What software used in voice acting... Without mic?

[Catlip Candy]

I don't have money to buy decent mic because I'm poor and I live in a noisy house. Is there a way for me to jump into the world of voice acting?

What software do you use for voice acting? Or do you really have to rent recording studios to produce the highest quality of voice acting

I only have audacity with me where I can record my voice. And even though it's quiet, you can hear minimal voice from the background. But I'm willing to download better ones, as long as it's free and with no app purchase (though I think that's asking too much)

[SundownKid]

Sorry to say that if you want to jump into voice acting for real you will need at least a decent mic. Really the absolute minimum you can spend is $50 for a Blue Snowball mic from Amazon. You also need to buy a pop filter. Any cheaper mic and your voice will be low quality. And not using a pop filter makes your voice make loud pops on the parts where you have a "p" sound.

The noisy house thing can be solved a little easier, by putting a sheet over yourself and the mic, or making a cardboard recording booth. It's more annoying than having a quiet location to work from though.

As for software most people use the free Audacity, the quality is mainly coming from the mic and your own skills, not from the software.

[Catlip Candy]

Thanks for the answers... So I guess there's no really other choice. Gotta save money

Putting a sheet over yourself... That's a pretty good advice for a newbie. Thanks!

[SundownKid]

Actually, you can get a cardioid mic for cheaper if you are willing to go used/refurbished. Getting something from Ebay or Cowboom or something might be an option too.

[Catlip Candy]

Actually, you can get a cardioid mic for cheaper if you are willing to go used/refurbished. Getting something from Ebay or Cowboom or something might be an option too.

Currently searching mic secondhand online and still, they're beyond my reach. I have no job and still in school, and I don't live in the US so I can't afford dollars as payment. (though there's always converting them to dollars, still beyond my reach )

There's the CDR King option, but they have a bad reputation when it comes to their products.

[SundownKid]

Well in that case, you will have no choice but to save money. You can hack together a pop filter yourself using DIY materials, but a high quality mic is pretty much required.

[theuser]

Like anybody have already said, the mic is the thing you need. High end software are not required for decent to good recordings.
Audacity is pretty much a solid software for recordings and have all the basic tools, and have compatibility for VST, so it can use others tools for editing the recordings.
You can go to stores where you live that sells music instruments, they normally have mics and others thing for studios. You can go and see what price are they selling the mics.
And that way you have a idea how much they cost. They normally have sales over the year. So they put almost all the inventory to discount because they have to make
room for the new products of the company's. So you can go anytime and see all, then you can see how much the prices go down when they need to sell all.
Normally in this type of products 2 times of the year stores do sales, if I remember correctly mid year and the end of year for the starting of the new one.

[Catlip Candy]

At first I was thinking that maybe I don't need mic since my laptop is able to record voices. But as you guys said, mics play an important role. I don't really know what a decent mic looks like. But I'll try visiting more stores.

[SundownKid]

A good microphone will likely be pretty large in comparison to a poor one. The bad ones you should avoid are small USB mics and laptop mics, etc.

In other words, the good ones look something like this.

Bad ones look like this or this. As you can see they are way more compact, that also includes things like headset mics or internal mics.

[Catlip Candy]

A good microphone will likely be pretty large in comparison to a poor one. The bad ones you should avoid are small USB mics and laptop mics, etc.

In other words, the good ones look something like this.

Bad ones look like this or this. As you can see they are way more compact, that also includes things like headset mics or internal mics.

Thank you very much for the pictures! I was going to buy a USB mic like that of the second picture since one voice actor told me that his mic looked like that. But now I'm having doubts.

On a decent mic, is there a wire that could connect it with a laptop? I mean, how do you record the voice and transport it to a laptop and save it as format file?

[SundownKid]

Good mics are usually USB mics too, they are just better mics. The main thing you have to watch out for is whether it's a low quality mic or a high quality one. I'm pretty sure the Blue Snowball is the cheapest "high quality" mic you can get without getting one used, but I might be wrong.

[csky]

As the other guy said, the software doesn't make much of a difference with voice acting. it's all about the mic and the way you handle your sounds.

Before you go out and spend lots of money on a mic make sure you have the capacity for voice acting. Buying a mic doesn't mean you can instantly voice act either. You need to make sure you are getting honest input from others, because when it comes to yourself, normally yourself is not the best judge. If you have access to a school or university recording studio I highly suggest you try and do some proper mic recordings there first so you can see what you sound like on better microphones before you spend money on one as well. It will also help you learn how to use them.
A good mic isn't magical, getting a good sound out of a good mic also takes tweaking. You have to consider proximity and space, as well as know how to level, equalize and remove noise in audacity. Audacity is capable of all of those things, and I've found it has a very good noise removal tool if you know how to use it.

I suggest definitely familiarize yourself with microphone techniques before you invest any major cash, but unfortunately that takes going out there and trying it out yourself. If you have any friends or anyone who already own a mic they will let you practice on then utilize that at all cost.

[Catlip Candy]

@ SundownKid - All I know where to buy mics is the CDR King (which is always out of stock 0_0), but I'll also look at music stores as what theuser suggested.

@ theuser - thanks for suggesting about that, by the way. I'm far away from the malls where they sell musical instrument. I'll check out once I have the time. But all I can imagine in music stores are mics for singing which amplify voice. Won't that have booming effect or won't it be too loud once I record it in my laptop?

@ csky - Of course, I agree with that. Having only yourself is not the best judge. But I do believe that I have the capacity to voice act. Rather, I want to believe that I have the capacity I'm really stubborn. Before I voice some of my characters, I'll be sure to gets lots of opinions from my friends, and from my sarcastic older brother Anyways, I went to a seminar once about voice acting so I have some idea about it. You're right about the money. I don't want to end up crying once I buy a useless mic. but sometimes, I just need to try it out for myself.

Unfortunately, our recording studio is unavailable And I don't know anyone with a decent mic that I can borrow from. But me and my friends are planning on buying a mic because we have a requirement where we need to record our voice (plus I have my other agenda. Maybe try to talk to them to give the mic to me? )

As for Audacity, I'm still not good with it. I just use it for clipping out music/sound and amplifying them. If you're talking about the Effects tab, then I think I may have seen the Noise Removal tool. Anyway, there's a lot of tutorials out there, I'm sure I can think of some way to learn more about audacity.

[trooper6]

You can buy the blue snowball/blue yeti online from Amazon.

[Milkmaster]

Mics are the most important part, but a good mic will be absolutely useless unless you have an interface. Plugging your headphones or microphone directly into the microphone and headphone jacks on your computer will create a lot of noise during recording and playback, mostly due to the low quality jacks and preamps. They work fine for just casual stuff like Skype chats or listening to music, but for any type of voice acting or recording for music or anything similar they are no good, and it won't matter how good your microphone or headphones or speakers are.
Interfaces are usually USB, (though there are others like firewire with less latency) and they'll give you much better sounding recording and playback. Cheaper ones like the Presonus Audiobox and the Scarlett Solo are only around $100 USD but you still need a microphone to go with them. Seeing as you are on a budget, you should look into USB microphones with built in interfaces.
The cheapest I've found with good reviews for recording voice is the Samson Meteor, which is around $70 USD.
The Blue Yeti also has a built-in interface for $120 USD I believe, but I've had a bad track record with Blue microphones myself.

Headphones are secondary mostly when recording, but still important. If you can, buy a cheap pair of reference headphones (you can get them for around $20 - $30 USD). Don't worry about having great headphones right off the bat, what you have now will probably work fine. Having a decent microphone is the most important.

Pop filters are also necessary. You can find these on eBay for as little as $3 (that's where I got mine) but at the end of the day its just a piece of mesh fabric. I've seen people make them with everything from coffee filters to panty hose strung up with wire hangers. I got by originally by draping a scarf over my microphone.

As far as software goes, Audacity is honestly amazing, especially for voice acting. It should work perfect, and it's free. It has VST support, too, in case you want to use any effects or something similar.

tl;dr- Plugging a microphone directly into your computer will sound terrible regardless of how good your microphone is, so buy a USB interface, or as a cheaper option, a USB microphone with a built-in interface.

Some good things to look at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4pW0Cvzw3g - Microphone guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO30QsZG1Cg - Interface guide
http://mylittleremix.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=695 - Another guide to microphones, covers USB microphones and interfaces
http://mylittleremix.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=855 - Singing guide, but some techniques may translate well to voice acting