Recording
Ok,
I'm ready to lay down the vocal track. Now, for equipment.
A computer naturally; doesn't have to be top of the line,
just something that won't chug while running your recording
software. Also, turn off everything that is unnecessary
while doing the recording. As far as your computer; kill
browsers, email, games, everything but what you need; you
don't want the beep of an incoming email in the recording
or a hiccup because the computer decided to update a file
or refresh a page while recording. But this doesn't apply
strictly to the PC; in your home, turn off anything that
may be running; dishwasher, tv, etc etc, but especially
the Air Conditioner; your AC kicking in while putting down
a vocal track is a royal pain in the ass. And when you set
up to record, make sure the mike is in a position where
you're not picking up the computer’s noise either,
especially cooling fans. I'll stop here to make a point.
Yes,
editing software these days is great, and can remove a lot
of background noises and stuff. But, at least for me, the
fun parts of this are the writing, the recording, and the
editing as far as adding the stuff to enhance the Poinkcast;
vocal effects and sound effects. But if I have to spend
a lot of time fixing vocal flubs or killing noises that
occurred while I was recording, then it kills the vibe right
in it's tracks, and I'll just want to put it together just
to get it over with; not because I'm having a good time.
If it turns into work, to me, it loses the humor. And the
work part can be fun, but to use an analogy, a wood craftsman
may enjoy building something and carving it and seeing it
appear in a block of wood. I doubt he has that much fun
sweeping the shavings off the floor or looking for lost
tools. End of point.
Equipment
wise, the next and most vital point is of course, your microphone.
A lot of people will give you a lot of opinions on this,
and best rule of thumb here is to experiment and find what
works for you. In my case, I believe you get what you pay
for. I've used headset mikes, cheap handheld mikes, that
voice recorder I mentioned earlier; even borrowed mikes
from the FPS show, but for me, they sounded anywhere from
complete crap to not what I'm looking for.
Now
microphones can cost a lot of money, as can recording equipment
and such, but I didn't want to break the bank to do this,
so I wanted to find a good middle ground. I listen to a
lot of standup, radio shows, and audiobooks, so I wanted
something that would record my voice as rich and full and
warm. And all of the research pointed to a Condenser Microphone
VS a Dynamic one, which is the most common; and used for
a lot of singers and live work. But for what I wanted, Condensor
microphones give you that warm and accurate representation;
I rarely yell or scream at the mike when I do a Poinkcast,
and I want it to just be clear and sound like I'm talking
to the listener themselves.
Now,
Condensor Mikes have a lot of different requirements like
phantom power units and blah blah blah I don’t even
pretend I understand, and a basic setup like that would
run at least 200 or more, usually LOTS more. But since podcasting
started getting popular, there have been a number of good
USB condenser mikes put out for sale; you can only use it
for your pc, but to me, it's worth it and it's a different
recording environment then live performing anyway. After
researching it; price wise and review wise, I went with
Blue Microphones Snowball. It looks goofy, but it works
really really well for me; I love the tones I can get from
it, and it's omnidirectional so if I turn my head away from
the microphone for a second it's not the end of the world.
It retails for 99.00 bucks, but I got mine at a huge discount
from a PC store that went out of business.
The cable it comes with is short; but if you use extension
cables make sure they’re not cheap; cheap cables add
line noise to what the mike records, and I think this goes
for ANY mike, usb or not.
You
will want a full size mike stand as well. Some people sit
down and record, but in my case, I'm normally more relaxed
standing, cause I'll pace and fidget and emphasize points
with gestures; the only one listening to me at this point
is my cat, but she seems to like it, and I feel like I'm
conveying more emotion in my voice if I'm putting gesture
and feeling into it, like I would talking to a person or
performing for a group. I try not to hold the mike stand
or tap it because those motions will be picked up in the
recording as well. And you can get the cheapest stand you
can find, but you want it to have a sturdy base since the
thing falling over is more then likely going to damage your
microphone. And definitely get a pop filter; they're cheap,
and you can make them yourself if you want to using a coathanger
and a pair of women's nylons, which me buying myself in
a retail chain is a story for another time. You can train
yourself not to pop or whatever if you want, but to me,
if I'm concentrating on not popping, I'm taking something
away from the feeling I'm trying to record. That's all for
the physical equipment.
Now
for recording, I use 2 pieces of software period; Cool Edit
Pro and Audacity. For the straight recording of my voice
I use Cool Edit Pro, then a combination of both to finish
it up. Cool Edit Pro, which I'll call CEP from here on out,
is an older program that was bought out by Adobe, who renamed
it Audition. I’ve used Audition, and I find it bloated,
slow, and a complete pain in the ass. You may like it, so
again, go with what you find comfortable. I record it in
stereo; yeah when I post it or send it to 2 Sense it's mixed
down to Mono for size of download and such; but I always
keep a stereo version if I ever want to put these things
on cd at some point; I can hear the difference. I use my
laptop for the vocal recordings; it's quieter, and at this
point I'm only running CEP and Itunes.
Now
I do a few dry runs of the material with the background
music I'm going to use playing in my earbuds. I only wear
one in one ear, which keeps the mike from picking it up
on the vocals and lets me hear my voice as I record. I just
set ITunes on repeat; I just want the beat and the timing.
Believe it or not, most of my raw vocal cuts can be up to
10 minutes long. No one's perfect, I flub lines and curse
when I screw up. Plus, I like to take deep breaths between
different lines, I hate to get to the end of the line and
you can hear me running out of breath and my voice cracking
on the last word. Plus, here's where the writing continues;
some words look great on paper, but when recording they
don't sound natural with either the beat or my tone, and
throwing in an odd word just because it looks good makes
it stand out and to me, again, kills the flow. I'll also
shorten sentences if it looks like and reads like I'm reading
an audiobook vs having an actual conversation. Yes, this
means that there will be gasps for air and a lot of dead
space between things; this is the only necessary chore of
editing I don't like, but after doing this for a while I've
gotten the work down on this part to maybe 10 minutes. After
running through it a few times, I'll record it, and it usually
takes about 3 run throughs to get what I want. That's basically
the recording part of it; the only thing I'll point out
is when you're done, as when I'm done and I move to the
PC in the other room, remember, TURN THE AC BACK ON.
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