Make sure all necessary hardware is connected to your computer and that you have sufficient computer power to run the program. Most audio programs like Audacity require a minimum of one gigabyte of RAM to function well. The more power you have, the more smoothly your audio editing program will run.
Install your sound card or external audio-MIDI interface according to the instructions of the manufacturer. Make sure your computer recognizes your device.
Choose your audio editing and drum-machine programs. Audacity is a free audio editing program with multitrack recording capabilities. Multitrack recording means that you can record some audio, then start another recording that plays back on top of your original audio. If you only need one track, Sony Acid Xpress is a simple interface that will allow you to program and record a basic song with MIDI, loops, and one track of audio. Reason is a professional audio program that allows you to program beats and loops which can be exported to an audio editing program to add a vocal track.
Download and install your audio programs. After the installation program has completed, start the program.
Configure your editing program to recognize your sound card or audio input device. Configuration settings are usually located in the "Preferences" selection of the "Edit" menu. In Audacity, you set the audio device settings from the "Audio I/O" tab of the "Preferences" option. Plug in your microphone and test the sound.
Make a drum beat for the background. Start a new project in your audio beat making program, then add a track. Choose some sounds that you like for the drum machine drums. Using the buttons on your beat making program, design a beat pattern that you like.
Add vocals to your drum beat. Musicians using Reason to make a beat will need to export the beat as an audio file such as .wav, then load it into Audacity to add a vocal track. In Audacity, choose the "Import" option in the "File" menu to import the beat file.
Add a new audio track. Click the red "R" on the track to enable the track to record, then commence recording with the record and playback buttons. Make sure that you keep the audio within good ranges, indicated by the green, yellow and red indicator that shows your audio levels. Audio levels that venture into the red will suffer distortion and need to be re-recorded.
With the editing tools in your audio program, separate the parts you recorded well from the mistakes, then re-record the parts with mistakes on a new track. Continue until you are happy with the quality of your vocal recording.
Make minute and subtle changes to the timing of the vocals to perfect how they hit in the song. If your singer was a little off in timing, use editing tools to move the notes to where they were supposed to be.
Export your song to an audio format that you can upload or publish to a CD, such as .wav or .aiff. Use iTunes or Foobar if if you want to convert songs to MP3.