Hello there.

So i am starting to enter unknown territory, trying to figuere out what i need to get, to be able to record decent audio and how it exactly works in it's entirety. So i hope someone has experience with both the things i want out of this.

First off, i am looking to get a mic/program and whatever else i would need, for recording speeches and similar, clear sound etc, both low and high volume voices. i need this since i started holding quite a few speeches, where it would be great to use this for practice, while also needing it for certain assignments where i need to record an explanation for stuff like minor study courses and similar.

The other thing i would like to be able to do, or rather primarily my girlfriend, is to be able to record cover songs etc, so here i would again need a mic that would be able to do that well, but i am most certain that i will most likely need something else than just a mic and a program to get a decent outcome. Besides that, i am also unaware of how it works if someone were to record a cover track for instance. Where does one find the music/instrumental where it isn't some random shite karaoke version, and does one record to the original song and then add the instrumental afterwards, or does one record to the instrumental?

Keep in mind that this is not "professional" as in i wanna spent 1 million bucks and be famous, but i would still like something of quality so i/we can get a decent outcome.

I hope all of this made sense and hopefully someone knows something about this stuff that can help me out since google seems to confuse me.

TLR
What hardware/software do i need to record above average audio(Speeches/songs).
How does "backtracks/instrumental" work for cover songs, and where do one find em.


I appreciate all the help and advice i can get, so cheers.