New voice microphone

Started by Slasher, Mon 17/11/2014 07:40:10

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Slasher

Hi,

I am looking to buy a new (not expensive) mic to voice act:

Specifications:
Frequency Response 100-160kHz
S/N Ratio: More then 60dB
Input Plug Diameter 3.5mm
Operation Voltage 4.5v
Cord Length Approximately 1.35m
Sensitivity -58db+-3dB
Directivity: Omni-directional

What do you think?


Gurok

Are these your requirements or are they specifications for a microphone you've selected. If it's the latter, how much does the microphone cost?

I have had good experiences with the Zoom H1, but it's about £70. It has two mics in a phased, directional pattern. I have found directional mics to be great, especially if you're sitting near a computer while recording. I'm curious to know why you'd go with omni-directional. The other thing that I've found crucial for 3.5mm mics is good isolation of your sound card from motherboard noise. Preferably, try to find something with a digital interface and an ASIO driver.
[img]http://7d4iqnx.gif;rWRLUuw.gi

Azure

I agree you don't need onmi directional for voice acting, it's useful if you're podcasting as you can record several people around it but for VO it will pick up extra background noise. Also if you want a sub £100 solution I'd go for USB as a conventional 3.5m plugged into an onboard sound card is usually not that great for all the reasons Gurok's mentioned. I recommend any of the Blue USB mics Snowball ( basic) and Yeti ( slightly more expensive) both have onmi modes if you do want to podcast  but you can switch to single direction for VO. Just make sure you look up some tutorials on how to use them if you've not used a good mic before, the yeti for example is  " Side address" so you need to make sure you talk into the side and not the top!

How about you link the mic or give us your budget?
www.voiceacting.space - Casting Calls for voice actors

Retro Wolf

I've got a Turtle Beach gaming headset, I was pleasantly surprised by the record quality when I plugged it into my PC.

Adeel

I use a cheap headset which costed me 2.20 GBP. I get good results from it.

Fitz

Quote from: Azure on Mon 17/11/2014 08:14:24I recommend any of the Blue USB mics Snowball ( basic) and Yeti ( slightly more expensive) both have onmi modes if you do want to podcast  but you can switch to single direction for VO.

Yeah, I'm using a Yeti, myself -- and you've heard my samples, Slasher. I'm not super happy with how some of them came out, but that's mostly me having trouble handling the surrounding's acoustics -- but I think I went pro once I got the idea to use my ironing board as the mic stand (laugh) Seriously, the padding does wonders in eliminating reverb.

Retro Wolf

I bought the Blue Snowflake years ago, it would always record a terrible white noise, like there was some kind of electronic interference.

Calin Leafshade

Pretty much any USB condenser mic will be fine. The Blue range mentioned are great for the price but if you want cheaper then the Behringer or Samson USB ranges are also fine.

Good voice recordings rely on basically 3 things:

Good talent,
Low noise floor,
Low reflection environment.

The microphone is a distant 4th on that list.

Don't get an Omni mic. You will never get good results from it because it'll pick up too many reflections and it will be hard to isolate any noise leaking from the environment. Get a good cardiod mic like the Blue Yeti or one of the others I mentioned.

If you find that your recordings sound a bit "baggy" and dont sound clear then you have 2 options.

1) Stand closer to the microphone. The closer you are to the mic the clearer the recording because your voice is much more present compared to reflections off the wall and so forth.
2) Isolate the actor. The best and cheapest way to do this is to do the recording in a room with lots of absorbant material. So big curtains, sofas and so on. It's also good to hang a duvet or something *behind* the speaker to catch the most problematic reflections off the wall facing the microphone. The human voice doesnt go very low so catching vocal reflections is really easy compared to instruments.

portableTaco

What do you consider expensive to be? I just ask because I have an MXL 4000 which I consider to be the most inexpensive mic I've kept in my collection as vocal mic's go, and it's $400, though it can rise or fall depending on your preamp and how you handle the high EQ.  A Snowball from Blue is a pretty cheap mic, about $100 and it's okay depending on what you expect to get out of it...so it all depends on what sort of vocal takes you're hoping to achieve.  Like Calin said the equipment is only half of the equation, a nice quiet, treated room is also very helpful to get good recordings.

You'd probably want a cardoid pattern instead of omni, but a mic like the MXL 4000 for example, can do cardoid, omni, or figure-8.

.rhavin

#9
It really depends on what you wanna do with it and where you wanna do it. Omni directional is almost useless unless you wanna record ambiece noise. if you have the luxus of just speaking straigt into the mic without the need to move (you dont have an instrument in your hand for example)), just get a hypercardioid, because it has the best ambience rejection. But the sound will change as soon as you change direction and distance. Supercardiods and cardioids are (in that order) more forgiving but have (also in that order) a higher ambient recording.

You might also consider getting one of those:
http://www.thomann.de/de/the_tbone_micscreen.htm

Usually, you dont wanna record ambience, because when doing voice acting for games, you want to produce text that will fit in the ingame ambience and might be received by the player with headphones. Voicings with ambience (room reflections, computer-noise, etc.) sound like you open a window, hear someone say something and then close the window again, but usually you want it sound like someone is saing something in the place where you currently are, so you need to get rid of ambience.

Of course, it all depends on the level of professionality you want to archive. Im my studio, i have a Audix VX-10, a Sennheiser 945 and 935 and a large diaphragm and i record with a rme fireface 800. But that doesnt mean that you *have* to spent 3k like me for mics, because it also depends on your experience with recording. If you know what you do, you can get decent results with budget microphones.

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