[MangaMan]

I, like everyone here, am a lover of music. Unfortunately I've never gotten around to learning to play any instruments, except one: vocal. I've been singing for longer than I can remember and I want to get the most out of my voice and share it with everyone across the world.
I'm looking for any tips and tricks for recording vocals.
I've got a Samson C01U USB Studio Condenser microphone. I have GarageBand '08 version 4.1.2 and Audacity at my disposal. I try to get the best recording environment possible and I mostly try to work with what I have, being that I'm a Digital Arts Animation/Illustration major, money is a hard thing to come by.
Please, any tips and/or trick in vocal recording I would be very grateful.

[SnappleMan]

From my experience the most important factor in vocal recording is the performers ability to sing into a mic. You have to be able to know where to naturally position yourself as you sing so all your tone gets focused and shaped as it's being recorded, otherwise you'll be doing a lot of cleaning up, compressing and re-recording. So yeah, learn how to work a mic.

[suzumebachi]

can't speak to actual singing technique and all that mumbo, but

first off, a C01U is a great place to start. contrary to popular belief having super high end mics with ultra expensive preamps and a ridiculous audio interface is not the be-all end-all of vocals. sure it helps, but like snappleman alluded to, far more important is positioning and room sound. the best way to ruin a vocal recording is to have background noise. the next best way is to have too much room sound or natural reverb. also make sure your mic is facing the right damn way (SOUNDS OBVIOUS RIGHT BUT YOU'D BE SURPRISED MAN YOU'D BE SURPRISED) and don't get too close or you'll get proximity bass, which might actually sound good to untrained ears but trust me you'll want to kill yourself trying to mix it.

oh, and levels. make sure that shit don't clip, son. and use a pop filter.

[MangaMan]

pop flitter, check!
Recording space is a hard one. I don't have too many places around the house that are suitable recording places. Any of the places that might be good, don't have any place for me to place my equipment on. I'll need to figure something out.

[Darangen]

As far as space goes, you just need to make do with what you have if you don't have or can't afford a good space.

I've started using a small closet with lots of pillows and blankets to absorb a lot of the reflections until I can afford something better.

[Malcos]

I'm working on a video at the moment which I intend to post to youtube soon. It's a video capture of a vocal recording session and mixdown. Only the highlights mind you lol.