Recording singing vocals and voice-over with/without performance tracks?

Question

Level 1

30 points

Recording singing vocals and voice-over with/without performance tracks?

Greetings all you techies a.k.a. "new best friends" who will hopefully help me do what I need to do:

I'm new to Garageband and though I'm not a musician, I am a singer (sight read only). Besides once acting professionally, I also had paid gigs here and there singing. However, there was a looong time in between of not doing either when I made a career switch to being a wife and mom, then, ultimately, a copywriter. Now since I'm still relatively young and frisky, I want to revive my acting/singing/comedy career.

Here's my dilemma. GarageBand confuses the h--l out of me. I'll tell you what I want to do, the equipment I have to do it (I think) and then maybe, just maybe, someone can tell me if and how it can be done.

THE OVERVIEW:

(1) I want to practice my singing using GarageBand-with or without performance tracks or accompaniment CD's. Then, I want to record a demo.

(2) I need to record about 10-15- (60 second each) voice-over .MP3 files that can be uploaded unto a site called SitePals. This is where I will store my individual character voices that will speak through animated characters on my web site. (After I imbed them onto my web site.)

Following are more details about what I want to do and the tools I have:

Laptop: iBook G4 Mac OS 10.4.6.

Here are the tools I bought from the Apple store that the GB software guy said I needed to record vocals:

(a.) Shure Pro Microphone System with XLR-1/8" cable, etc.

(b) Griffin GarageBand Microphone Cable that "connects any XLR style microphone directly to iMic and GarageBand without adapters.

(c) M-Audio Fast Track USB

Again, I want to both practice various songs and then record them on a demo. As far as I can see, there are no performance tracks for practice and/or performance purposes except for Christian music. I'm trying to get some pre-recorded arrangements (standards, jazz & bluegrass) from people I know, or I will have to pay a pianist to play the arrangements I want and use them to sing along with. (Unless there's a masking device on GB that will enable me to sing along with, say Rosemary Clooney without actually hearing Rosemary Clooney.)

GB tutorial says "you don't have to be musician to use GarageBand." Obviously you do have to be one since I'm not going to be able to put loops together to record for example, "Cry Me a River." Just the lingo they use to explain the process confuses me!

Okay, so everyone knows what I want to do,and the system and tools I have to do it with.

The $64,000 is: Can I do it? And can it be explained in a step-by-step procedure that I, a non-techie can understand?

Please help!!!

Thanks,

jenni

iBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

iBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Apr 27, 2006 4:56 PM

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Answer 1

xs4is

Level 4

2,800 points

Apr 27, 2006 5:23 PM in response to Jennie Keast

Hi Jennie,

1. Do you need to record yourself to practice your singing? If so, probably just for a reference right? I would start frequenting local karaoke bars and befriend the dj. When he knows you on a first name basis, tell him your plan to make some demos and ask if he will burn you a audio copy of some karaoke songs...then you'll have whole songs with no lead vocals. You can import those files into GB and record your vocals over them.

2. You can record in Garageband, export the song to iTunes and convert the file to MP3 there.

About your computer, I am assuming it will work, but can you post some more specific specs for us? For example, processor speed; hard drive speed, capacity, and available space; amount of RAM; etc. You can find this info in the top menu bar under the little blue apple and it's called "about this mac."

If you have the m-audio Fast Track, you don't need the griffin cable, just a regular xlr male to female cable. You might consider taking back the Shure Pro mic system and getting a condenser mic or a Shure SM58b...you'll get better quality.

There aren't any performance tracks that dome with GB...I would go with the karaoke idea above for that...

Let us know what you think and we can go from there.

xs4is

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Answer 2

Jennie Keast Author

Level 1

30 points

Apr 28, 2006 2:36 PM in response to xs4is

Hi Jennie,

1. Do you need to record yourself to practice your singing? If so, probably just for a reference right? I would start frequenting local karaoke bars and

befriend the dj. >

Please tell me there's another way--I'm no fan of karoke! Not just because of the quality of the music but also because the whole karoke world is weird. (At least to me.)

<When he knows you on a first name basis, tell him your plan to make some demos and ask if he will burn you a audio copy of some karaoke songs...then you'll have whole songs with no lead vocals. You can import those files into GB and record your vocals over them.>

2. You can record in Garageband, export the song to iTunes and convert the file to MP3 there.>

Can't I do the same with a recording of someone else's arrangment? If they gave me a DVD with 4 or 5 arrangements on it, then couldn't I use that to record into GB, then export my vocals over the arrangement to ITunes and convert to MP3?

About your computer, I am assuming it will work, but can you post some more specific specs for us? For example, processor speed; hard drive speed, capacity, and available space; amount of RAM; etc. You can find this info in the top menu bar under the little blue apple and it's called "about this mac.">

Processor Speed: 1.42 GHz, Power PC G4; Memory: 512 MB Built-in; CPU Speed: 1.42 GHz; Bus Speed, 142 MHz, etc. What else do you need to know?

If you have the m-audio Fast Track, you don't need the griffin cable, just a regular xlr male to female cable. You might consider taking back the Shure Pro mic system and getting a condenser mic or a ShureSM58b...you'll get better quality.>

Okay, I'll look into that. Thanks for the suggestion.

There aren't any performance tracks that dome with GB...I would go with the karaoke idea above for that...>

Not sure what "dome" means, but to repeat above question--if someone layed down a piano recording of these songs for me can't I use these with GB?
I can either can a friend to give me his pre-recorded arrangments (he sings standards for a living) or get another singer/pianst friend to record a few selected songs.

Let us know what you think and we can go from there.>

Thanks so much for your help thus far!--Jenni

xs4is

iBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

iBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

iBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

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Answer 3

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Apr 28, 2006 2:58 PM in response to Jennie Keast

Not sure what "dome" means

It's Minnesotan for "Come"

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Answer 4

Jennie Keast Author

Level 1

30 points

Apr 28, 2006 3:18 PM in response to HangTime

Not sure what "dome" means

It's Minnesotan for "Come"

Funny.

I actually thought it was some sort of recording lingo. Now that I know you meant "Come" vs. "Dome" I understand what you were saying. I knew GB didn't come with any Performance Tracks.

Did you get a chance to read my other questions? Should I just have a friend record a personal "Performance Track" then just use that vs. karoke music. More importantly, can it even be done with my system?

jenni

iBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Reply

Answer 5

xs4is

Level 4

2,800 points

Apr 28, 2006 8:42 PM in response to Jennie Keast

It sure can be done. I would think you would prefer to have a friend give you an intimate piano performance over a canned karaoke one...thought that would be cheaper though, that's why I suggested it. I find the karaoke world a bit strange as well.

Your computer will work fine. If you start to get into the more intense editing and recording, you might consider maxing out your RAM and getting an external fire wire 7200rpm drive. Those two things alone will greatly increase your performance. But for now, you should be ok.

The best way to learn GB is to take a couple of days and just play with it. There are also some very good books on the subject. I can't remember the names of any right now, but if you do a search on this forum for "books", you'll get a list. Familiarity with the program will make your goals easier.

When you finally get to the recording phase of you goal, make sure you read a little on mic placement techniques. That is the most important part of recording audio (except having something spectacular to record).

Good luck Jennie! Hang Time and the gang (as well as myself) will be happy to help you with any questions or problems you have with GB.

xs4is

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