Karaoke on the PC, What Do I Need?

[cool1wow]

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to sing and create songs on my PC by processing my voice, synthesizing tracks, mixing stuff, but not just at a Karaoke level, but as close to a professional level as possible within my $200 budget so it sounds at least as good as Owl City (at least music-wise).

What software do I need to achieve this? What mic would you recommend? My budget is $200 max (I think the emphasis of this should be on a high-quality mic, not the software, right?)

And do I REALLY need a sound card for this or will my motherboard's on-board audio be enough?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

1. Sound card if you are aiming for anything nearing professional , check the forums here for good soundcard advice.
2. the software you need rather depends on what your going to be doing, are you actually creating the tracks or just chopping pre-recorded segs together?
3. mic, Gearslutz.com has a good forum and I reckon someone on there would have a good perspective on mics for pc usage re: professional level music.
But like everything else, you get what you pay for, and as a singer, your mic is your link to the pc, skimp here and no software is going to help you sound ok, but here a Gearslutz link to the pc section, hope this helps in some way man
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/

 

[cool1wow]

Thanks for the helpful response!

2) I am just chopping pre-recorded segs together, but I do need to be able to digitally process those tracks with effects as well as my own voice track to make it all blend well (kind of how Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus can't sing worth a damn live but on CD with audio engineering they are OK). What would you recommend in this case?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

I was looking around for you when you replied hehe, http://www.music-software-reviews.com/free_music_editing_software.html seems to have some good friendly advice on freeware stuff, needs reading though to get the best advice i think, I used to use a lot of trials from
http://www.nch.com.au
But that was just home recording Guitar <Left handed B.C.Rich warlock >

I'm not a singer so youll have to trawl them for vocal specific programs but I hope this helps a bit man

 

[cool1wow]

Best answer selected by cool1wow.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Ty for the best answer man, hope its going well