TheresNoSolution.com

Im planning to buy a microphone to record my songs. I liked this one:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/AKG-Percept ... 1126876.gc
but im not sure if it'll work for audacity (cuz its the only recording program i can get at the time)
I ve never done this before so im only half aware of what im doing. can any of you guys help me out with this please?

ive been planning on doing this too..... so any help would be nice :D

ok that is a pretty good mic, its decent for what your doing, you wont get super professional quality, but its definitely better than most. it will work really good for vocals, and you'll get decent guitar, but you wouldn't want to record drums with JUST this. however, if you just buy it like this you will not be able to plug it in to your computer. i don't even think it comes with an XLR cable. so you will need to buy an XLR cable. you'll probably want to buy a cable that has an XLR input on one side and a 1/4 inch input on the other, that way you could plug it into any old amp, as well as be one step closer to hooking it to your comp. after you get that cable you'll need to get a 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch adapter. this adapter will fit right into your "input" jack on your computer. from there, you can go into audacity, and select your source as "input" however! theres more..

that alone will work, but will most likely sound like absolute shit and be EXTREMELY quiet. cheaply, if you want a decent sound, plug your microphone with XLR to 1/4 inch cable jack into your input on your amp. then from your output, or headphone jack on your amp get a normal 1/4 cable that you would use for your guitar, and plug that in to the back of your computer with the 1/8 inch converter thing.

the alternative, if you have money, is to buy a cheap version of pro tools (what all bands use in the studio, industry standard!). a cheap version goes for around 350, but it comes with a little pre amp. it will most likely be USB and from there you can connect that to your PC and use pro tools as your program of choice, which is by FAR a step up, morelike a million steps up from audacity.

but if you don't want to spend 350 on pro tools...
download any of the following programs, (you can find em for free) but they are all better than audacity.

Acoustica Mixcraft
Sony Vegas (also good for video editing)
Adobe Audition

or of course, your best choice would be to get a mac, and it comes with garageband which has some really good effects, for a free onboard program.

i'm turning this into a novel, but yeah, you can save up and get a decent system. or just get a mic and a hookup.

but happy recording!

That was the exact answer i was looking for.
i had a feeling you would be the one to answer it Rick
thanks a million

yep, no problem.

I use audacity too......it's the shits though

I use Cubase...

the best all around mic is the Shure SM57

Sennheiser

Gives good sound, the way i use it though makes my recordings sound like demo tapes.


but, I'm not that good and don't have a million dollars. I don't need to sound like I'm in a studio to get my music out. :P

Cubase, (thanks sociallyinept) i forgot to mention that. if you can get that then go ahead and use it, it is also a pretty professional program, its up there with pro tools almost.

and shure SM57 is pretty good for instruments, like its good for...up to your amp, or like on a snare drum, but uh, for vocals its just alright, but yeah you can definitely use it for vocals, its just better for instruments.

Rick. wrote:Cubase, (thanks sociallyinept) i forgot to mention that. if you can get that then go ahead and use it, it is also a pretty professional program, its up there with pro tools almost.

and shure SM57 is pretty good for instruments, like its good for...up to your amp, or like on a snare drum, but uh, for vocals its just alright, but yeah you can definitely use it for vocals, its just better for instruments.

Yeah np. What's the best type of mic for recording from an amp, in you opinion. I just use like an SM58, but is there anything better I should be using?

well i mean theres plenty of like 10000 dollar mics that are gonna get you good sound. but shure's MS58 is more of a vocal microphone, its really good for live, thats what its mainly used for, live vocals. but uh, basically for an amp you want like a supercardioid mic. theres the sennheiser e906, its probably like twice as expensive as the MS58, but its pretty good, it looks pretty gay though, but looks aren't everything. theres also the samson (not samsung) C01UCW, its USB so its good for recording, but then when it comes to live its pretty useless...because you can't use USB for pretty much anything. but its a good mic and its pretty cheap.

oh and if anyones looking to record drums pretty professionally, and pretty damn cheap (for drum mics) get these fuckers.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Samson-8KIT-8-Piece- ... dZViewItem
i know i'd shit if i had them.

d4rkst4r wrote:the best all around mic is the Shure SM57

No, it's not.

They sound terrible if you are using them on a vocal application.

Wow, thats a super professional answer, Rick :P

Seems like i should buy a decent mic to record my songs, but i think a better solution would be to record in some local studio where you can practice and record as a band.
I know there is one for practice which me and the band never tried, but i dunno if we can record there, so for now we try to record in my room haha, only without the drums =/