Looking for advice on adding vocals

[Foggy]

So I'm trying to make a cover of my favorite Rasputina song. Everything's going pretty well and I'm happy with the instrumentation, but the vocals are the main focus of the song, and I've run into some problems...

Usually if I'm recording vocals for something I do them side by side in Audacity, but apparently my laptop doesn't agree with Audacity and has huge latency issues, making overdubbing next to impossible. Next thing I tried was recording them separately (listening to the LMMS track through headphones and singing into a zoom recorder), then importing the vocals into LMMS as a sample track. It honestly worked a lot better than I thought it would (the words synced up fairly well to the music- not perfectly but with a bit of practice I could probably get it spot on), but that being said it still didn't work very well. I had to put two amplifiers in the sample effects just to hear it at all, and then it started distorting, not to mention the process was kind of cumbersome to begin with.

So now I'm wondering, how do you guys handle vocals (or any accompaniment, for that matter)? Do you use audacity or import samples into LMMS?

[brandystarbrite]

Okay, whenever I am going to record some sounds in good ol' Audacity, to make samples
eg. icecubes in a glass sound.

1) I would first set it to Soundmax Digital Audio Microphone.

2) Then, I would raise the Audacity's microphone volume to about 88%.
(It's the microphone icon, located below the stop, pause, rec andplay buttons.)

3) Then I record. Then save the audio, as an ogg. or wav.

4) Bring in the recorded sample into Lmms, for sound testing.

5) If my recorded audio sample, strangely sounds very low in Lmms, re-import the recorded sample
back into Audacity. And use the Amplify effect in audacity, to make the audio recording sound louder.

Also, make sure that the samples loudness, doesn't reach the clipping point in Audacity. (red zone)
If audacity's L and R green meters, changes to a red colour, that means it is too loud
and it has clipping.
To reduce the loudness, use the Amplify effect plugin again, this time to reduce the loudness of the
recorded sample.

Then I repeat step 4. And it's back into Lmms for sound testing.

[brandystarbrite]

I had to put two amplifiers in the sample effects just to hear it at all, and then it started distorting, not to mention the process was kind of cumbersome to begin with.

Check my post above, on how to make the recorded audio samples louder.

So now I'm wondering, how do you guys handle vocals (or any accompaniment, for that matter)? Do you use audacity or import samples into LMMS?

I use Audacity too. And if I'm recording some test singing etc, I do it same way you do.
By listening to the LMMS track through headphones and singing etc./recording in Audacity.

Also, one more thing,....when you record your singing vocals, how large is the audio files file size?

[Foggy]

Also, one more thing,....when you record your singing vocals, how large is the audio files file size?

I... don't know. I deleted the file. Another hurdle I had was that my zoom recorder apparently produces mp3 files (I thought it was set to .wav but apparently not), so I had to run it through LAMEdrop before I could import it. I can let you know when I take another stab at it... does audio file size affect the outcome?

[brandystarbrite]

does audio file size affect the outcome?

Sometimes, if the audio file is like 5 mins or 6 mins long etc. and the file size is kinda
like over 100 mb. it can cause some problems in Lmms.

One nice way to deal with this, is to record your vocal sample, then make a copy of it
and split it up, into nice size pieces, then import them separately into Lmms.

eg. Split the recording into 4 or 5 pieces, then bring each piece into Lmms, with it's own
Audio File Processor.

PS: Sorry I took so long to respond.

[Foggy]

PS: Sorry I took so long to respond.

No worries! I haven't been able to get back here till now anyway (obviously).

Using the Audio File Processor seems like it might be a bit tedious, but on the other hand I can see how it might also be incredibly useful (i.e. being able to fine tune each individual sample and all that). I do have a concern, though, cuz I've inserted samples with the AFP before and inputting the proper note length so that the whole sample plays can be a problem for the longer samples. Is there a better way to deal with this that I'm not aware of? I'd like to avoid using the Beat+Bassline editor as a workaround, but if there's no other alternative I suppose it'd do...