Microphone for distant voice

Miawrr

New member
Hi, i'm a little lost about microphones,
i'm searching a new microphone for recording my voice, but the microphone will be 1 meter away from me, i thought about a supercardioid shotgun microphone, the kind of microphone used on camera.
But i have a feeling it's a little bit overkill just for static voice recording. Is there any alternative microphone for this use? Am i missing something ? (btw i have a budget around 100€).

thank you for your time :)

EDIT:
Why does the mic need to be 1 meter away (what are you doing)?

In fact it's more between 0.5 and 1 meter and yes it's for video and comfort.

mixsit said:
'Out side, inside, do you control the environment- therefor the variables..?
Maybe headworn mic and visual and sound quality don't matter.

It's inside, i control the environment (some background white noise is not a problem, if it's not too loud)
The visual don't matter, the sound quality does (it's only for voice) and like i said the mic must be distant from me.

Also, i will cut sound under a certain number of decibel.
And i have a sound card with XLR (+ 48v)
 
Last edited:
The results will depend hugely on the situation, and how much and how well you can control he following;
1 The level of background noise vs how loud 'the voice' is -at the mic- And/or decreasing the distance to the mic is another way to get to the same place.
2 Having sound deadening panels or treatment to a) reduce the unwanted noise in the room competing with the voice, or b) blocking it from getting to the mic
3 Highly directional mics -But #1 and 2 are more important.
Short of full out shotgun mics, look to any decent hyper cardioid mic.
You might want something flatter (you didn't give enough info), but a used OM5 for example.
http://www.audixusa.com/docs_12/specs_pdf/OM5_V3_0516.pdf
That's about as tight as you can find.
 
Why does the mic need to be 1 meter away (what are you doing)? Or does it just need to be out of view if the audio is for a video?
 
Why does the mic need to be 1 meter away (what are you doing)? Or does it just need to be out of view if the audio is for a video?

Yeah. Stuff like that. 'Out side, inside, do you control the environment- therefor the variables..?
Maybe headworn mic and visual and sound quality don't matter.
 
It's all about wanted to unwanted sound. A metre away is fine, if the room is big, the room is quiet and immediately behind you is not something reflective or noisy. The trouble comes in that the polar pattern of the microphone, no matter how narrow, always picks up other stuff too - people in the background, a drummer, or just reflections from the rear wall. Only you will know if your circumstances mean it's going to work. If you need to do this in an open field, with no wind, no natural or man made noises at all - so silence pretty much, then 1m away will sound pretty natural. Try it in a night club with a sound system and loads of people all shouting, then it will fail badly.

Remember that before the age of radio mics in TV studios world wide, mics were on booms, and rarely were they any tighter than a hyper-cardioid - but with accurate aiming and careful control were fine at a metre or even more away.
 
Why does the mic need to be 1 meter away (what are you doing)?

In fact it's more between 0.5 and 1 meter and yes it's for video and comfort.

mixsit said:
'Out side, inside, do you control the environment- therefor the variables..?
Maybe headworn mic and visual and sound quality don't matter.

It's inside, i control the environment (some background white noise is not a problem, if it's not too loud)
The visual don't matter, the sound quality does (it's only for voice) and like i said the mic must be distant from me.

Also, i will cut sound under a certain number of decibel.
 
In fact it's more between 0.5 and 1 meter and yes it's for video and comfort.



It's inside, i control the environment (some background white noise is not a problem, if it's not too loud)
The visual don't matter, the sound quality does (it's only for voice) and like i said the mic must be distant from me.

Also, i will cut sound under a certain number of decibel.
Very good, and totally doable. Looks like you're good to go then.

add.. BTW, control #1 and #2, you don't have to be restricted to specialty (super narrow) mics.
 
Before suggestions for the mic.........

What will you be connecting the mic into? Direct into computer (3,5mm mic jack), mixer with XLR connectors & phantom power, or USB interface?
 
I bought a used AT875r a while back for sort of a particular purpose. It might work for what you want to do. If mounted to a boom, it could be just overhead and out of view in a video. It has fairly good side and rear rejection to sound. It does not come with a shockmount, so I did buy an inexpensive one from Amazon. Below is a link to a Youtube vid demoing it......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vrm6NbrCN8
 
Oh i heard of it, he look good.
Is there different kind of phantom power? Is there a risk that this microphone isn't compatible with my sound card phantom power or it's all the same?
 
Oh i heard of it, he look good.
Is there different kind of phantom power? Is there a risk that this microphone isn't compatible with my sound card phantom power or it's all the same?

Your soundcard has an XLR and +48v, so it would work fine.
 
Back
Top