for what it's worth

[robjh22]

I hate to report this, but I bought a $25 mike 3 years ago at radio shack that has a 1/8" plug. I and my kids use it to make cassettes on a little plastic, portable magnavox CD player/radio/cassette player.

I swear the audio (voice) is clearer on those cassette than it is on playback of my Fostex VF80 using an sm57 and an Akai (AC10 I think it's called.) I am sure there is a $200 condenser somewhere that sounds better on my Fostex than that cheapo
sounds on the magnavox, but I don't have one. Yet.

There's no justice.

 

[mixsit]

But on the other hand, 'clearer' often just means brighter, not necessarily cleaner.
Wayne

 

[SmattyG]

Well, chances are that the mic your kids are using is probably designed as a cheap vocal mic, and therefor would emphasise the frequencies that are most often assosiated with speach recognition. A boost in the mid-range would definitely make it sound 'clearer' per say, but does not necesserily mean the quality is better.... it also does not mean that it is musical sounding. Just that it can reproduce speach intelligably.

With a good condenser mic, you will absolutely, no questions asked, hear a nice difference not only in the clarity of the sound, but also the fullness and the quality. Then, I promise you will never use the RS mic again (unless maybe you are making a recording of yankee doodle or something like that )

 

[robjh22]

right

Thanks, guys -- To be fair to my more expensive non-RadioShack mikes, they do capture the sound of my Martin (ahem) pretty faithfully. I did not say but should have that the guitar sounds god-awful when recorded thru that cheap mike. Voice is clear, guitar is horrible. Isn't that interesting?

 

[Innovations]

Not really, unless you have a really high or low voice you can optimize the mic for a fairly narrow bandwidth and reduce its sensitivity until nasty details like lip smacking, nazal tones, sibillance, breath, etc are removed and then add peaks in response so that what the microphone records is more like how YOU hear your voice, which is different than how your voice actually sounds like to others. Of course all those things would make a guitar sound like crap.

 

[pdaniels]

That's what EQ is for

 

[robjh22]

pdaniels -- are you joking? I don't think EQ is going to bring life
to a recording made deficient because a bad mike never picked up the overtones etc. in the first place. Pardon me if you were being tongue in cheek.

 

[pdaniels]

I was being a smartass.

However, if you record your voice with a good, flatter sounding LDC (large diaphragm condenser) mic, then you already have all the details recorded, and it's up to you and your eq to bring the elements you want out of your recording to get the sound you want.

A simplistic way to look at mics is that they are all flat to begin with, and then the manufacturer changes their EQ signature to give them their own recognizable sound. They may acheive this by installing different capsules, or by including eq-type circuitry inside the mic. Also, don't forget that most mics have a built-in amp to raise their signal, and that will affect the eq of the mic's sound as well. And of course the quality of the parts makes a big difference in the sound.

The combination of the above makes your mike sound the way it does. If the manufacturer was smart, then they hopefully used a combination of parts that already stresses the frequencies that makes vocals sound good (anywhere from 3 khz up). If they weren't, or if they were trying to make a more all-purpose mic that would make everything sound good, then you will need to EQ to bring out the best in your voice.

But make sure you are starting out with a decent mic.