Karaoke Forums

Sammy, I currently use a Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer with a multi effects processor for vocals and feed a Karaoke deck with a studio mic into the mixer then into a SB Live drive. The advantage has been results that I only have to convert to mp3's without having to do any editing. I have all the necessary software but have yet to use it. Is the current way I record a bad way to go? Am I losing alot by not doing this differently? Thanks for your input!

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Rob

Hi Rob,

I think you have a good setup, except I would use the backing (music) from the inside of the computer. For best results, you need to extract the music into the wave format & than use a multitrack software like Audacity to blend both the music & the vocal track. I record my vocal the same way you do but the music is prepared in 24 bit, 192khz & normalised so when time comes to compress, I use the Lame encoder that came with Wavelab, so this way you don't loose anything!!

Hope it's clear & also help you?

That's exactly the way we do it, Micky! Live recording with extracted music played from the PC!

Listen to subs by Micky, AllStar & Wannabe and decide for yourself if it's a bad way to go. I personally don't think so. If you record "live" and it sounds good, go for it!

Thanks Micky & AllStar I appreciate the advice. I have done background music both from my deck and on the PC. It sounds like you both agree that the background music is best mixed when on the PC. I will continue then to record live but run the mucic on the PC and keep the editing just to converting the WAV recorded to a 192+ MP3. I will work with the other way of doing this in my spare time just so I know how its done and have an alternative. Thanks Again!

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Rob

I prefer to record the music and voice in a single take with the music coming from the player. I set the music to the left channel and voice to the right, seperate the two, create a mono channel from each and finish the mixing on the computer.

I don't have to worry about time offset correction or anything else this way. I can also apply effects to everything in hardware allowing me to use a much less powerful computer for the recording (adding effects realtime eats up processor time).

Thanks KM, I have also tried it as you suggest and that does seem to work fine. I appreciate your input!

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Rob

This may sound stupid but I do none of the things you all do. I have an iRiver MP3 recorder that has a line in input for recording. I can record up to 4 hours of music from any source and then upload it via USB cable to my PC and it's already in the MP3 format.
If I need to edit the wave because I have dead space before the music starts I use a free program called "Audacity" for the edit. It's simple and quick to do. If anyone wants this program just drop me an email and I will send it to them via email. (Email: Johnogara1@comcast.net)
I just connect the output from my karaoke Amplifier to the MP3 player/recorder (requires an inexpensive cable adaptor) and record everything live. If the mix sounds good from the amplifier, that is what you will get in the recorded version.
I got the MP3 player/recorder at Best Buys for $99.00 after a mail in rebate of $20.00.
Of course this may not produce studio quality results but I am amazed at the results and I bet I have a lot less invested in equipment.