computer.

I 've talked with a recording engineer and he uses MXL V69 mics, they sound the same as the $1500 - $3000 big name brands, so you have some confidence in the MLK brand lesser mics.

The box would work with the Shure dynamic mic, just don't use phantom power.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Also the Audio Buddy has xlr inputs with Phantom power for the mic, will that work with the Shure mic? Are mic cables xlr?

petrym

devani wrote: »

shure is dynamic, so you would need phantom power(48V)....i don't know top of my head if there's any PC soundcard that can do phantom power....same for M-Audio you need phantom power for these mics..

Don't use phantom power for dynamics!
Modern mics my disregard the voltage, but just leave it off.

devani

second setup is not bad but thoese are Cardioid mics...they have the ability to pick up voices far away but likely to pick up from monitor speakers and create howling...for P's and B's you would need pop shield or get a software that can do EQ on them

reeltrouble1

yes it will work with the Shure, although the Shure mic is better than the vocal mic in the kit I think you might just start with the kit, it has a vocal mic and an instrument mic. As you said you can buy other stuff later.

yes mic cables are xlr.

oh yea, these places are good about taking returns if you do not like the product.

RT1

devani

petrym wrote: »

Don't use phantom power for dynamics!
Modern mics my disregard the voltage, but just leave it off.

yeah i stand corrected....it's condenser mics..:D

AsSiMiLaTeD

So the outputs on the Audio Buddy, are those RCA output or 1/4" streo mini jacks, they look like the latter to me.

Thanks again for the help guys, this stuff is a tad confusing to someone who hasn't read up on it much yet.

Danny Tse

Polkmaniac wrote: »

She wants to be able to sing into a mic and hear herself back through speakers, with the possibility of recording.

Isn't this kinda like karaoke?

AsSiMiLaTeD

Sorta, but want more flexibility than a typical karaoke machien provides, and it's not karaoke.

petrym

Polkmaniac wrote: »

So the outputs on the Audio Buddy, are those RCA output or 1/4" streo mini jacks, they look like the latter to me.

They're 1/4". Since XLR cables are balanced, I always use balanced 1/4" cables out as well, but if your sound card takes RCA plugs, you can use unbalanced 1/4s out of the audio box.

What are you going to use to record the vocals? If you want a monitor output/speaker, you're opening a whole other tangent.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Right now the plan isn't to record anything. The plan is to run from the Audio Buddy into a set of powered speakers.

petrym

Ah easy breezy, I can see on the Audio Buddy that it takes either balanced or unbalanced 1/4" TRS plugs on the output side. Good luck!

Michael

AsSiMiLaTeD

It looks like only one set of outputs to me, the xlr are shown as inputs, unless the outputs are both balanced and unbalanced in the same jack, which doesn't make sense

petrym

The bal/unbal output to the speakers really doesn't matter unless the output cord is really long (bal rejects noise better). You'll never see an XLR cable connected to a speaker, just TSR and Speakon cables on modern speakers. Unbalanced cables should work just fine for the AudioBuddy outputs.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Well I ended picking up the M-Audio set at Guitar Center, for $99. After some initial frustration, I got it set up enough to get a tolerable sound out of it. They weren't joking when they said these mics are sensitive.

I forgot to pick up a mic stand, which has made using it a bit more difficult. I'll get one of those on the way home tomorrow.

Here's what I have and how I have it set up.

I bought the package with the two mics and the preamp. I'm only using one mic at the moment, it's the smaller instrument mic. I've got that laying on a chair recording some acoustic guitar work right now. From the Preamp I have a cable that runs from the 1/4" jack on the back to a 1/8" jack on the back of my soundcard (I'm using the Creative X-fi XtremeMusic sound card, not the best I know.

Right now I'm using a recording software called Audacity, which is free. It's not the best, but it has all the basic functions that I require for now.

Any tips on sound cards, programs, etc are now welcome. I may not jump on anything immediately, but it would be nice for when I do.

Thanks again for all your help.

ben62670

The best is if the singer is wearing headphones.
M-audio SC with Mic pre built in.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829121001

Magix http://www.amazon.com/Magix-Music-Studio-10-Deluxe/dp/B0009MH5OI

EMU solution is a good option. Comes with Cake Walk.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829110007

My buddy is a musician/studio engineer, and he is playing with Fire Fall July 12.
These guys called him today, and asked him to play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trvtMSoW7dM

AsSiMiLaTeD

I don't get whatthe EMU is...

adam2434

You mentioned that you'll want to play live vocals through speakers, right?

Just a word of caution - the dynamic range of live vocals can kill "home" speakers if you're not careful. I'm thinking of this in terms of using home speakers as PA speakers. I would use something expendable or think about a small set of PA speakers if you want live playback.

If you're going through the PC and some software prior to playback, you'll probably be able to limit or compress the vocals in such a way that they would be safe for home speakers.

Oh, and of course, getting the gain and trim dialed in for your mics will help get you the best sound in terms of lower distortion and noise.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'd say at this point that we're going to forego the live speakers. What we're going to do is the way we have it setup now, run it into the PC. getting the gain on the preamp and the volume in the computer to work together to give me a good sound has been a challenge.

devani

read here for the sound cards and software that people use....we use MOTU for full 16 channel recording and using firewire connection to MAC...will be upgrading to 24 or even higher channels since drums take 6 mics...
http://www.pcrecording.com/soundtable.htm
you will need a mixer no matter what if you want live...

adam2434

Yeah, getting the gain structure right always a key part of recording.

Working with an analog signal and a PC can be a major compromise too, since it's such a noisy environment for audio and the analog audio circuitry is generally pretty poor. That's why folks often use an external audio interface to do A-D conversion and send the audio through USB to the PC.

Good luck!