Home Recording Studio

Pross

Not sure if there is anyone on here that does any home recording but hopefully someone can give me a bit of advice (in non-techy layman language!).

My daughter is into singing and wants to start recording herself. She's got a Blue Yeti USB mic and I've managed to work out how she can upload backing tracks and record vocals over the using Audacity on my laptop (her own laptop is a Chromebook so limits options).

However, she now wants to video herself recording. I've looked at options and she could probably video herself whilst recording to Audacity then overdub the finished Audacity recording on the video but that would be testing both of our technical capacity so ideally I'd like to find a way she can video on her phone (iPhone) with the sound input from her USB mic and have worked out how to do that but it also ideally needs the backing track to be input somehow as well as that won't really work through the mic.

I've been trying to work out if there is some sort audio interface that will allow an input from the mic through either USB or 3.5mm Jack and another input from whatever device she can play her backing track on to then send it all to the iPhone via a lightening connector.

If it's possible I want to keep it as simple as possible without 3.5mm to XLR converters etc.

All the technical stuff on inputs and outputs go way over my head and with converters I struggle to work out which way they are converting!

sungod

at a guess, something like this...
https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=P0ALL
...available on amazon etc.

as she'll need to be able to set levels for the different sources, it'd need some adaptor cables to 1/4" though

but contact behringer first to check if it'll work direct into an iphone

probably umpteen alternatives out there

Pross

Thanks. I might have a go at recording the song into Garageband and then dubbing to iMovie to start, it could give neater results and doesn't look too complicated.

sungod

remember to create a clear visual+audible cue before the start of the actual content (i.e. like a clapperboard)

it'll make it much easier to sync the two manually

Pross

Thanks, yes I was reading up on that yesterday and saw the recommendation to clap before starting. I'd never realised that was the purpose of the clapper board before

darkhairedlord

A decent mic, compressor and interface. The rest you can do in software. I use a scarlet solo which is quite nice.

voicycle

I think clapping or a homemade clapper board, then syncing up in your chosen video editing software is going to be the best option. That's how Hollywood does it after all!

Like darkhairedlord I also use a focusrite interface (2i2), but USB mics don't tend to work with audio interfaces since they're designed as an all-in-one solution to eliminate the need for a separate interface.

If you did want to try to record from a condenser mic to an iphone then maybe something like this would work? https://focusrite.com/en/ios-audio-interface/itrack/itrack-solo but I note that it lists iPad but not iPhone compatibility. Would likely require a new mic though so it's not exactly an economical solution.

If I was actually going to try to get good quality audio captured simultaneously with iPhone video then I think I'd look for a mic designed to work with the iPhone. I think Rode are the industry favourites at the moment but I'm just voiceover so that's not really my area of expertise.

Pross

Thanks all. Just spent some time helping her record an audition piece. We went down the road of USB condenser mic directly into the laptop to record the track over the backing in Audacity whilst recording video on my phone.

Tomorrow's task is going to be removing the audio from the video footage in Windows Movie Maker dubbing the Audacity recording over the top and then editing it all down to a length suitable for the audition. Haven't got a clue how to do it but I'm sure I'll manage somehow.

Have to say I've quite enjoyed it. I'm going to record a few vocal bits myself I think but won't bother with video for that as they'll never be heard by anyone outside my long suffering household!