Microphone Help!

[LilOrange]

Hey, guys! I recently bought a new mic - Nady Studio Condenser. This one http://www.musiciansfriend.com/condenser-microphones/nady-scm-960-studio-condenser-microphone

 

Anyway, I recorded some vocals and send them to a producer and he tells me that the sound is bad and I should rerecord it. Supposedly there is too much noise. Also, I usually record it in Reaper, but today I was trying out a new software - Magix and the vocals sound really horrible when I use that mic, it sounds WAY better when I use the laptop mic, which is ironic.

 

Please help! What am I doing wrong? Is that mic good?

[LilOrange]

Oh, right, I forgot to mention....I use Alesis iO2 express audio interface.

 

Cheers!

[john]

Hey

 

Well you mention a couple of issues...

1. Too much noise
2. Sounds horrible

 

For No.1 there are many causes. Most common is environmental noise spilling onto the recording, such as computer fans, electrical hum from TV, computers, household electrics etc, plus passing traffic, family moving around etc. It stands to reason that you should find a place that avoids all that. Preferably a room with loads of soft furnishings to absorb sound (when lacking a proper stuidio environment)

 

Then there is noise from the circuitry of the gear you are using. Barring replacing gear the only thing you can really do to reduce noise is to route your cables in a way that they are kept away from power leads, or midi leads, or digital leads... that's right, keep them all as apart as possible.

 

Thirdly, your mic polar pattern, and the boost settings should be correct. Generally avoid the circle polar pattern (that's the button with the shapes above it). Choose the one that shows a dent in it! This means that it picks up well from in front of the mic, but little from behind. Then orient your mic so the front points towards you when singing. There is usually a marker to indicate the front.

 

Check your mic input and set your mic boost accordingly. In essence it boosts the mic output by 10dB.

 

When you sing, don't go any closer than a hand's breadth away.

 

Try to keep the gain control as low as possible while being audible. This is a good place to start. You can then tweak to your heart's content as you learn what setting gets you a good recording.

 

Sorry, I have to go for now, but hopefully this gets you started at improving your vocals recording.

[LilOrange]

Hey, thanks, John! It helped what you said!

 

But also, a friend told me I´m supposed to by headphones with a plug in (adapter) for the interface (he said it would help reduce the noise), but when I plug the headphones in the interface I don´t hear anything, but I hear for example drums from the laptop mic when I´m trying to record the keys......

Edited August 22, 2014 by LilOrange