Blueskygal - welcome to the forum

Two things in your posts jump out at me:

Quote:

I am a standards/jazz singer wanting to make my own recordings.



and

Quote:

I want to be able to plug the mic into my computer and use it to make recordings with band in the box and my karaoke mp3's as my "band."



To quote a bad saying, 'if you want to get from here to there I wouldn't start from here if I were you' Let me explain:

I think you are going the wrong way from the start if what you have stated is all you want to do. BIAB is a great tool for composing and arranging but you don't need it if you only want to record covers and standards with karaoke mp3s that you already have. To do this, all you need is a copy of Power Tracks Pro, as you can't buy RB without BIAB, and a copy of Audacity (which is a free download). You do not need the RealTracks either.

The reason for having Audacity is the ability to pitch shift the key of the karaoke mp3 to suit your voice. If you don't need the lyrics, you could even get away with just Audacity and a free basic sequencer but Power Tracks Pro is far better than any other sequencer out there, apart from RB that is, in my opinion and far easier to use than Cubase or ProTools and will allow you to add effects to your voice (such as 'Vocals - Female (+FX)', 'Vocals - Voiceover (+FX)', 'Vocals - Background (+FX)' and so on). It will also give you the text window to see the lyrics. Audacity and Power Tracks Pro combined is all you need and just buying Power Tracks Pro would save you a lot of money as BIAB & RB is far more expensive (PTPA @ $49 versus BIAB & RB @ $129 - a saving of $80). For what you have stated you want to achieve, I see no need for buying the BIAB & RB bundle at this time. With the money you would save, you could then afford a decent pre-amp and mic.

As to the pre-amp and mic, I would recommend the TASCAM US-122 USB Audio/MIDI interface (it is the predecessor to the TASCAM US-144 and you can probably get a second-hand one on e-bay these days) and the Rode NT1-A phantom power mic (you might even find a second hand one of these on e-bay too). The Rode NT1-A is an excellent and very versatile value-for-money studio condenser mic which runs off phantom power provided by the TASCAM US-122. If you want to buy new then Gary's suggestion of the TASCAM US-144 Interface and MXL 990/991 Microphone Bundle from Musicians' Friend (and therefore probably elsewhere too) would be good value. If I had to choose from your selection, I would choose the Behringer but I wouldn't expect it to be of real studio quality because it does depend on the quality of the soundcard in your computer, whereas the TASCAM units are soundcards in their own right. For what it's worth, I also use the TASCAM US-122 as a soundcard for outputting music playback through my PA system.

You will also need a good pair of closed back headphones to hear the backing trax and not record them too while you are singing plus a mic stand and a pop-guard, of course. To save money, you can even make a pop-guard using a wire coat hanger and an old pair of stockings (plenty of places on the internet to show you how to make it - just do a Google search).

The above setup works fine for me when I record demos and covers with karaoke mp3 trax. You do not need to be a techie to use the setup I have recommended and if you get stuck then the forum is here to help.

Hope that helps.

Follow That Dream

Sam
Karaoke King

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Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what