im ready to take music seriously and was wondering what is the easiest DAW for beginners to record vocals & send them to an engineer for mixing and mastering. I was also wondering if a rode nt1 5th gen mic and a focusrite 2i2 anniversary edition would be a good mic and interface to start with and what other materials i would need to make a mini in room studio. i have a surface pro 7+ and am assuming ill need a better laptop as well. thank you for the feedback, God bless
I think if you have an untreated room you should look into a dynamic mic, but if the NT1 is set up in a walk in closet you can probably get a fairly ok sound. My gear recommendations are here: https://noiserocktreehouse.com/gear-list
Okay thank you, I would say the room Im moving into is untreated so I appreciate the input and your recommendations! God bless!
Get atleast an i7 if you can’t afford an m1 but you want and m1 at the very least for decent workflow . But others have done great with less . The most important thing to have is a great vocal and you can record that on audacity for free or there are other cheap DAWs on the market anything will work for a beginner ,especially if you have great vocals .
Thank you so much, I appreciate the feedback. I’ll make sure to look into those types of laptops while I shop. God bless!
1.FLstudio producer addition 2. Any focusrite interface you can afford 3. Audio technica AT2020 condenser microphone 4. Audix dynamic microphone (take your pick they're all pretty good 5. I7 processor (you said you were serious) 6. Layer fleece blankets on a few walls in the room you plan to record in .
Appreciate your response, I took a screenshot but im leaning towards getting both a condenser and dynamic mic and see which one i prefer and keeing the other as I expand my studio. God bless!
That's a great idea. I use the AT2020 for vocals and instruments 95% of the time. I recently started using the Audix i5 for vocals and guitars and I will probably never use my sm57s or 58s ever again 🥲. Oh, except for karaoke....maybe 😄
r/mixingmastering, if you open on a computer, has a wonderful list of gear options and it's side bar Most people will simply be cheerleaders of what software and gear THEY own.
So, how to choose. The DAW to choose is the one which is most comfortable for you to use – not what somebody else finds good. The one you're most comfortable with is the one you'll be most productive with .....it as simple as that in different for everyone.
Try demos, watch entry-level training videos to find which makes the most sense to you.
Please note, as well, if you are just recording vocals, as in a track of vocals, there's nothing to mix. If you are doing multiple tracks of vocals, then you have things to mix.
Best of luck
Thank you for the feedback! I’ll definitely check out the subreddit and take your advice into account as I do my research. God bless!
if you're upgrading your laptop, go for mac, get the m4 air 16gb ram, but if you wanna go cheaper, m3 would also be a good option, invest more on the storage and ram, get the 16gb ram and if you have ext ssd go with the base storage or go with 512gb and garage band is a free software, easy to use and supports external plugins as well, try that. But if you're sticking to windows, cakewalk should be free to use and just to record vocals, I think that is overkii, bandlabs can works too, very simple to use. As for the mic and interface, audio technica are good deals for starters, cheap and value for money. CHeck those out, for the interface, maudio also works, cheap and good to start with.
Thank you tons, I had never heard of cakewalk until now but im definitely going to check it out as Im trying to also extend my experience passed GarageBand. Ive also been looking into macs as well and comparing them to the other laptops others suggested to see what works best for me. God bless!
I think mac is the best one to have, runs logic and if you want some other daw, runs them too
If you’re on the Apple ecosystem, Logic Pro offers a lot for the price. Especially if have and are familiar with GarageBand. This coming from an Ableton Certified Trainer, so yea, while I love Ableton, Logic often is easier to pick up and run with.