microphone

[Etherspin]

using a low quality microphone to record a vocal just to see if voices suit particular lyrics how can i reduce as much distortion and glean the best possible quality in this situation ?? any freeware vocal tools/setting tools ?? any advice u guys ? even just something to make sure ive set the recording volumes appropriately ?

[atma]

well what program are you recording with?

basically all you need to do is a few takes and if the recording is clipping, then turn it down until you get a volume level that's loud enough for you but wont clip. this is where a compressor/limiter comes in handy, as it keeps your sound levels as even as possible so you can sing quietly or yell and you wont have to worry so much about clipping.

its a good idea to try recording your vocals in 24 bit instead of 16. i wont get into technical details, but essentially you can record at lower input volumes this way (not worrying about getting a really loud signal), and have less noise when you normalize the volume level after recording.

but if you want a decent recording, you really have to have at least semi-pro equipment, which nominally would consist of a good soundcard, mic, and mixer with phantom power or some sort of mic preamp.

these days there's tons of dirt cheap, high quality gear available since there's so many small computer based project studios out there making recordings.

[Etherspin]

im using goldwave, found compressors and limiters i think , just fiddling with that now , cheers atma

[atma]

just so you know, i was referring to the use of a hardware compressor/limiter, before the signal gets onto your hard disk (that way it can keep the volume levels more even so your signal wont clip going into your sound cards input).

you can of course use compression and limiting after the fact as well, but if you have a lot of noise in your recording to begin with, compressing it is actually going to raise the noise level somewhat, just by its very nature.

also keep in mind you can really easily destroy a recording if you don't understand the compressor settings--make sure you read up on them before you commit to any processing.

one kind of plugin that would be useful for noise would be a 'gate'. you can set it so it basically turns down the volume whenever the recording falls to a specified level, so any hiss that's present between vocal phrases or words will be muted. gates are kind of the inverse of compression and you should also read up a bit on the controls so you know how to best work them.

noise reduction plugins can help, but honestly should be avoided if possible--they tend to make recordings sound a lot like poorly encoded mp3s, so the tradeoff isn't really worth it.

for loads of free vst and dx plugins you can check out:

http://www.kvr-vst.com/

have fun.