......I have played a little with RB and don't find it intuitive, but that is probably resistance to change syndrome, so I will make an effort to start liking it.
Yes, the Zoom mic probably has everything required for now and it even interfaces directly with USB as it stand. There is just so much noise. What I understand from this discussion is that the a solution would be to get an external sound card with a USB interface?
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Every DAW takes time to learn how it works..... stick with it. I choose to use Sonar (Cakewalk) simply because I have used it for so long, I know where everything I need is located, and it works for me. Each DAW has certain things it does better than the others and whichever one fits your workflow best is the one you will settle on in the end. BTW: The Cakewalk MC6 DAW by itself is $25 right now.... super price. MC is considered by cakewalk to be a "beginners DAW" ... that said, I used MC4 for many years and turned out some impressive music that was signed by several film & TV libraries...so don't discount it because it's called a beginners DAW.
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/32067/?snr=1_7_15__13Before you buy anything else.... work on understanding and learning Real Band since you already have that one.
More about the zoom recorder. While it works for now, you mentioned it's noisy. Using a condenser mic with a music specific audio interface should make a huge difference in the noise levels. With even a middle of the road interface and low end (price wise) condenser mic, there should be no noise that you can easily hear.
One of the mistakes people make with mics is singing too far away from them. This allows the mic to pick up too much of the "room sound" in the recording. They see pics of the pro's singing in a studio and back 2 to 3 feet from the mic and think that's how they need to do it in their bedroom studio. Not necessarily the case. You have to remember that the studio is likely dead quiet, and sound treated to reduce the "hollow room" sound common in many home studios. The big studio is also using a mic that costs thousands of dollars and has a superb sound quality to it.
My studio happens to be the corner of a room that gets shared with other activities, and it has no sound treatment other than the carpet on the floor and the furniture in the room. My mic is a fairly decent Rode NT-2A but it's certainly not a high end Neumann. I sing close up to it with a pop filter about 1" away from the capsule.
While a nice condenser is my preferred mic of choice for studio work, if you only have a nice dynamic mic (SM-57 or SM-58 for example) they will work well with the interface for vocals. The condenser tends to work much better for acoustic guitars and mandolins and such things, than the dynamic mic.
just my 2 cents