Morgan,

I never got around to recording my songs back in July.
Just been busy with work @ school, etc.

Are people doing videos online, or are they sending in recordings w. vocal track?

Hey all glad I saw this post as I'm wanting to start doing some recording.

I saw a small Alesis unit very inexpensive think under $130 or so with some PC software and a usb.

Curious if this is a good company don't know much about recording or mixing.

I use the Line 6 POD Studio UX1 which is a usb recording interface. It's got a mic input and a second input for a musical instrument. It comes with software called GearBox that allows the user a choice of audio equiment and effects emulations. It's a great set-up. Whether you use a Line 6 product or not I recommed a recording interface with software because it gives you a lot of control over your finished product.

For recording I use Cakewalk's Sonor Home Studio 6 software. It's got multi-tracking and just about every bell and whistle you could ask for in a home studio. Unless you are a professional recording engineer there really isn't much that you could ask for that Home Studio 6 doesn't provide.

You also need a good (and I mean good not superlative) sound card for your computer.

With this set-up you can get stunning results at home.

I recently used my equipment to produce and record the music bed, vocal jingle and voice-over for a radio commerical I did for a client of mine. I recorded and mastered the whole thing and sent it to the radio station so they could see what I had. They didn't want to record it in their studio or change the mix or EQ in any way. They were quite happy to put what I gave them on the air.

You can duplicate my set-up for less than $300.

No wonder the recording industry is undergoing such vast changes. Bands are discovering that they can produce their own recordings without chewing up a lot of very expensive studio time. And now they can manage the distribution of their music on the internet. The result is that bands have far more creative control than ever before. There is a potential downside, however. There is no way to tell for certain but would the Beatles have achieved greatness were it not for the genius of their producer George Martin?

I'm a new guy (howdy folks!!:)) and wanted to weigh in on this. I run a recording studio and do a lot of work where I never even see the singer. I'll build the track and email it to them, then they email back the dry vocal file. The internet has truly changed how everything works!

If you wanted a really good sound here's what I would recommend. For a microphone try the Marshall MXL V69 Mogrami Edition. It's one that I use frequently in my setup and it's a brilliant sounding microphone. It runs about $300, but it's a tube mic with a warm, deep sound. To connect it to the computer you'll need an audio interface like the Mackie Onyx Satellite. It runs about $180 and has brilliant preamps and a pretty ingenious package. Here's some links to the products. (i'm not endorsing the retailer, just giving more info)
http://www.zzounds.com/item--MSEMXLV69ME http://www.zzounds.com/item--MACONYXSAT