everything the previous person said is right but there is more and less depending on your situation. where do you live? City? Country? Burbs? assess the outside noise and try to put yourself in a room where there is the least outside noise, the size of the room doesn't matter if you can put up some sound absorption panels, that can be as easy as a pillow, or foam or egg cartons.
you need a Mic. best quality studio or podcast mic you can afford without going broke. now, what sort of connector does the mic have [mini-jack like the Mac input, 1/4 inch jack XLR, USB?]
does it need batteries or have its own power supply or is it "phantom powered" [unless you have a mixer I'd stay away from those unless you got money to spend on this], I suggest a USB podcast mic of decent quality. they prolly cost anywhere from $50 on up, I'd beware of anything cheaper and it's overkill for something more expensive.
USB would be great so you can plug it right into the Mac, garage band should see it and be able to record a track using it, I would not mess with plugins just yet, try it out and see if you get noise, if so try turning off all electronics that are NOT the computer and anything you need to use it, that includes the lights, very often lights can be the source of a LOT of noise depending on your house/apartment wiring. [beware of dimmer switches on lights, they are notorious noise generators over audio]
try the mic out, and if you wanna try plugins like compressors, noise gates, various effects play around but you should do your best to sing with a click or percussion/drum track, and make sure you sing in tune, there are plugins like autotune that can just nudge slightly off-pitch vocals, it does not have to be crazy, set right you shouldn't even notice it...
headphones are a must. get decent ones. you'll spend $100 on studio quality headphones and they go down in price & quality from there. good brands for both Mics and Headphones are AKG, Audio Technica, Sure, Apogee and so on, check eBay for used stuff from a seller in the same country as you who has good feedback, check their shipping cost too
lastly, learn the garage band keyboard shortcuts for play, record, stop, rewind & fast forward, you can easily record in a coat closet if you want a dry dead room or a tiled bathroom if you want it to have its own reverb but you won't be doing any of that if you can't take the keyboard with you to start & stop etc, wireless or a long cable for your keyboard is good. get a good mic stand that's comfortable, do not record any effects to the main vocal you can add effects after or record two tracks, one dry one with effects, etc, you'll figure it out.
you'll be well on your way.
depending on how seriously you take this, spend accordingly.
Amazing! Thank you so much for taking al this time & effort to guide me through the process! Actually, thanks to your great tips, I ordered another cable for my mic (it's connecting my studio mic to my laptop by USB) - because since I bought my last cable, I noticed an increase of noise. And will turn of the lights (there's a few light bulbs above me, connected to a dimmer; HA did not know this so thank you again!)
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I can't use any more of you acapellas unless you take out that audio watermark, nobody else does that, it's annoying and presumptuous
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https://soundcloud.com/nongenrespecific/fake-love
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Commented on ONE WAY STREET by avasuzanne
everything the previous person said is right but there is more and less depending on your situation. where do you live? City? Country? Burbs? assess the outside noise and try to put yourself in a room where there is the least outside noise, the size of the room doesn't matter if you can put up some sound absorption panels, that can be as easy as a pillow, or foam or egg cartons.
you need a Mic. best quality studio or podcast mic you can afford without going broke. now, what sort of connector does the mic have [mini-jack like the Mac input, 1/4 inch jack XLR, USB?]
does it need batteries or have its own power supply or is it "phantom powered" [unless you have a mixer I'd stay away from those unless you got money to spend on this], I suggest a USB podcast mic of decent quality. they prolly cost anywhere from $50 on up, I'd beware of anything cheaper and it's overkill for something more expensive.
USB would be great so you can plug it right into the Mac, garage band should see it and be able to record a track using it, I would not mess with plugins just yet, try it out and see if you get noise, if so try turning off all electronics that are NOT the computer and anything you need to use it, that includes the lights, very often lights can be the source of a LOT of noise depending on your house/apartment wiring. [beware of dimmer switches on lights, they are notorious noise generators over audio]
try the mic out, and if you wanna try plugins like compressors, noise gates, various effects play around but you should do your best to sing with a click or percussion/drum track, and make sure you sing in tune, there are plugins like autotune that can just nudge slightly off-pitch vocals, it does not have to be crazy, set right you shouldn't even notice it...
headphones are a must. get decent ones. you'll spend $100 on studio quality headphones and they go down in price & quality from there. good brands for both Mics and Headphones are AKG, Audio Technica, Sure, Apogee and so on, check eBay for used stuff from a seller in the same country as you who has good feedback, check their shipping cost too
lastly, learn the garage band keyboard shortcuts for play, record, stop, rewind & fast forward, you can easily record in a coat closet if you want a dry dead room or a tiled bathroom if you want it to have its own reverb but you won't be doing any of that if you can't take the keyboard with you to start & stop etc, wireless or a long cable for your keyboard is good. get a good mic stand that's comfortable, do not record any effects to the main vocal you can add effects after or record two tracks, one dry one with effects, etc, you'll figure it out.
you'll be well on your way.
depending on how seriously you take this, spend accordingly.
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https://soundcloud.com/nongenrespecific/breakup-song
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