Board Thread:Beginning Singers/@comment-76.69.38.177-20141207000948/@comment-27885184-20141211161444

Audacity is a great mixing/recording program, and there's a thorough wiki that will walk you through how to operate it, and probably many YouTube tutorials. I also use the free version of the program MixPad, I find it works quite well, it's easier to use than Audacity for me personally. Also Audacity won't let me save audio files but MixPad lets you save it in many formats (like mp3). However maybe I'm just bad at using Audacity haha. Anyways I use both for different mixing/sound purposes, some work better for different things. I'd try out more than one program and see which works for you. As far as microphones go, I found most that popular youtaite use to be more expensive than I could afford. Personally I would start out with a more inexpensive mic. Personally what worked well for me was getting a mic headset that plugged in via usb found at the local electronics store (and my city is small and has very little to offer in shopping variety so I'm sure you can find one too). Mine was maybe, oh, $20 and worked quite well for me. Once you get really into singing maybe you could save up and get a more expensive mic, but... I know that's not an instant option for everyone, and its best to start out small sometimes. Anyways, I'd try practicing singing and see which sorts of songs suit your voice best. Of course, feel free to sing anything, I just find that for a beginner like me, it's easier at first to practice with a song you're good at and that's easy for you to sing, before moving onto harder songs. You can search most any VOCALOID song on YouTube and put in "off vocal". And lyrics can be found many places online. You can probably even find translyrics if you wish to sing in English; just make sure you give credit to the translyricist if you don't make your own, and that they're okay with people using their lyrics! A good way to start getting into the community once you've started would probably be to join some kind of group or group event, like a chorus battle or audition for a new group. Don't get discouraged if you don't get into your first few auditions! Even some of the brightest stars in hollywood had to try multiple times before getting their first part. It's not necessarily that you're not good enough! I would try to collaborate as much as possible when given the opportunity because it's a great way to establish in the community, make friends and get better known. Also if you want potential fans and collaborators to hear your music, perhaps try posting it on various sites; maybe like SoundCloud, YouTube, Nico Nico (which is pretty easy to navigate in English I find, though many people will still speak Japanese-but the uploading process shouldn't be too difficult since you can put the language to English.) Anyways, basically all you need to do to be an utaite is sing! So start singing! Start collaborating! Even if you're not great yet, you'll get there with practice! Don't give up! I believe in you~! C: