Beginner seeks advice,

I have a cheap mic that plugs in to my computer. Now what?

I have been slowly starting to fiddle around with trying to write a song or two, but I feel like there's probably a whole range of music-making programs that I could use to make that easier/better. Right now I use... sound recorder. It really doesn't seem to be designed for this (cuts off after sixty seconds as a default) and the files it generates are enormous.

Please, help me get from square one to square two, mefi musicians!

posted by prefpara (19 comments total)

Quit while you're ahead, kid, quit while you're ahead!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:16 PM on August 7

I started off using sound recorder too, a way I got past that 60 sec limit was I'd run a first recording of nothing for about how long I wanted to record for (lets say like 2 min) than I'd record over that. It'll stop at 60 sec but than you hit record again and it'll go for another 60 sec after the first 60. I think sound recorder uses wav. files, you could just google search "wav. converter to mp3" and find a few decent apps. That's about all I gots, I'm still kinda a nub to this whole thing too.
posted by BrnP84 at 7:47 PM on August 7

What you want is multitrack recording software. What you also want at this stage is something without too many random featuers getting in the way of the basics. You don't say whether you're using a Mac or PC. I've only used a PC but have used n-Track, Audition/Cool Edit Pro, Sonar and Tracktion and I'd say that some will suit you more than others, but just like a guitarist will prefer, say, a Tele over a Les Paul, you probably won't be able to judge what you want at this stage. In contrast to when I started out, there are plenty of viable free-as-in-speech programs, such as Audacity and Ardour, available for multiple platforms.

What I will say is: Obviously the "quit while you're ahead" comment is in jest; recording can be hugely frustrating at times, but when you capture/make something you like, you'll feel a joy like no other. The best bit is, this joy isn't tied to an absolute notion of fidelity, but will constantly reward you as you get better; I can still remember being giddy before I even had a microphone and managed a recording from a pair of headphones blu-tacked to a guitar.

Enjoy!
posted by kersplunk at 8:16 PM on August 7

I've been using Audacity. It does multiple tracks, filters / effects, and (most important) its free.

Its been easy enough to use, but I've never tried to do anything complicated
posted by ibfrog at 10:43 PM on August 7

What ibfrog said. I've got a cheap but nice USB mic and I record into Audacity. It's capable of a lot more than I know how to do with it, & yet easy enough to use for what I need to do. It would be a good square two for you right now.
posted by sleevener at 6:36 AM on August 8

If you have a reasonably new Mac, it came with GarageBand, which I found much easier to use than Audacity (which, as people say, is not mega-hard itself.)
posted by escabeche at 8:14 AM on August 8

Yeah, the basic get-off-of-Soundrecorder sentiment here is key—not that there's anything wrong with using it as a This Is All I've Got first step, so go you with the lofi dipping-your-toes-in, but getting up to speed on a piece of software that will let you have some basic flexibility will make it so much easier for you to learn your way around recording and arrangement.

One of these days I'd like to sit down and teach myself Audacity and try to put together like a Raw Beginner's Guide for situations like this, but I have no idea when that would happen.
posted by cortex at 9:55 AM on August 8

I use n-Track for my multitracking, my system is fairly old so I need a program that runs on a small RAM footprint.. But I've always been pretty satisfied with the results..
posted by mediocre at 10:16 AM on August 8

A lot of us are working on square 5 or 6, so it's tempting for me to tell you that you should spend a bunch of money on software and new hardware to do recording.

But square 2 probably looks a lot like Audacity (which is free free free). Once you've got your teeth sunk into that and decide it's time to upgrade the hardware and software, then there's a lot of opinions here on that, too.

Or you could do the rational thing right now and do what flapjax said: Run. Screaming. You're staring down the barrel of a very pricey (but also extremely rewarding) hobby.
posted by chimaera at 10:34 AM on August 8

You're staring down the barrel of a very pricey (but also extremely rewarding) hobby.

Well, "very pricey" remains debatable. You can, and to good result, spend a lot of money on music recording, but you can also do it for pretty damned cheap and still be in much better shape than a plastic mic going into a 1/8" linein to Sound Recorder.

My setup is probably about three hundred bucks of hardware (mic, mixer, external USB sound device) plus a hundred bucks or so of software, and I'm pretty happy with my ability to put together solid vox+instrument recordings. Audacity instead of Audition, a USB condensor mic instead of my phantom-power-needing model and external sound, and you can cut that down even more and still be in pretty solid territory.

So don't run screaming based on presumed future cost, I figure.
posted by cortex at 10:50 AM on August 8

Thanks, everyone, for your advice. I will try Audacity and, if all goes well, you will see what I come up with on the Music page!
posted by prefpara at 1:28 PM on August 8

the files any program creates are going to be large, figuring 10mb/minute, with an 8 track, 4 minute tune, a 'typical' song might easily take up 300mb+.

you didn't say what style of music you're going for, if it's on the singer/songwriter side of things, you might consider using a standalone digital recorder, the nice thing is that you can turn it on and be recording moments later, it's way too easy to lose the flow when your pc starts acting up. there are amazing units starting at $250, you can pick up a boss 8 track new for $350, i bet you'll find a bunch of used ones on craigslist.

if you're heading to the electronica side, ableton live is the shit. relatively steep learning curve, well worth the investment. you can do an amazing amount of stuff with the trial, including final polished track production. you just can't save your settings/arrangements with the trial.

lastly, on any computer based recording setup, it is well worth considering using an audio interface (<$100). the internal sound hardware on most pc's/macs is inferior. it sucks to perform an amazing take and not capture it fully.
posted by kimyo at 3:02 PM on August 8

The best thing you can do for yourself is remove the 60-second limit, and then SHARE your first attempts, even if they're awful. In fact, they will be awful. But if you can get the nerve to share the early crap, you'll feel really good about sharing the good stuff.

So yeah, Audacity and a quiet room, and go nuts.
posted by davejay at 5:50 PM on August 8

Well, "very pricey" remains debatable. You can, and to good result, spend a lot of money on music recording, but you can also do it for pretty damned cheap and still be in much better shape than a plastic mic going into a 1/8" linein to Sound Recorder.

Fair enough. But I can't claim to have the intestinal fortitude to resist for long acquiring something that fills (to me) a gap in my gear.
posted by chimaera at 7:47 PM on August 8

Waiter! There's a gap in my gear!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:57 PM on August 8

But I can't claim to have the intestinal fortitude to resist for long acquiring something that fills (to me) a gap in my gear.

Fair enough in return, and it is a sort of latent danger if someone doesn't know yet. There's your fetishists and your ascetics, so to speak.
posted by cortex at 10:44 PM on August 8

If you're going to spend money up front, spend it on a decent microphone, say $100 worth. If the quality of the sound coming in is good, it doesn't matter so much whether you're recording it into a cassette recorder, your laptop, or a $2000 deck. Conversely, if your microphone is crap, what good would a $2000 deck do?
posted by davejay at 12:43 AM on August 9

I use a micro-cassette voice recorder; it's the way to go if you're looking for a ridiculously-lo-fi-but-at-least-it's-analog sound. You then have the option of a) using a mic->headphone jack solution to get the tape into Audacity, then compressing with LAME and posting to MeFi, or b) (my own personal track) doing nothing, and appreciating the microcassette as its own, unique, medium, not to be spoiled by mixture with modern digital conveniences. I'm pretty sure this is how Devendra Banhart and the Mountain Goats got their respective starts.

Unfortunately, my tape recently got full, so I have to figure something else out. I'm thinking of writing my own noise-generating, ambient-sound-accumulating software with which to annoy the shit out of the neighbors.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:36 PM on August 9

Seconding Audacity. It's a good place to start to get your feet wet in the recording and editing process. And it's free, so you can mess around while taking time to check out your other options with more bells and whistles further down the road.
posted by not_on_display at 7:29 PM on August 11