Home recording

[Pars]

I want to record myself and others singing with karaoke music.
I have a JVC CD&G player plugged into a Peavy XR 600F mixer with RCA plugs. My mics are also plugged into the mixer. RCA's are then coming out of
the mixer to my Audigy Aux-in front panel. I'm using the Creative MediaSource
program for recording.The music sounds fine but the voice just doesn't record smooth. These are my pc specs..

AMD Athlon 3200+
Gigabyte K8N PRO
ASUS RADEON 9800PRO
2 x 512 Muskin '222' PC 3200
Creative audigy 2 platinum
klipsch 5.1 ultra speakers

I've done a search and found that the Behringer B1 and the Behringer MIC100 or MIC200 have been recommended to some people. Is that what I need? Any recommendations will be appreciated.

[Pars]

I've also considered getting a m-audio soundcard. SonicVanguard, if you see this I'd really appreciate some advice. From what I've read you seem to be the man.

[SonicVanguard]

Well a M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 will give you a little more headroom for recording as well as gold RCA connectors, but the Audigy2 is a very good card - so I'm not real convinced you'll see much of a difference.

The Behringer B-1 is a great mic - especially considering the street price is usually under $100. We've got 4 of the B-2's in the studio and they're great. Not quite up to our AKG or Neumann mics, but considering they are 1/10th the cost of those, I'm not complaining too much. Either of the preamps should help sweeten/richen the sound and give you a phantom power source (if your Peavy doesn't already have phantom).

Good luck!

Dave.

[Pars]

Thanks for the reply, Dave. The more I learn it seems that I could get over my head $ wise real quick to get the sound I want. I want to do some personal home recording yet I want a professional sound. I've been using a Shure SM58 but I don't always get the quality sound I'm looking for. I've read some of your other post and realize that I need to tweek my settings in all of my equipment more accurately. I'm not sure what you mean by phantom power.Would that be my mic volume on my mixer?

[SonicVanguard]

A mic like the B-1 requires a power source - being a condenser mic. Your SM58 is a dynamic mic and doesn't need power. The SM58 is a rugged, workhorse mic, but you won't get much brilliance from it.

One thing many people neglect on their mixer settings is gain versus channel output. Your gain should be set so that your line volume is at unity (0) dB. It's called gain staging - every place there can be a change in volume effects your signal - the idea is to have as clean a signal thoughout those stages as you can.

Another spot people usually neglect is the channel EQ. A good starting place is +3 dB on the highs, -3 to -6 dB on the mids and 0 to -3 dB on the lows. If you've got a sweep on the mids, move it around to a point where it most effects your voice. The bottom line on EQ is it should natually reproduce your vocal tone - not enhance or change the tone.

Dave.