General Category > Recording and Production

Experiencing a weird issue with recording

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SandHog:
So I picked up a cheap mic because recording on the cell phone, uploading the recording and downloading it again is kind of a pain in the butt. Anyway, I'm placing the mic in front of my amp and recording it into the computer via Audacity. I'm getting this weird oscillating effect from somewhere and I'm not sure what is causing it. It's a weird fading in and out effect. Oscilationeffect - Instaudio Is it because of the cheapy mic? Or do I have some settings I need to adjust somewhere? I don't have a sound card so the recording is being processed on the motherboard of my computer; maybe it's that? Anyone have any ideas?

TheBuddha:
Technical correction: You do have a sound card, it's just built in! (It's still considered a sound card, it's an 'onboard sound card.') At least I'm 99.98% sure of this. Are you referring to the volume fading in and out? If so, there's a few things you can try. One, it's probably the mic. If you went too cheap, you get too cheap. Reviews will help with that. In my learning process, I first tried an onboard sound card. I had zero luck. I then got some cheap $20 card. I also had zero luck. I then bought a very, very expensive professional sound card - and I had zero luck. It turns out, the 2nd one (the $20 one) was fine. I was just REALLY bad at it. With the onboard sound, I'd fill the buffer and get points of silence. That went away with the cheap one - and I suspect other problems went away but I was still too new to notice them. The expensive sound card sits in a PC that I don't actually use. It made so little difference that I haven't bothered moving it. I also thought I had another buffer issue, but that was actually an Audacity timing issue that took some work to resolve and has nothing to do with your problem. One of the causes might be electronic interference. Your devices are probably leaky. They're emitting all sorts of EMR. That could cause this problem. What you can try is moving the mic as far away from the computer as the cord will let it go. There's also the distance of the mic from the amp. You can try increasing that distance. And, of course, this is really @MrHarryReems domain. He may think of something I don't know.

SandHog:
Thanks, Buddha. Yeah, onboard sound card is what I meant. Maybe I'll pick up a sound card and throw it in the pc. Sounds like there isn't much point in buying a high-end one if you couldn't tell much difference between the two. That's good to know. It probably is the mic as I just picked up a cheap one figuring it couldn't be any worse than the one in my phone. I didn't expect the volume swells or whatever it is that's happening though. It's rather annoying! I'll do some experimentation later today at various distances to see if it is interference. Barring that what's a reasonable price point for a decent mic? I know nothing about what I should be looking for when it comes to microphones. Ed: Oops, guess I should have posted this on the recording board. Didn't see it right off. Feel free to move the post there if you like.

MrHarryReems:
What you really need is an interface.  You can get by with a cheap mic... Believe it or not, I mic up my cabs with $39 GLS Audio ES-57's.  While I *do* own some more expensive mics, the ES-57's work a treat. You can get a reasonable starter audio interface in the $100~ range.  Before I knew anything about this stuff, I was completely skeptical about audio interfaces.  I'm a computer guy, computer hardware should be good enough, right?  Nope.  There's no way I can possibly express the difference.  You simply need an interface.  If I know a little more about what you want to record now, and what your plans are for the next year in regards to what you want to record, I can offer some suggestions as to some decent starter interfaces.  How many instruments are you planning on recording at one time?  Are you planning on using a keyboard controller for soft synths?  For the record, when I'm putting my tracks together and recording the initial scratch track, I never use less than 2 inputs.  I've always got one mic on the guitar and one in my face.  More if I've got my drum machine going along with the scratch track.  I narrow that down to 1 mic when I'm doing the overdubs. Next, we need to get you away from Audacity and onto a real DAW.  Bandlab now offers the entire Cakewalk Pro suite for free here. Hit me back with info on what you're looking to do and I'll send you some interface recommendations.

SandHog:
Hey thanks, MrHarryReems. I should have asked this question before I bought a mic. That's a really sweet price! For now I'm just looking to record with a single input (guitar) although at some point I would like to expand out and start doing some vocals as well but I'm not in a real rush on that front. Mostly I'm looking to learn some songs and record them so that I can use them to improve my playing. > Are you planning on using a keyboard controller for soft synths? Umm, maybe? I have no earthly idea, lol. I'm an utter neophyte when it comes to all this stuff. I'm downloading Cakewalk Pro now and I'll check it out. If I understand it correctly you run the guitar through an interface and into the software where you can record however many inputs the interface is designed for?

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