Microphone technology for recording and Zoom OM questions

Gear & Tools Talk 💻 Hardware, Software & Recording
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Currently I use my cellphone Samsung S7 on a tripod to record my videos. That’s it. The integrated mic is passive, I guess. It does a fairly good job I would say. But If I want to use an external mic, that’s where I get lost.

If I want to play at a open mic and use my current setup, what happens if someone calls me or texts me as I’m performing open mic live?

Second setup would be using my external webcam. I have tried recording but the internal microphone of the laptop is not very good. It is in fact worse than my Samsung.

Third set up. I have the Focusrite Scarlett Solo Studio complete with condenser, headphones, mic, even got myself a pop filter, though I don’t have the mic stand yet. Now I have tried recording in a DAW, it was awful, simply cause I don’t know how to use it.

Basically, I would like to do my recordings with a dynamic microphone like a Shure, and don’t want to use headphones, but I don’t understand how it works and the guys at the music store can’t seem to explain it either.

So here are my questions: Say I record myself playing with my Samsung (can’t afford a digital cam yet) singing into a dynamic mic, where do I plug it, and do I need an amplifier, and if I do, then I can’t sing in my apartment with that, it would be too loud?

I’m kind of looking for this type of setup Blackbird - The Beatles - #24 by Rider2040

Thank you in advance

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Sandy,

My suggestion would be to explore using your Solo for the audio and your Samsung as the camera. I wrote about how to do that in this Topic: Producing a video with phone cam and an audio interface. It is not too difficult to set up. You would need the mic stand.

Then you can try recording using just the condensor. You may have to experiment with mic placement but should be able to produce a recording with that mic that sounds good. And you have no need to get into learning how to use a DAW, like Reaper, Ableton etc.

My approach is based on plugging the guitar in and making use of it’s built-in electronics and singing into a dynamic mic. That also works well but depending on the quality of the electronics you may be disappointed in how your guitar sounds when recorded that way. And you’d need to purchase an additional mic.

Keep asking questions and I’m sure we can help you figure this out.

I’m going to move this over to the relevant Sub-category.

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