How to get started?

As I don’t see a newbie group here I am posting here and hope this is ok spot. I play guitar, uke, and sing. I have done a few videos with my pixel phone which is simple to do the basics, but now want to use my laptop as well. First tried to use sound recorder with built in mic which was horrible result. Then I found audacity which was a bit better with compression and boost effects. Now I found an old PSP microphone array to plug into USB, and result is almost acceptable. Now I have some questions:

  1. What’s the best position for this mic, I have it on the desk where it is closer to the uke than my voice and I would like the voice a bit more emphasized.
  2. What effects are best to improve the recording. I am not interested in modifications, just want it to be as “natural” as possible, maybe tiny bit of reverb?

If you have links to some basic FAQ or resources that address these questions then please share. Thanks.

You might try one of those clamp-on universal pickup microphones.

First, the mic built-into a smart phone is often very good and there are no noises/vibrations from a fan or hard drive. The only bad thing is its omnidirectional so it picks-up noises from all directions, not just the direction it’s pointed. And you generally need to rig-up some kind of “mic stand” for it.

After recording with your you can edit or add effects in Audacity. That’s just an option for you and you can use what works best for you.

I don’t know what that is… There are some good “studio style” or “podcast” USB mics. Some USB mics have a recording level control and that’s a handy feature. With analog mics your interface usually has a recording-level knob.

Some “podcast mics” also have a headphone jack so you can monitor yourself without going through the computer. There is always SOME latency (delay) through the computer and if the delay is noticeable it’s hard to perform…

“Good” analog mics are balanced with a XLR connector and they are not compatible with regular soundcards. These need an audio interface (example) or a mixer with USB, etc. In addition, studio condenser mics need 48V phantom power which comes from the interface, mixer, or preamp.

Condenser mics tend to be “hotter” (louder) than dynamic mics and sometimes a dynamic mic isn’t quite loud enough with “normal” sounds and a typical audio interface. If you do shop for analog mic, a “directional (cardioid) large diaphragm condenser” it the most common type of mic used for almost everything in pro studios.

Many audio interfaces also have direct, zero-latency monitoring.

Recording anything acoustic can be tricky without a soundproof studio. Noise is often audible during quiet parts or silence. There is also always SOME noise from the microphone preamp (the preamp built-into a USB mic, an audio interface, soundcard, etc.) Sometimes noise reduction can help but sometimes it has side effects.

6-inches is usually “about right” but you’ll probably need more distance with voice and instrument into the same mic. From there, you can move the mic closer to one or the other and/or adjust the loudness of your voice for a good “balance”.

A good-strong signal into the mic helps to overcome noise.

When you get closer to a directional mic there is a “proximity effect” that boost the bass. Some male singers/announcers take advantage of this.

I like to start with the idea that a good recording doesn’t need any effects… But virtually all pro recordings have some EQ, reverb, and compression ("The “big 3”).

EQ is mostly corrective, to fix-up the frequency response of the mic, or maybe to fix-up the voice a bit, etc. And, if there is no real bass instrument like a bass guitar or kick drum, it’s common to filter-out any low bass (maybe below 80 or 100Hz) because anything in that frequency range is just noise.

Reverb can give the “feel” of a music hall but the amount of reverb that you hear in a music hall usually sounds unnatural coming from a pair of speakers in your living room, or from headphones. Sometimes, just enough reverb is added that you don’t notice it, but “something’s missing” when you take it out. That’s up you as the “producer”.

Dynamic compression makes the loud parts quieter or the quiet parts louder. Most often it’s used to push-down the loud parts and then “make-up gain” is used to make everything louder. Without compression, your recordings won’t be as loud as commercial recordings. And “simple” recordings with just a voice & guitar don’t sound as loud as a more “dense” recording of a whole band or orchestra at the same actual volume, even without compression.

Note that “dynamic expression” is an important part of music. Popular music is often over-compressed tt make it “constantly loud” and IMO, that often makes it boring, and I turn-down the volume.

Limiting is a fast kind of compression and it’s easier to use that a regular compressor effect. If you want to make your recording louder, try limiting first (with make-up gain) and I recommend the Legacy Compressor because it allows you to set a specific limit.

Note that by bringing the loud & quiet parts closer together you are making any background noise more noticeable.

You can try the Noise Reduction effect, but listen carefully so you don’t damage the sound.

It never hurts to run the Amplify or Normalize effect as the last step. With the default setting, they simply “maximize” the volume (as loud as it can go without clipping) and they don’t affect the quality/character of the sound. Wither one can also be helpful before compression/limiting to get a starting-point.

Thank you. I will need to dig into these features. Apparently the device is a Playstation 3 Eye camera, where the camera part is not really functional with Windows. But for the mic it sounds impressive as wikipedia says:
The PlayStation Eye features a built-in four-capsule microphone array, with which the PlayStation 3 can employ technologies for multi-directional voice location tracking, echo cancellation, and background noise suppression. This allows the peripheral to be used for speech recognition and audio chat in noisy environments without the use of a headset. The PlayStation Eye microphone array operates with each channel processing 16-bit samples at a sampling rate of 48 kilohertz, and a signal-to-noise ratio of 90 decibels.