The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => Recording => Topic started by: stargirl on August 09, 2009, 02:50:22 PM
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I have recently started trying to record my songs. But at the moment all I have is a laptop webcam that records sound. The quality is ok a part from quite a bit of static.
Is there any cheap or free ways of editing the quality of the recordings or recording on better quality?
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There's plenty of free audio editing and recording software out there. Take a look at Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) - it's pretty good. You may be able to clean up your recordings a little bit with this, but on the whole it's a much better idea to get the best microphone you can afford. There are plenty out there for under £100 - have a look at this thread for more info: microphone advice (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=24.0).
A friend on the forum uses a brilliant little mic - I forget the name, but I'll either get him to post it up here later, or when he next comes over for a jam, I'll jot the name down and post it up. Basically, it's a multi-directional mic/ recorder. It records to high quality MP3 straight into its own memory. You then plug it into your computer and download the music just like getting data from a memory stick.
As a rule though, the better the quality of sound in, the easier it is to work with. Even a simple stage mic would be better than a webcam mic I would have thought.
Let us know how you get on :)
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Like Tone said, equipment is important. But you don't need to spend a bomb. You have a laptop - that's good. Get some decent audio software on there, and buy a microphone. Anything will be better than the one that's in your webcam. Even if it's the cheapest USB recording mic available like the Beringer C1U from this page (http://www.studiospares.com/Microphones/Mics-USB/icat/micusb) you will notice a whole world of difference.
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Thanks for the help. I will look into this a bit more. :D