Hi friends. In my previous posts, I've told you the ways to record your song, compose music and mix it with the recorded voice. I have mentioned the ways to create karaoke tracks from mp3 songs also. In this tutorial, I am going to explain all the things required to record, mix and master a song. After reading this post, you will be able to create karaokes, record your voice and produce your own song in mp3 format. In short, this tutorial will contain everything about song recording at home. So, let's start the tutorial.

What Will You Need:

1. A Good Quality Mic With Stand 
2. A Pop Filter
3. A Good Quality Headphone
4. A Good Configuration Computer (Laptop will be better)
5. A Multitrack Audio Recording And Mixing Software.
6. VST Plugins For Audio Enhancements.

Which Mic To Choose: Selection of mic depends on your budget. Always try to purchase a better quality mic and don't go for cheap mic if you want your recordings clearer and crispy. There are generally four types of microphones:

• Dynamic
• Condenser
• Ribbon
• USB mic

For vocal recordings, you must purchase Condenser microphone with large diaphragm. But, if you want good quality mic in less cost, then you must go for USB Mic because these mics don't use any soundcard and directly connect with your computer's USB port. Generally they contain an output port for headphone also so that you can monitor the live recording also.
What is Pop Filter And How Can I Get It: Pop filters are used to keep the unwanted noise away. While vocal recording, mouth produces a burst of air while speaking "P", "T", "F" etc, and when the air directly collides with the mic, it created unwanted noise in the recordings. So, we use pop filters between the mic and the mouth to keep these type of noises away and make the recordings better. You can get pop filters at a cheap price in any audio accessory store.
Is headphone required for recording: Yes, of course. While recording a song, you need to be with the tempo of the karaoke track, and if you have the headphones, you can wear it and can easily sing with the music track. In this way, you will maintain a proper tempo (speed) with music.

What Must Be The Configuration For A PC Used For Audio Recording: Well, pc configuration is an important thing to be considered for audio recording. I am mentioning the best configuration for audio recording pc (you can make the configuration more better if your budget allows, I am suggesting configuration for a home studio pc):

• Intel Core i3/i5 processor, 2.4GHz with L2 cache. (You must use processors having more cores for better performance. The cheapest category is Dual Core processors, never go below it)
• 500 GB Hard Disk (320 GB will also be ok)
• 4 GB RAM is recommended (You can use 2 GB also if you are not going to create big projects)
• Sound Card, USB or FireWire sound device. (You can skip these if you want to save money, because these are provided built-in with so many motherboards)
• At least 19" Flat LED Monitor for clear display
• Selection of other requirements such as keyboard, mouse, cabinet etc depends upon your choice because I want to focus only on the RAM, Motherboard and Processor.

Which Software Should I Use For Audio Recording And Mixing: There are so many softwares available in the market for the audio recording. The most famous software is AVID PRO TOOLS. It has so many great features and it is used by the professionals. But these softwares are costly. Some popular audio recording softwares are:

• Pro Tools
• FL Studio
• Cubase
• Nuendo
• Acoustica Mixcraft
• Sony Sound Forge Pro
• Sony Acid Pro
• Adobe Audition etc.

These softwares are also costly but for music studio, these are proved to be the best ones. These softwares are multitrack recording softwares and you can use virtual instruments in these softwares. You can connect your instruments and mics directly with your pc and record them in high quality.
But don't be sad, if you don't have money to purchase these softwares, there are some free softwares also which can be used for basic home recording and mixing. You can get a list of some free audio editing softwares here : (Click Here To See The List)
I recommend you these two softwares for better audio editing features:

• Audacity
• Wavosaure

What Are VST Plugins ? How Can I Get Them: VST Plugins are the external plugins which are used to enhance the recorded sound and improve the quality of the sound. We can add sound effects such as Echo, Reverb, Delay, Harmonization, Pitch Correction etc. VSTs are also paid, but there are so many nice VSTs which are available free of cost also. You can find free VST Plugins by searching on google.

Which Environment Is Required For Recording:
Generally you must record your vocals in the room which is free from any electrostatic field. Room temperature must be comfortable for the singer. Always keep in mind that computer must be placed far from the mic and the singer and don't keep any unnecessary thing in the room to avoid the useless noise in the room. Now, it depends on you to create an environment in which you feel comfortable for recording. Don't try to record your vocals just after getting up from a sleep, you must do your recording after 2-3 hours after getting up from a sleep and between that time, you must talk, laugh, eat and drink water and fruit juice.

Now, everything is ready and your are ready to record your song. For home recordings, you must prefer the Karaoke tracks. Karaoke tracks are available free of cost and you can find them by searching on google. But sometimes, if you don't find the free karaokes, you must purchase them from the karaoke selling sites. There are so many bands also which offer customized karaoke tracks worth some money. So, you can get the karaoke tracks in so many ways. But you can make your own karaokes also by removing vocals from the songs and it can be done using some vocal remover plugins and softwares. I have explained how to remove vocals from a song in my earlier posts also. But in this tutorial, I'll tell you about the best vocal remover plugin to create your karaoke tracks.

STEP 1. Installing The Audio Recording And Editing Software In Your Computer:
As I told earlier, there are so many softwares available in the market for audio recording and editing, you can purchase any of them. In my tutorial, I'll use Acoustica Mixcraft for karaoke creation, vocal recording, using VST Effects with vocal and then mastering and mixing the song in mp3. This is a versatile software and very easy to use for the beginners. So, purchase the software from the Mixcraft's official site. If you want to test the software, you can download it from my blog also. (Download From Here)
After installing the software, we need to do the audio setup, I have explained the audio setup for Windows XP in my earlier post. Click Here to see the audio setup for Windows XP. So, I'm telling you how to do audio setup in Windows 7. Just follow the steps:
> Right click on the speaker icon in the system tray and click Recording Devices.
> Now select the source of your incoming vocal. It will be mic because you are going to record your vocals with mic, so select Microphone and then click Properties.
> Now Microphone Properties dialog box will appear. Click Levels tab and then adjust the microphone level. You must keep the Microphone Boost slider to 0.0dB because using Microphone Boost will create a lot of noise in the background. But if your system configuration is high and your audio driver has noise reduction option, then you can use the Microphone Boost option to increase the recording volume.
> Now click Enhancements tab and select the enhancements you want.
> Then, click Apply and OK.
> Now, open Mixcraft and then go to File > Preferences.
> Under the Sound Device section, select WaveRT and keep the waveRT options at 44100Hz, 16bits, Stereo and keep the Latency at 20. Enable the use of Exclusive Mode also. For help, see the image below:
> Now click OK and you are ready to record your vocals.

STEP 2. Getting The Karaoke Track:
You can get free karaoke tracks from youtube and google. So many bloggers also provide free karaoke tracks. You can purchase the karaoke tracks from some websites and you can purchase karaoke DVDs from the market music outlets also.
Well, I am going to tell you the easiest way to create karaoke tracks by removing vocals from the original songs. I have explained how to remove vocals from a song in my earlier posts also, but this time, I'm going to remove vocals from songs using Acoustica Mixcraft and Extra Boy Pro Plugin (Mixcraft 6 is providing VocalZap plugin free, but it doesn't work as expected). So, let's start:
> Download and install Extra Boy Pro plugin. (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD)
> Open Mixcraft.
> You will see the tracks in which you can add and record audio. Let's add the song in the first track and then we will apply the vocal remover plugin in this track. To add the song in the track, right click in the track and click Add Sound File. Then open your song from the location where you kept your song in the hard disk.
> Now you selected song will be added in the track. You can see it's waveform. Now click on the Title Strip of the song waveform and drag and bring it to the start point of the track as shown in the image below:
> Now, In the second track, open the same song. The tracks will look like this:
> Now click on the fx button in the first track.
> Effect list box will appear now. Click at the dropdown menu to see the available vst and directx effects.
> Select Elevayta_Extra_Boy_Pro effect and then click Edit.
> Now from the presets, select Full Spectrum (HR). For most of the songs, it works great.
> Now mute the track 2 and play the song using play button.

> To get more better quality of the karaoke track, enable Stereolize and Spreadilate options and adjust the sliders to control low cut, high cut etc.
> If you get the better quality of the karaoke track, then unmute the second track and click Toggle Automation buttons for both the tracks and then adjust the volume of the tracks by making and sliding the points up and down. For the best quality of karaoke track, you must set the volume level at zero at vocal part in the original song track (Track 2) and for the music part, set the volume at zero in the karaoke track (Track 1). In this way, the music part of the song will be fresh.
> Now, after adjusting the volumes for the vocal and music part in both the tracks, play the song. If you are satisfied with the karaoke track, then click File > Mix Down To > MP3 option.
> Now, Before saving, set the mp3 quality by clicking Edit Details button.
> Now, set the slider to Studio Quality and then click OK and then save your song.
> Now, mixcraft will start mixing and saving your file in a single mp3 file and after saving the file, you can get your mp3 karaoke file.

Here is a sample karaoke with original song:
Original Song Clip:
Extra Boy Pro Converted Karaoke Clip:

STEP 3. Recording The Vocals And Applying VST Effects:
Now, let's start recording the vocals and to mix it with the karaoke track and produce our own mp3 song. We have done the audio setup for windows and mixcraft, so no need to repeat those steps again. Follow the steps below:
> Open mixcraft. You will see the audio tacks. Now, right click in the first track and add the karaoke file in that track (as we did while making the karaoke).
> Now, in the second audio track, click on the dropdown menu symbol just beside the ARM button and select the incoming audio as Microphone (Stereo).
> Now, the track will be armed for recording vocals and it will become red. You can adjust the level of incoming audio from mic by sliding the volume control slider.
> Now click bring to the start button just beside the record button to set the recording from the start point and then click Record button.
> Now, karaoke track will start playing and vocal recording will be started in audio track 2 and you will see your voice waveform. (Remember, in track 2, only voice is being recorded, music is not)
> Whenever you make a mistake, you can stop the recording and delete the wrong part by selecting the wrong part's waveform and pressing delete button from keyboard. Then, you can start the recording again from where you want to start. You can move the recorded vocals by dragging the waveform by clicking its title strip and you can use cut, copy and paste also for the waveforms. You can record parts of vocals in different tracks by pressing the arm button of those tracks and configuring the incoming audio source.
> After recording the vocals, click fx button (as we did while making the karaoke track) and then apply and adjust the vst effects. Reverb, Compressor and Delay vst plugins are generally used for mastering the vocals. You can use third party VST plugins also if you have installed them in your computer.
> If there is a lot of noise in the vocals, then you can use Mixcraft's in-built noise reduction with the vocal track.
> After applying all the effects, you can use Mixer to increase or decrease the Hi, Mid and Lo volume of the trakcs.
> Finally, after applying VST effects, adjusting the volumes, go to File > Mix Down To > MP3 and save your song. Play the mp3 file after saving it and share it with your friends.
Mixcraft has a lot more features and if you will use it, you will explore the features. It's a great software for audio production.
I hope you liked the tutorial. If you have any problem, just put that in comments and I'll solve them.