Buying equipment for the first time

Soul_Mate

Hello guys!

Hope you are doing great and are keeping yourselves safe.

I have been on the course for a while almost a year and I was wondering if at this point should I buy equipment to record myself and have a better idea of my voice. Currently I only use my phone and do some covers on smule with normal earphones.

If I should what microphones you guys recommend and why?

Thanks in avance and stay safe everyone.

Wigs

I have a rode nt1-a which is nice, and a focus rite Scarlett 6i6. You might find good bundle deals on the focus rite with a 2i2 and nt1 which I think is a good starters basic setup but you need a computer to plug it into. Other than that I've no other experience since that was my first purchase.

sjonrokz4u

It would help knowing your budget. Also to add to what wigs said you’ll need a DAW

Soul_Mate

Ok I have a pretty good laptop so I can plug the microphones into it. I was planning to spend no more than 250 since it is my first setup and thanks guys

sjonrokz4u

You’ll want to get a DAW. You’ll have to research what your needs are. I use reaper I think it’s 60$ as wigs said you’ll also need an interface. Any interface in your price range are going to be the same. Same with the mic at this price point they’re all about the same. You can get a handheld like an sm58 or some kind of cheap condenser. Also some cheap condenser mics come with a usb plug with that you won’t need an interface

Soul_Mate

Ok I did some research and yeah I know what I have to get know. Thanks guys for the help!

MikeStark

A great choice of microphones is here on micspeech.com. You’ll find a number of guidelines that are better to be taken into consideration. Find a microphone that will perfectly suit your purpose no matter what it is.

codeowl

@Soul_Mate,

For me I got a RODE NT1-A condenser mic and a Focusrite 2I4 to get the mic into the PC. The Focusrite 2I4 has two inputs that can take mic or instrument as well as midi in for the keyboard and I use Reaper to record and mix the sound.
The Reaper Mania youtube channel has brilliant videos on how to use reaper and the amazing stuff you can do in production. It is pretty simple to get up and running and just record. One cool thing you can do in Reaper, (or any DAW [Digital Audio Workstation software]), is you can add two tracks and load Kens workout mp3 on one track and link the other track up to the mic. Then you can play and record at the same time. So the workout mp3 of Ken is playing in your headphones, and you sing through the mic to it and that gets record on the track linked to the mic.
This is great for comparison later as you can play them both back at the exact same time and just adjust the mix to how much you hear of you or Ken. Also you can mute either track so if you want to hear Ken in isolation and then compare that to you in isolation it is great.
I have set up folders for each vowel and then have a track for me and track for Ken... this has really helped me to identify where I am falling short. Maybe I will do a post on how to set this up in Reaper if people would find it helpful...
I also have a pair of Shure SRH1440 open back headphones which I much prefer to closed back. I got closed back to begin with, but found on the low ooh and eee notes it felt to me a bit like singing with your fingers in your ears and the open back phones totally solved this.

Regards,

Scotty

sjonrokz4u

Everything Scotty just said!