Either. I am more concerned about the echo and pickup. I need advice on mics. I can sing from a balcony in the back or on the the floor.
If you are recording through a mic, you will need a small mixer, a good vocal mike and a good instrument mic. GLS has a cheaper line of Shure knock offs that are pretty cheap and amazingly good. Beringer has some cheap 4 channel mixers. Then you need a good digital recorder. I use a tascam hand held 2 channel to record off the mix. Then you need a nice audio software program to clean it up. I use Sound Forge.
Good luck.