Recording Vocals

B

boke

Active member
Hello all, this isn't really an video/audio question. I'm an software designer (mostly Flash) and my new project is making English learning software for English language students. I want to do most of the vocal tracks in my office if possible. I've done a little bit of research and went ahead and purchased a Focusrite Saffire audio interface, an Audio Technica AT2020, and also found a nice small room in my office that I more or less covered everything (walls,celing, floor) with blankets and futons (not sure if that'll help to be honest).I also seperated my computer, so only my mic is in the "recording room". Everything that I do will in the end be heard (by the students) thru a computer, i-pod or cell phone. It's all just vocals and a couple of interviews ,ect. I have Adobe Audition and Soundbooth, was hoping to use Soundbooth as I heard it was geared to people like myself rather than true pro's.

I had a couple of questions,

-can you suggest anything else for my setup that can improve the sound?

-for recording vocals what should I do with "gain", "reverb" ,ect.. I'm really at a loss with all of these terms. The Saffire Control software has a vocal preset with the options of "low noise", "fullness", "presence", and "breath", any suggestions?

- and last is Soundbooth good enough to use to record to? Am I right that I can use the Saffire Control software AND Soundbooth to record and then only Soundbooth for post production?

Thanks for any replies
 
boke said:
Hello all, this isn't really an video/audio question. I'm an software designer (mostly Flash) and my new project is making English learning software for English language students. I want to do most of the vocal tracks in my office if possible. I've done a little bit of research and went ahead and purchased a Focusrite Saffire audio interface, an Audio Technica AT2020, and also found a nice small room in my office that I more or less covered everything (walls,celing, floor) with blankets and futons (not sure if that'll help to be honest).I also seperated my computer, so only my mic is in the "recording room". Everything that I do will in the end be heard (by the students) thru a computer, i-pod or cell phone. It's all just vocals and a couple of interviews ,ect. I have Adobe Audition and Soundbooth, was hoping to use Soundbooth as I heard it was geared to people like myself rather than true pro's.

I had a couple of questions,

-can you suggest anything else for my setup that can improve the sound?

-for recording vocals what should I do with "gain", "reverb" ,ect.. I'm really at a loss with all of these terms. The Saffire Control software has a vocal preset with the options of "low noise", "fullness", "presence", and "breath", any suggestions?

- and last is Soundbooth good enough to use to record to? Am I right that I can use the Saffire Control software AND Soundbooth to record and then only Soundbooth for post production?

Thanks for any replies
Click to expand...

While the Saffire is a nice interface, the majority of its features are oriented to creating music in programs like Cubase and recording music such as guitars, vocals, etc. 99% of its bells and whistles are totally unnecessary or even ill-advised for recording spoken word. For your type of recording, you'll want to record "dry," that is, without any processing applied to the signal at all. So bypass the EQ, Reverb, etc. I think I spotted a low-cut (hi-pass) filter setting when I glanced through the manual - you might want it on cutting below 80 Hz or so to help keep breath and low room noises out of your track but all the compression, amp sim, reverb, etc stuff is better applied in post if you use it at all.

You could use either Audition or Soundbooth as your recording software, whichever you prefer or find easier to use - the sound quality is dependent on the interface, not the recording software. For that matter you could even use something as simple as the freeware program Audacity. You might find Audition has a few more handy tools that give you more flexibility, things such as punch-in and punch-out recording to replace a section of a clip or looping while recording to capture multiple takes.
 
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