amateur looking for help to improve recording quality

[point-guard]

hi guys..my friend recently bought me an at2020usb for my birthday..and after playing around with it in my garage band, i realise i wasnt doing my mic justice. i am wondering what are some of the good programs i can use to record my vocals, and what are some of the things i can do to improve on the recording quality.

i was planning to buy a pre amp for it, but on another thread a poster told me that my usb mic will not be able to work with any preamp. initially i was actually planning to get a focusrite saffire pre amp.

i then came across this video,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9CzaOpPpL4&feature=related , which the guy was using the same mic as me.i love the clarity and sound of his recordings so after reading his comments,i realised that he said the recording program does not matter much, the plug ins are way more important.

so i would like to ask,firstly what are some of the programs that you guys can recommend to use? fruity loops?cubase? protools?
secondly for the preamp, will my mic really be unable to connect to it?
thirdly, where do i get those plugins
fourthly, how do i get the plug ins to work with the recommended programs?

i'm currently using a mac book pro..any help would be greatly greatly appreciated..thank you very much.

 

[daryle]

i'm no expert. but don't jump on the preamp first. all you need to do is improve your recording and editing techniques.


i just want to say that the gear you have is sufficient to produce reasonably good results. the at2020 and the macbook pro are both very good pieces of equipment. so don't be discouraged by the gear you have.

perhaps you could post some of what you've recorded so far? So that we can better understand where you are now, and where you want to go.

 

[kongwee]

You could try Reaper. But it may a big learning step for you. It is full DAW without tons of plug-in. But the price is low and they frequently sort bugs. Recently I bought plenty of plug-in from Airwindows. Console and Buscolour are the popular plug-in. Also Totape and ToVinyl are getting popular to make more "analog" sound. These plugin try to emulate console,tape and vinyl qualities which may help if you are getting too "digital" from tracking. Even "digital" EQ or other effect can benefit from these plugins.

 

[grarrgrarr]

point-guard:

i did mention that your mic wouldnt be able to be used with a preamp because you are using the at2020 USB version.

in the video he is using the standard at2020.

Its simple, you use a normal XLR mic cable to connect your microphone to your preamp / interface, but you can see that the only socket on your mic is a USB one. How then do you use a preamp?

 

[carboxymoron]

Honestly, changing from GarageBand to a "pro" DAW will not improve your sound. What exactly are you not satisfied about when you talk about "recording quality"? Or any examples of your recordings? Then people can suggest specific tips or techniques.

 

[antishred]

In recording, you need time and lots of trial and error to develop your skill. The gear you have is good enough to get you started. Buy a good "Pro" book on recording instead.

 

[squarehero]

The vocal sound first comes from the performer. The next important thing is the microphone and its placement and use. The third thing is your room. The next is all your gear which includes your preamps.

After you get a nice recording with a great vocal expression and tonal balance that you like, you still have to learn how to mix the vocal with the rest of the instruments.

Back to your question on what plugins to use. Try using some nice reverb plugins (Reverberate le comes to mind) to get that kind of sound. The vox in your video is really covered with a lot of reverb which gives it a smooth sound. Learn to listen to how he is mixing the vocal at every stage of the production. Notice the delay he puts on the vox on the high notes.

To learn how to use external plugins, look at this video for using vsts in garageband