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I am not sure if this is right place or not.
Me and my wife, we both, are like recording karaokes, and singing live. Until now, we were enjoying with apps in mobile phone. But recently we thought we could make small home studio or PA system. We will be using the recordings for different purposes such as music recording, video recording, etc. At the moment, what I have is:

  • A Condensor mic ( with included keits)
  • A camrecorder ( Canon VIXIA HF20) and
  • A DSLR camera ( Canon Rebel ) with long and short lenses.
  • Audacity on my computer
  • A semiacoustic guitar with plug in wire.
  • A Behringer Xenyx Q502USB 5-input Mic/Liner Mixer w/ USB.
  • A Beta Aivin Acoustic Guitar Amp.

Different scenarios of their use:

i) My wife like to record her voice along with instrumental songs. a) this could be just voice b) this could be voice and video. She likes to sing and she is good at this as well.

ii) I play guitar and she likes to sing when I play guitar. In this case, we both want to record videos of ours and my guitar's signal and my wife's voice.

iii) I could play guitar and we both could sing together in same song using two different mics. And we could just record our voice or voice and video together.

I am ready to buy extra wires, plugs or components. But I don't want regret after buying those components. So if anybody can give their thoughts on it that would be really helpful.

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  • Could you add a question to this? it is not clear what you want to know and have just made a bunch of statements. May 8, 2018 at 22:51
  • As @Timinycricket says, can you please ask a specific question. Currently all the scenarios you describe will work, as will many others, so it's too broad for us to guess your needs.
    – Rory Alsop
    May 10, 2018 at 8:36
  • @Timinycricket and Rory Alsop ,the second passage tells us what equipment we have at the moment. Everything under the line " Different scnarios of their use" are three different cases we like to record our voice only or voice or video both. I don't know what and where to make the connections and what other wires or equipment we need. I want to know a overview of general connections required for above three cases. May 11, 2018 at 4:10
  • @user3560453 please edit the question to include your question or you risk having it closed down for being unanswerable. May 11, 2018 at 4:45

1 Answer 1

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Okay, I am going to give you a simple practical answer. Let's start with the sound. If you want to record live performance well, then you basically need good signals into your recorder (obviously, right?). And that recorder is often these days a program on the computer, such as Logic, ProTools, Garageband or in my case of Windows, I use Acoustica Mixcraft. Per what I read from Behringer, your Mixer comes with some recording software, called DAW or Digital Audio Workstation software. And you can either record a live sound coming through amplifiers in the room to microphones to the mixer to the recorder, in which case you can get all the rooms characteristics, plus sounds bleed into each other quite a bit. The second option is to get signals more directly, so for example, imagine you have 2 microphones (Shure SM58 microphones are famous) directly into the Mixer or through any effects to the mixer (if you have them) and guitar also to the Mixer either directly or through amp or effects, then monitoring the signals with your headphones and recording directly to your recorder. So it sounds like you just need more microphones, and a couple stands, and cords for all the inputs. Consider getting a "pop filter" for microphones. And getting quality microphones for live recording is it's own issue. Do some recordings and adjust levels so nothing is peaking (usually indicated by red lights which means you will get distortion) and you should get a good signal to the recorder. If your camera has a way to record sound, or through the other mic and if the sound is pretty good, then you can consider mixing the video and audio sound together for a more balanced sound, which will include the characteristics of the room.

In summary, it sounds like you need, some of which you have:

An acoustic-electric guitar, with a guitar cord/cable to the mixer, or 2 cords, one to the amp and second to the mixer. Two microphones, two stands, two pop filters, two mic cables (you can look up the difference between XLR and TRS (1/4") plugs as you will need probably one XLR-XLR cable and one XLR-TRS (1/4") cable.) Mixer with power cable and USB cable. Computer with DAW software. (Audacity is ok, but you should also already have a DAW with your Mixer, per Behringer) Additional effects for microphones and guitars per your taste (such as vocal or acoustic guitar pre-amps and effects). You will also probably want some quality headphones. And at least one person can monitor the sound, or even a different person than those who are playing. If you monitor your own sound or both of you, then you need to get quality headphones. I use Sennheiser HD215, which I got second hand for $75. But you'll need a way to reach the mixer's headphone jack and a way to get 2 headphones if you want it for both people. Alternatively, you should get at least a small quality amp to monitor the sound, so you both can hear yourself. That could be something like a Roland Mobile AC (very light, small and cheap), but have to adjust things so you don't get feedback. Anyway, that's all the time I have for now!!

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