Vocal hymns - What to use for recording

Aeneas

Aeneas

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I would like some advice on what recording equipment can be recommended for recording of vocal. It is something I have put off asking about for a very long time, feeling both shy and a little coy about it, yet my wife keeps prodding me to do something with it. I have always enjoyed playing with the voice, singing spontaneous creative hymns, playing with overtones etc. It is often just fleeting short melodies which arises and like dreams, if they are not captured, then they are forgotten. Of course this is not made better by the fact that I am not able to read or write notes. They are more in the category of holy chants and it works well to record them while on the staircase of the apartment block where we live. Another tool was a piano, which I salvaged when clearing a flat in our block last year. There is basically just the big string part left, without the keyboard and the front panels and when I happened to sing at the time of pulling it apart I decided to keep it as the resonance effect from the piano was too beautiful to throw away.

So far I have just recorded things on my smartphone, but I would like to capture it in better quality and also with the idea to share it, if I can get over my self-consciousness.

Thus more concretely the question is, what would you recommend, both in terms of microphone, computer program if needed and interface? Another follow up question is in what digital format it should be recorded and kept in? I have no intention of adding instruments or anything to it.

Here is an example my wife recorded on her iphone the other day, when I was not aware of it. We were leaving our flat to go out, hence the background noise of footsteps. It was inspired by the feeling for a loved family member, who had recently passed away.
Any suggestions on how to proceed would be much appreciated.


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Edit: I have changed the link to the general link of my facebook page and I will pin it for a little while until I find another solution.
 
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I noticed that the link didn't work for some reason and have changed it in the original post to my general FB page where the 'hymn' is pinned...for a little while.

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I think before you invest in very expensive equipment, you can look into a good quality USB microphone. They should cost in the 100-200USD range I think. The cable should be long enough not to pick the computer's noise though. You can check the microphones used in podcasts to get an idea of the expected quality.
As for the recording software, that's the easy part because you can start for instance with audacity, and if you need more advanced functionalities you can advance to a DAW later on.
hope it helps a little.
 
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I use this small recorder from Tascam, and have had great results with it. I have recorded with the built in mics, and also with a line in. Can use an external mic as well. Both came out great. It can output raw wav files or do various bit rates of mp3's which can easily be transferred to your computer for post processing. It does tons of other things, but I have only done simple recordings mentioned above.

 
mkrnhr said:
As for the recording software, that's the easy part because you can start for instance with audacity, and if you need more advanced functionalities you can advance to a DAW later on.
hope it helps a little.
Click to expand...
I just recently downloaded audacity (it's free) and I'm very pleased with it. It's quite easy to record and then edit your recording to the way you want it, then convert the file to an MP3 or other audio formats. As far as mics, you pretty well get what you pay for. However, I ended up buying a cheaper USB mic, called the 'BLUE Snowball' and it's working well enough for me, for doing audio voice recordings.
 
Hello H2O said:
I use this small recorder from Tascam, and have had great results with it. I have recorded with the built in mics, and also with a line in. Can use an external mic as well. Both came out great. It can output raw wav files or do various bit rates of mp3's which can easily be transferred to your computer for post processing. It does tons of other things, but I have only done simple recordings mentioned above.

Click to expand...

I like these kind of devices too - Haven't used a Tascam but I had a very similar one, Zoom H4n, which I used for field recording. The built-in mics in these are fantastic! And they're very flexible devices - you can carry them around to record sound in different locations without the need for a computer or power source. Or if you're at your computer, you can plug them in and use as an audio interface to record straight into the computer.. And as Hello H2O says, you can plug in external mics.

The built-in mics are condenser type microphones, which are very sensitive.. They'll pick up the whole room sound (good for eg recording singing in a hall or an empty stairwell or somewhere with lots of reverb...or recording a choir or whole band with minimal equipment), but this can be a hassle as well, because it'll pick up things like cars driving past outside etc.. With this type of mic, you wouldn't use it by singing directly into it, you'd want to have it set up a bit further away (depending on the room, and how loud you're singing).. Though they're pretty flexible, if you wanted to record loudly in a small space you could just turn the input volume right down... If I had to choose one single device/microphone it would be something like this.

The type of mic traditionally used for recording vocals (and instruments like guitar etc) is a dynamic microphone, eg Shure SM57. These type of mics are far less sensitive, you can sing at the top of your lungs directly into them and they'll handle it beautifully.. Typically used in rock band recordings, or live (amplified) speeches etc. I don't know if these type are used for stuff like choral recording, I suspect they'd use something more sensitive/delicate for that.. My experience is mostly in rock music :) These kind of mics, at least the ones I know about, would require an interface to plug into the computer. (why portable recorders like that Tascam are extra useful, you can plug these pro studio type mics into them)

Also I'm a bit out of date, dunno much about modern USB mics used for voiceover/podcasting etc... Probably anything like that will work great for your purposes too! I'm guessing ones designed specifically for voice might be easier to get the results you want with, than a handheld recorder like the Tascam.

You'll be able to get good recordings with whatever proper gear you use, it's just a matter of experimenting with mic placement and recording environment, IMO.

As for software, yep Audacity's good as others said.. And if you want to try a full DAW, I like REAPER - REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits .. which isn't free, but is cheap, and can be tried out for free, with no limitations.


Oh and about what format it should be in.... Typically things would be recorded to .wav files, or maybe .aiff. These are full quality / lossless.. Or some devices can record straight to .mp3. If you stick to high quality mp3 (320kbps) it'll be basically indistinguishable from .wav, but with a much smaller file size.

If you have the hard drive space free, store everything as .wav, for the most flexibility (eg if in the future you wanted to have things put things on CD professionally)..There are different quality levels even with .wav (44.1khz up to 192khz generally) but it's not really important IMO unless you're using a lot of processing/plugins - the extra headroom given by higher frequency recordings means after heavy processing, there will be less degradation of sound -........ or trying to reproduce high frequency sounds that humans can't hear :)

In the end, don't worry about it too much IMO.. If it sounds good to you, then it is good!
 
Oh, I re-read your post Aeneas, had missed what you said about singing in the stairs, and the empty piano (that sounds very interesting.. I'd love to hear that! I'm not on FB so couldn't listen to your link).. So, yeah for these type of things, a portable/handheld recorder with built-in condenser mics is the way to go IMO, for sure.. Means you can start recording almost instantly any time/place, and experiment with mic placement without the hassle of wires/computer/etc..
 
Hi Aeneas,

Stoneboss said:
I just recently downloaded audacity (it's free) and I'm very pleased with it. It's quite easy to record and then edit your recording to the way you want it, then convert the file to an MP3 or other audio formats. As far as mics, you pretty well get what you pay for. However, I ended up buying a cheaper USB mic, called the 'BLUE Snowball' and it's working well enough for me, for doing audio voice recordings.
Click to expand...
I also have myself a BLUE Snowball (I got an orange one because I really like that color), it is very affordable and it does a very decent job picking up voice, specially the lower tones that are missed by most hand free headsets, (you can hear a bit of the voice quality here, in Spanish) It also has three settings, one to prioritize one speaker, one for two speakers sitting in front of one another and one to pick up the sound of the ambience in general (including the speakers around the mic). And it does a great job filtering out the unintended sounds one makes when speaking, like breathing in or the sounds your mouth makes when speaking that aren't strictly voice. I hope that makes sense.

I would suggest getting that to being with a some decent audio recording software that will allow you to play with what you record, and build from there. Before making a larger investment, I would suggest identifying what you would need to invest on, if that makes sense.

I did a quick search for audio recording software and found this link, it may give you a bit of an idea of what you could try to begin with.
But I would say go for it, it sounds like a spending endeavor!
 
mkrnhr said:
I think before you invest in very expensive equipment, you can look into a good quality USB microphone.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is good advice, which is also why I thought to ask, so as to find out what I actually need. A good USB microphone sounds like a good option.
Hello H2O said:
I use this small recorder from Tascam, and have had great results with it.
Click to expand...
I bought a Sony SX67 voice recorder in 2008, which back then was a fairly expensive recorder of a good quality, and did use it for recording things on to it, without ever taking it any further. From what some of you are writing then it might be that it is enough just with a better microphone and some software like audacity which mkrnhr mentioned as an option. The sony is still a good recorder BUT it is no longer recognised on my computer as it is on the FAT system, which my computer no longer recognises. Is there a way around that, which is not too complicated? (I realised that the simple solution could be to just reformat it)
Stoneboss said:
I just recently downloaded audacity (it's free) and I'm very pleased with it.
Click to expand...
Good to know that several of you have had good experiences with it. I will download it and see how it works.
brandon said:
Oh and about what format it should be in.... Typically things would be recorded to .wav files, or maybe .aiff. These are full quality / lossless.. Or some devices can record straight to .mp3. If you stick to high quality mp3 (320kbps) it'll be basically indistinguishable from .wav, but with a much smaller file size.

If you have the hard drive space free, store everything as .wav, for the most flexibility (eg if in the future you wanted to have things put things on CD professionally)..There are different quality levels even with .wav (44.1khz up to 192khz generally) but it's not really important IMO unless you're using a lot of processing/plugins - the extra headroom given by higher frequency recordings means after heavy processing, there will be less degradation of sound -........ or trying to reproduce high frequency sounds that humans can't hear :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for letting me know what format to store it in. On the Sony voice recorder, I converted it all to mp3, though I think it was recording it in wav, if I remember correctly.

PS: Thinking about it, I am going to see if reformatting the voice recorder that I have is possible.
 
Aeneas said:
PS: Thinking about it, I am going to see if reformatting the voice recorder that I have is possible.
Click to expand...
I looked for what Sony support said to the problem of the computer not recognising the software and here is the message:

My voice recorder is not recognized by the computer or I get an error: Device was not installed correctly.​


Applicable Products and Categories of This Article
Although the Digital Voice Editor (DVE) software version 3.3 is compatible with both the 32- and 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system, this model of Integrated Chip (IC) recorder (see the Products section below) is only compatible with the Windows OS 32 bit version.
Click to expand...

This then would mean that the computer will not recognise the device even if formatted, but likely just list it as a hard drive. As long as the files which I record can be imported, then it should still work. Something to experiment with I guess.
 
Aeneas said:
I looked for what Sony support said to the problem of the computer not recognising the software and here is the message:


This then would mean that the computer will not recognise the device even if formatted, but likely just list it as a hard drive. As long as the files which I record can be imported, then it should still work. Something to experiment with I guess.
Click to expand...
I have nothing to add on a technical level, but I'm very excited to hear your recording (I'lllog into Facebook after work).
I've been studying guitar and piano and even though I'm just beginning, the music is beautiful.
Also I can read music so if you like I'll transcribe as I'm training ear
 
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