the other day I think it revolted for the last time, shorted out beyond help…
It went to that peaceful bit-bucket in the sky…
The Helicon was just used to keep me on-key.
I understand. I’m “pitch challenged” myself.
I am horrible and cannot stand to hear myself sing.
I can stand to hear myself sing. It’s everybody else…
I keep telling myself I wouldn’t recommend this to anybody, but it’s pretty much perfect for what you’re doing. The Shure X2U.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/X2u
Mine sits in a box because of low volume. It does everything else perfectly and it’s well made. But I use larger, formal sound mixers and would kill to have my X2U be louder.
I would also recommend the Samson G-Track USB microphone.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GTrackUSB
Past sonic performance, distortion, convenience, etc, I certified both of those devices for Overdubbing/Sound-On-Sound.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_multi_track_overdubs.html
I borrowed the G-Track for the testing and I liked it. So right this second, I don’t own one of those.
The problem is you usually can’t listen to the computer while you’re overdubbing. Read that twice. Your live voice comes out late/delayed and makes you crazy. You need a sound device that will manage the headphone signals, and both of these will do that.
So, no, given your
specific job, not just any microphone digitizer will work. If you go searching yourself, pick something with the magic words “low latency monitoring.” Can you record OK without listening to yourself? That’s another solution.
If it really doesn’t make any difference what the quality is, have you tried your laptop microphone? You usually can’t sing into one of those because of vocal processing, but you can turn that off. I did a temporary track for a television commercial that way once on my Mac.
“We need this track by eleven o’clock. Jessie will perform it for you.”
Turn off Windows Enhanced Services if you try this.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements
Koz