- A halfway decent PC: you do not need more than a 1000 Megahertz CPU and 512 megabytes of RAM to record properly. Nowadays most of us have more than that.
- Windows: it is not obligatory, the page will function well enough using Linux, but it is recommended, and if possible, WinXp. Windows Vista is not yet reliable.
- A Sound Card: Most of you will not know that you have this. You will definitely have the one that comes with the motherboard. Nowadays these integrated cards give sufficient quality for what we want to do, once you get the hang of it. The only drawback for these kinds of cards is that they usually share RAM with the system, so if you run short of RAM it may cause a problem.
It is advisable to have a sound card separate from the mother board. They are inexpensive, and give better results.
- A Microphone: this is the essential component. There is no point in having dynamite equipment and singing with the headphone mike. The best thing is to buy a halfway decent mike, no need to spend a fortune, a karaoke mike is more than enough.
I will take it for granted that you know where to plug the mike in: MIKE INPUT on your sound card. DO NOT use the Line In plug, it has no amplification and will be very hard to hear.
Let's get started
Before proceeding, I should point out that once the java plugin has been installed so we can record our karaoke files, it automatically adjusts the settings of the Windows audio controls to medium level each time we visit Red Karaoke. But we are going to customize it manually to suit our needs. I should mention that settings done “by hand” have to be redone each time we want to record a karaoke. The configuration is not saved because the java plugin mentioned earlier automatically resets everything each time we visit the page.
- The first thing we have to do is take a look at our tool bar. You will observe that below and to the left of everything, by the windows clock, there is an icon that looks like a speake.
This is the audio control for Windows. When we press it the following window will appear.
What we see is the Windows playback control. We must check the lever for setting the "Microphone" level and make sure that it is not muted.
Use the lever to adjust the volume to the level at which you would like to record your voice. Normally somewhere between 80% and 90 % of total volume is sufficient, depending on how far from the mike you sing and how much you shriek...
We can also see marked in red the “Midi Synthesizer” which controls the volume of the Midi karaoke we are hearing. This is very useful if you take into consideration that the midi can make it very low or too loud.
Take a good look at this picture because it is the reason so many of you sound bad or too low.
Then make sure our mikes are getting an extra feed of 20db of gain. How do we do this? Take a look at the picture above, and you will see marked in red the “Advanced” option just below the control lever for "Microphone." Press it and a control will appear where we can flag the option "+20db amplification of microphone," just click OK and we are all set.
Everything explained here has to do with playback.
Any change in these windows will affect the recording, which we are now ready to talk about.
Recording:
- In the same playback window we go up and to the left (see photo below) and select "Options.” A new window will appear on our screen, and we check the option "Recording" where we can see and select which audio we wish to record, and our sound card, among other things. In the second window you may flag all the options so that the selected items appear in the recording control area and then choose the ones we wish to use.
We must make sure that we record “What you hear," so we select it.
The recording channel "What You Hear” may have other names depending on your sound card. Some examples are, “Stereo mixer,” “Sum,” “What u hear,” “Mixed output” and lots of others.
The control lever will allow you to set the intensity for the recording. Keep in mind that a high setting or maximum level can result in a saturated recording (which happens in many cases), as opposed to a setting that is too low that can leave things barely audible. I adjust it according to the song, and whether I am singing louder or softer. Do some tests.
It is advisable to have the other control levers at zero to keep out the noises made by the PC and its components. Click OK for everything and you're all set.
Now you can record with a greater degree of clarity and quality. Remember to test the levels and adjust them to your needs.
Effects Tutorial:
Many of you have asked me, "How do I record with that echo effect in my karaokes?”
It all depends on the sound card you have and the software of the card. I cannot really give a tutorial because of the different kinds of card there are on the market, though I will give it a shot based on MY CARD by way of illustration.
If you have installed the software for the card, it is more than likely that you have an icon on the desktop to access the program.
If you run it, the most likely thing is that something similar to the Windows audio controller will appear on your screen, but with more options. You must investigate whether the options are for "Effects" or “Surroundings.” When you find them all you have to do is select the desired effect and assign it to the channel where it is to be applied. In this case "microphone" in other items applies to all audio in general. It depends on your card. I offer you a photo by way of example of the software for my card.
In my case I have chosen the "Auditorium" effect which I adjusted to my taste in the “settings” window. As you can see, the playback levels for the microphone are at mid-level, as well as the levels for recording.
That's all for now. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to message me or send me a private query.
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