Acoustica User Forums

Are the 2 that Mixcraft recommends any good ?

I'm thinking about the BLUE Snowball Condenser USB Microphone Package .

I'm looking for a large diaphragm USB condenser Mic (for recording vocals) .

Thank you guys a lot .

I have a Shure SM57. It's great for guitar and vocals (it actually sounds like the noise that comes out of my head, which is a first for me).

Watch some videos on Youtube about where to postion a mic in front of an amp too. It makes a lot of difference.

I have no direct experience of USB mics but I did consider using one a while back. What put me off was that I was advised that if I wanted to use one for vocal overdubs - or just adding vocals to a previously recorded music track - I would have timing/latency issues as the playback path (Mixcraft, soundcard, headphones) is different to the recording path (USB interface, ?, ?). Hopefully someone with real experience will chip in and give you a definitive answer on this. Obviously if you're not doing overdubs or "record-while-monitoring" please ignore this.

ha , thanks you guys .

Anyone else ?

1) If you do not have a pro grade sound card, you will have latency wether you use a usb or analog mic. It's caused by the sound card/driver combination.

2) USB mics are not my first choice as a studio owner/engineer, they do not have the bandwidth that pci does, this would include the mic input jack already on your computer.

My advice is go with something like the Sure SM57 mentioned above, I actually would use the SM58 for vocals over the 57, but either is fine.

Also see this tutorial on how to get a great vocal sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ924ywmP1s

Holy crap Eric.

I'm getting tired of saying how awesome you are, but I just watched the videos on vocal sound and I can't believe what fantastic info there is in that.

P.S.

Side note: I'm back in the home studio (After a year off) working on re-recording a song I wrote 20 years ago.... if I was Mr. Holland, this would be my Opus..

I'm gonna need some help, srsly.

I'll hit you up on DemonDigital later

! Thanks, i appreciate that!

Check out this thread for more ideas.

thank you guys so much ! i'm just really lost with all this .there's so many choices !

but okay , a couple more questions .

1) i can just plug any microphone into my microphone jack in my computer ?
or is there more to it ?

the only reason i was considering a usb mic was because i don't know how to get a microphone connected to my computer .

2) i thought large diaphragm condenser mics were best for recording vocals , not dynamic mics ?

In my personal experience with headset/mic combos for USB they are really... really really unreliable. They just stop working, have to be unplugged and plugged back in and sometimes just stop working altogether.

Yes, you can plug any microphone into the mic jack on your computer. Yes large diaphram condensers are the choice of pros, but since you were considering a usb mic, I am guessing that an every day SM58 would be more than quality enough for you (I use them in my studio).

I agree with rockerboy, I have had issues with almost every usb mic or interface I have tried, accept the E-MU0202 which has worked flawlessly so far (I have had it for about 3 weeks).

If you can plug mics into the mic jack in your computer then what's this i'm hearin about mixers/pre amp's/interfaces ?
I'm not really sure what they're called but it's like a little box that you plug your mic into an then the box plugs into your computer .

help ?

nateasy wrote:thank you guys so much ! i'm just really lost with all this .there's so many choices !

but okay , a couple more questions .

1) i can just plug any microphone into my microphone jack in my computer ?
or is there more to it ?

the only reason i was considering a usb mic was because i don't know how to get a microphone connected to my computer .

2) i thought large diaphragm condenser mics were best for recording vocals , not dynamic mics ?

yes but depending on your comp input source you will either need an xlr or 1/4" adapter to a pin jack.

i have a few condenser mics but they all require phantom power from a mixing board.


the shure sm 57 or 58 would work fine although need ta couple jacks

xlr female to 1/4"male adapter
1/4"female to 1/8" pin jack male-
to go straight into the mic input.

nateasy wrote:If you can plug mics into the mic jack in your computer then what's this i'm hearin about mixers/pre amp's/interfaces ?
I'm not really sure what they're called but it's like a little box that you plug your mic into an then the box plugs into your computer

You can use an external audio interface for many reasons, like recording more than one track at a time, or using it's hardware monitoring, using one because of low latency if you need to hear whatever you are recording come back out in real time, etc.

In short, you don't have to use one, just plug the mic into the mic jack. Once you do that for a while, then you might find yourself in need of an interface of some sort.

Thank you guys SO much . You guys are really making it a lot easier for me and I really appreciate it .