Help Needed with vocal sound

Hi Anatolii,

What to do first is let us know what your specs are !

 Like anything else you start at the beginning. You have a good start with Sonar. There are several passable reverbs in your VST folder. The verb Perfectspace is a decent plug to experiment with  a convolution reverb. This type of reverb uses  actual spaces that can be loaded into the reverb. You also have a few other basic good reverbs.

 I would recommend looking to see if there are any videos from CakeTV on the subject of vocal recording. If not seek a good book or some web realted info on vocal recording. There really is far too much info to cover in a post here. Reverb/delay is only a very small part of what makes a vocal recording good. Your recording space is a big factor in your recorded sound,as is your mike placement and type. Many other factors like compression,the level of your inputs are important.

 Don't be afraid to make mistakes, Lord knows Ive made plenty of em'. You will want headphones most likely because the microphone can pick up the other sounds coming from your speakers and re-record that onto your vocal track. 

   I would concentrate on levels,room acoustics andmike placement first and worry about reverb after you get a decent recording.

Thank you very much. 

Anatolii


.......And I am using a USB mic

Do you have this working OK in Sonar? Most people have big problems with them. 

Are you using any other sound card? 



NOTE: my usual advice to people who start with a USB mic is to return it and buy a dedicated Recording Interface. They actually work better and don't have the issues and problems that USB mics have and tend to create.  I'm not saying it's impossible to use a USB mic, just that there are much better options available. 


But.... if you have it working and are satisfied... I'm happy for you. 

I believe version x1a

I meant Essential, Studio, Producer? If you're using X1a, then you ought to update to X1c for starters.

Thanks you helped me out a lot.
Is the only way to hear your self is to have in put echo turned on

Your computer is good enough, but your soundcard is not good and the USB mic is a problem, because it's actually a soundcard. Two low quality soundcards together is problematic. There's a sticky here
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1618556
about using USB mics. Maybe it helps.

Anyway, you just need to learn the basics in SONAR. It is not a plug'n'play software, you have to study.

Integrated soundcards usually work best with either MME 32 or ASIO4ALL drivers.
I'd try ASIO4ALL (a free download) and then adjust the latency to see how low you can get.

I think my computer is not good enough for this I downloaded the program you recommended I got from 60 to 1000 which is bad I am guessing.

 
Assuming you're talking about a dpc latency check, for a "stock" PC that's actually pretty good.
 
On the other hand then my DAW rarely goes over 80, and never over 120 (for hardware spec see my sig - not so different to your setup actually).
 
Now, I use one PC but with two Windows installations and boot into each depending on what I want to do. One is the DAW, the other the "general" installation that I use for everything else. So I have two Windows installations sharing the same hardware.
 
The "general" Windows installation has dpc latency that shoots over 2000 every 5 seconds or so and hits 5000 once in a while - on exactly the same hardware as the DAW.
 
The different results are because the DAW installation has very little in the way of background software/services running. In particular, it has no wireless networking operating at all and no anti-virus.
 
The most likely suspect for causing high dpc results is a wireless networking dongle/card. Switch that off (disable it in Window's Device Manager - it's the driver and how Windows uses it that causes the problems, not the hardware itself) and you'll quite possibly see far better results.
 
As has been suggested, download ASIO4ALL and see what results you get with it. Reduce the audio latency in Sonar/ASIO4ALL until you start to get dropouts or crackles (it's obvious when it happens). The higher the dpc latency, the more problems you'll have getting the audio latency down - start by switching off the networking by disabling the networking interface in Window's Device Manager (you'll need to enable it again to use it, obviously) and see if you get a lower dpc result. If so, try dropping the audio latency a bit more.
 
Don't get too obsessed with the lowest possible audio latency- it needs to be just low enough that you're happy using it. Set it too low and it puts a heavy load on the cpu which can also cause dropouts. Sadly, USB mics are not known for having low latency possibilities to start with :-(
 
Your Vista power saving settings can also affect things. You need to tell Windows not to put the drives, USB or screen to sleep at the very least.
 
Getting a DAW to work well is a complicated thing to do - and there's a steep learning curve unfortunately. The good news is that compared to XP and earlier versions of Windows, Vista and Windows 7 require very little optimising for audio use.