Advice on Home Studio - New Soundcard or USB Mixer

[smcoxon]

Hi All,

My partner’s daughter likes singing and we took her to a professional studio to record a song. This turned out very good (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8muRsgCHmk&feature=fvsr) and now she’d like to do more recordings. Hence I’m looking for advice on the best way to set up a home recording studio using Audacity 1.3.13.

What I’m looking to do is load a backing track (MP3 or Wav) into Audacity and play this back through headphones she listens too while recording her vocal track. I have achieved this with my PC but the vocal recording level is very low in comparison to the backing track. If I increase the microphone input recording level to improve this, the louder vocal sections distort. I’ve played about with Amplify, Normalise Hard Limiter etc. without good results. So I believe my problem is likely due to using my PC’s (Packard Bell Pentium 4, 3.2Ghz, 2GB Ram, Windows XP MCE Service Pack 3) standard motherboard sound card (Realtek AC 97) and microphone input socket.

So my question is: to get a good home set up without spending too much, should I upgrade my sound card and use an external audio mixer with mic pre amps? Or use a USB audio mixer with mic pre amps? Which is the best way to achieve good quality recordings and what hardware do you recommend?

Many thanks in anticipation for any suggestions and advice you can give.

[bgravato]

Most problems with home recordings come from the environment and not the recording equipment... Big difference from a studio to a home room is the echoes you get... There's no echoes in the studio (that's why they have that "stuff" in the walls ). Worst place to record at home is the bathroom... lots of echoes... That kills the show. One good way to check for echoes is to clap your hands once and listen for the echo of it... No echo perfect! The more echo/reverberation you hear the worst... You can add reverberation to a recording to make it sound richer, but it's nearly impossible to remove it when it is too much...

Surrounding sounds can kill the show too... The sound of computer fans, A/C fans, 'humm' or 'buzz' from lamps or other electronic equipment, cars passing by in the street, your neighbour's dog barking... All that will get in the recording.

Distance to the mic can make a difference too on the recording... If you pay attention to professional singers you see them moving the mic away when singing loud high pitched notes, that has a reason to be. In the studios you'll also see a popfilter between the nic and the singer, that has a reason to be too. Mics do not capture audio in the same way from all directions, if you move the mic around or your head while you sing, singing at different distances and angles at the mic, that will cause what you describe... some parts will sound much louder than others...

You should adjust the recording volume so that the loudest parts don't go above -6dB (that's +/-0.5 in the -1/+1 scale in the track's waveform in audacity). You can amplify it later to get it closer to 0dB (+/-1). If there is too much difference between the louder and the quieter parts you may use dynamic compression, that the compressor effect in audacity. Chris' compressor plugin is also very well regarded. If you search the forum for it will find a lot of threads about it.


Now about the equipment... What's your budget? It's easier to give suggestions if we know how much you want to spend...

If you're going to record from just one mic you don't really need a mixer.

There are mic preamps with USB interface which will avoid the need of an external sound card (or any soundcard at all, except for playback).

There are also mics with usb interface which would allow you to skip the mic preamp too, since those mics have everything built-in. Samson C01U and Blue Snowball are examples of that. That's the entry level. The preamps built-in the usb mics are usually not "top-quality" there has been reports of some "hiss" kind of noise. Most don't let you adjust the input gain. There are not that many models of "decent" usb mics available.

If you get a mic preamp with usb interface, you'll probably get better quality on the amplification and analog-to-digital conversion. You'll also have a wider range of mics from which to choose. You can change (upgrade) the mic while retaining the same preamp. Some preamps will allow you to connect two mics. You can't connect two usb mics at the same time to one computer (well technically you can, but that's calling for trouble... it's very unlikely you'll manage to make it work and even if you do you'll probably still get some minor issues). So if you plan on connecting two mics in the future you'll need a mic preamp or mixer.

Some mixers, such as the Peavey PV6 will allow you to connect up to 4 mics I think (Koz can confirm that). You don't need a mic preamp with such mixer, already has built-in ones (and good ones). But if you're going to record just from one (or two) mics you probably don't need all that...

ART equipment is well regarded among the users of this forum. I have an "ART USB Dual Pre" preamp, which I'm very happy with. It allows to connect two mics, has two hybrid XLR/TRS inputs and can provide phantom power. Has an usb interface to the computer. You should be able to get it at good prices online, such as amazon if you're in the USA. In europe it might get a bit "pricier".

I use it with a T-Bone mic (SC1100). T-Bone mics are sell by Thomann in germany. It might be a good choice for mics in price/quality ratio if you leave in europe. You might have other better options if you leave in the US.

[billw58]

What you want to do is caller "over-dubbing". The problem with using a USB microphone for over-dubbing is that the only way to listen to your own voice is by using Software Playthrough in Audacity, which introduces an annoying delay, and there is no way to compensate for that delay. It's like listening to yourself using speakers placed 100 feet away. I've heard tell that some Windows sound control panels will route the input back to the output (so you can hear yourself) with minimal delay, but I wouldn't count on it.

The best way to do overdubbing is with an external mixer, with the musician's headphones plugged into the mixer. That way there is no delay in hearing yourself, and you can get a proper mix in the musician's headphones between the backing track and their live sound. Looping back the backing track through the mixer so that the musician can hear it - but without re-recording it - is something you'll have to research.

Finally there is the issue of latency. This refers to the fact that it takes your computer and Audacity a significant fraction of a second to process the audio coming into the computer and lay it down on the new track. The upshot is that the new track sounds like it is delayed in reference to the first track. When you get to the point where you are ready to do some serious overdubbing have a look at this page in the Audacity manual:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Latency_Test

-- Bill

[smcoxon]

Thanks bgravato & Bill for all your advice. Its very much appreciated.

I'll take a look at the devices you recommend. My budget is 'budget' so to speak around £100. So I'll be looking at second hand equipment too. Reason why I don't want to spend too much is because I don't want to spends lots of money and find I have the same problem. If a small investment makes some difference I'll be happy and may consider more expensive equipment later.

Thanks again.

[kozikowski]

You join a long liszt of people wanting to duplicate the studio environment in your house. It's rough to do. The studio probably paid $100 for the cables in the studio. A good microphone comes in around $500 to $1000 -- each --and the sound mixer is anybody's guess, but it wasn't cheap.

What you get for that money is what you got. Walk in, sing, and walk out. Done. That's not what's going to happen to you.

You don't have to use an expensive microphone or mixer, but you do have to pay attention.

Here's a sound track I did on the little microphone in my Mac.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/Ex ... emoval.wav

The trick is I did it in one of our super-quiet conference rooms.

I can't locate it right this second, but I have been known to "make" a studio out of furniture moving quilts. Other singers in the company put blankets and quilts inside a closet to record without echoes and dogs barking. Of course, you can't breathe while you're in there....

Koz

[kozikowski]

http://www.kozco.com/tech/pix/BoothInUse.jpg
Koz