Microphones

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burnt_offering
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Microphones

#1 Post by burnt_offering »

I'm thinking of doing some voice acting for one of my projects, and I'm wondering what microphone would be a good buy.
I don't have a huge budget in general, but I'm willing to shell out a little for something of decent quality.
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Re: Microphones

#2 Post by ibukichan »

I highly recommend the Blue Snowball or the Blue Yeti. I personally use the Blue Snowball, which is great if you want a good mic for under $100. If you've got a bit more than $100, the Blue Yeti is very high quality, and you should definitely go for that one.

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Re: Microphones

#3 Post by YossarianIII »

One thing you should take into consideration: many professional microphones and even many of the popular entry-level brands will need a device called an audio interface to interact with your computer (which can definitely add to the cost). If you see the letters XLR, it's this type of microphone.

If you look for a USB microphone, though, you'll be able to plug it directly into your computer.

Audiophile snobs generally prefer mics with an XLR cable, but that's more relevant to music than voice work. For voice acting, podcasting, and that type of stuff, USBs are probably more popular and can easily do the job.

Just want to make sure you don't accidentally buy something and then find out you need another device to use it! :)

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Re: Microphones

#4 Post by LPRe »

I second the blue snowball -- I've got one that I bought for ~40 ish dollars on amazon, and it sounds pretty great and is easy to work with.

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Re: Microphones

#5 Post by Fluffyrobotdog »

YossarianIII wrote:Audiophile snobs generally prefer mics with an XLR cable, but that's more relevant to music than voice work. For voice acting, podcasting, and that type of stuff, USBs are probably more popular and can easily do the job.

Just want to make sure you don't accidentally buy something and then find out you need another device to use it! :)
WOW WOW. Slow down. The XLR is not just an "audiophile snob" thing. It is an industry and professional standard. There is a fundamental concept that must be understood when recording with microphones that should influence your decision heavily. The concept is a noise floor. The combined unwanted noise from your environment and system should not be loud enough that It is audible among your direct signal going into the microphone. Otherwise, the more your turn the recorded program up, the more you will hear the noise floor. When doing post work on vocals, lets say we compress the recording to remove some uncomfortable spikes in level. When we compress vocals, we first reduce their dynamic range, then add additional gain to bring them back up to their original loudness. The noise floor will come up with the the vocal, which means we will have trouble getting clean vocals, free of unwanted noise.

For a skype chat, sure it doesn't matter. But when working on something that you want to sound as professional as possible? It does matter.

So let's go back to our concept of a noise floor. Not only is the microphone picking up all the noise in the room, there is electrical interference with the cable being near your computer, from the radio signals near or around your area, from the lights, your monitor. All of this electrical interference will add to the noise floor. If you already have noisy computer, a window open and lights on in the room, you have a considerable noise floor already. Now from my knowledge, USB connections carry unbalanced audio, thus the problem of additional electrical interference can not be fixed. But with an XLR connection you get a balanced connection. In short, balanced cables are built with 3 conductors instead of the 2 you find in unbalanced connections. two of the three carry audio, one inverted, and one non-inverted, the other is just a ground wire. These wires carry EXACTLY the same signal with different polarities, but the noise picked up on both wires is identical. These are then fed into a differential amplifier which polarity flips the second signal, and removes only what is similar between the two, that being the noise. As a result, you get a cleaner signal. Now, in order to utilize the benefits of balanced audio, you will need something that accepts balanced connections. Thus you will probably need an interface of some sort. This will add to your budget and may even be unnecessary now; but in the future, a decent consumer or even professional audio setup is something you should look into if you want good sounding audio. This is increasingly more important the fewer sound sources you are trying to record with a single microphone.


Now for microphones. For vocals, typically people prefer condensers for voice. This is mainly for the fact that it can pick up very subtle details in the voice that dynamics will have a harder time with. If you are in a noisier room, a cardioid condenser like the blue snowball might be a good choice. These reject sound coming from the rear, so you can use that to your advantage when trying to reduce the amount of noise in the recording. I would definitely suggest shelling out the extra cash on the Blue Yeti cause it's actual quite decent for a USB mic. BUT. I think you would benefit from a pop filter(which would end up bringing you near 200 bucks if you bought the Yeti). So if you're looking for a reliable purchase, Blue is a great company and the snowball is very well priced. However, I would highly recommend dropping an extra 30-40 bucks on a quality pop filter on top of that purchase.

Sorry for the long post. I'm late anyways xD

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Re: Microphones

#6 Post by YossarianIII »

Fluffyrobotdog wrote:WOW WOW. Slow down. The XLR is not just an "audiophile snob" thing. It is an industry and professional standard.
I should clarify that "audiophile snob" was meant as a term of endearment, basically to mean "industry." Probably could've used a winky-face or something next to it. :wink: Also, what I wrote was based on a sub-$100 budget.

In any case, I defer Fluffyrobotdog's more detailed post above.

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Re: Microphones

#7 Post by Milkmaster »

Interfaces are definitely superior than USB microphones in that you can use different microphones/preamps/effects as you get them or as needed, and there are certainly inexpensive options out there (like the Focusrite Scarlett Studio Bundle, which comes with monitoring headphones, the interface, and a condenser mic for around $200 USD iirc) but if you're really on a budget a USB microphone is probably best. I recommend getting a mic that have headphone jacks like the Samson Meteor (about $70 USD) because the headphone jacks on computers have some of the worst jacks and preamps and create a lot of noise, not to mention having the built in interface helps with latency so you can monitor yourself accurately while recording.
The Blue Yeti has a headphone jack on it too, I believe, and it's around $120 USD if I remember right. I personally despise Yetis (they're THX approved, which doesn't make sense to me at all and is kind of sketchy?) but there's a lot of people who love them. Do what fits your budget and can do what you want.
Headphones are also important, but less so than microphones. You can get fairly decent monitoring headphones for around $30 on Amazon.
Pop filters are super important though for recording any kind of vocals. You can get nice ones that clamp to desks and have crane necks for $3 on eBay (that's where I got mine) but you can also make one from stuff you have in your house. I have a friend who uses coffee filters in a ring and I've seen people use nylon stockings on wire hangers. It's a simple thing but very important.
Oh, also, they aren't common but there are USB dynamic microphones and USB ribbon microphones, too. Condenser microphones are the norm for USB mics, and standard for vocals because they're very sensitive to noise. Dynamic microphones will work fine but are more suited to recording louder things like amp cabs or doing things like live shows because they're durable and not as sensitive, so less feedback and such. Ribbon microphones are amazing for pretty much everything but are especially good for vocals. They're very warm sounding but are also very expensive.

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Re: Microphones

#8 Post by JBShields »

http://thehub.musiciansfriend.com/audio ... icrophones

Basic guide to mics. Microfilmmaker blogs also are good resources for working on the cheap. I use Audacity (it's free) myself.

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