Microphone for Both Voice over & Speech Recognition – from a Newbie

R

Robert42

New member
Hello

I am hoping someone can help me who has had this experience. My use of a microphone is for speech recognition with Dragon NaturallySpeaking & some video voice-over. This is two areas that never seemed to meet. Currently I am using a headset microphone, the Audio-Technica Pro8HE which is a dynamic microphone primarily designed for stage use. This along with the Sennheiser ME3 seem to be the only microphones that I can find any discussion on it using for both stage & speech recognition.

What I am looking for is a desk level microphone that I can use for both purposes. So far the Røde Podcaster is looking very attractive. But how it would that form for speech recognition I have not been able to find out. Røde does make a brief mention that it could be used for this purpose.

When we are looking for microphones that are "designed" for speech recognition most of them seem to be very expensive or very cheap and often quite flimsy in appearance. When the above two microphones that I have mentioned, the Sennheiser & Audio Technica when sold by companies dealing with speech recognition they certainly up the price. The only problem comes with the physical interface, where some adapter is needed.

From the microphone itself it needs to deal with my rather boomy voice. The Audio-Technica Pro 8HE that I'm currently using is fed into a Buddy 7 USB soundcard designed for speech recognition. If I record directly from this microphone my voice seems to be quite heavily filtered. It lacks warmth and to me almost sounds like a telephone recording. But DNS seems to handle this quite well. If I use the Røde Podcaster author that matter any other recommended microphone for this purpose would I encounter problems with speech recognition? My own thoughts is that is a microphone produces very accurate results then it should be no problem to speech recognition but then my ears are not the same as the computer that has to deal with this.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has had similar experience.

Robert…
 
Robert42 said:
This is way outside my budget & you've given me no reason why you recommend this particular microphone. My budget is £150 (USD 255), just for the microphone not counting stand etc.
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You did not say your budget in the original question, so people would recommend what they thought best and ignore price.

However, what you want to do is unlikely to work very well.

For Dragon Naturally Speaking a headset mic. is really the best option.

A few years ago I spent ages with Nikolai Tolstoy trying to get a desk mic. to work and trying quite a few different options.

Dragon works best when the mic. capsule is at a steady distance from the mouth so it can learn your voice and does not have to also try and learn all the very many variables caused by a variable speaking distance and various changes from an off-axis response and head turning. With a headset, you get a fixed and unchanging mic. to mouth configuration and Dragon works well and reliably with that combination.

So, I would keep your existing headmic. for Dragon and get a different mic. for your podcasts.

The Shure recommended earlier is, indeed, an excellent mic. for what you want to do; but if it is way above budget I think I would look at a reporter mic. designed for speech, like the Sennheiser MD46 for example.
 
John Willett said:
You did not say your budget in the original question, so people would recommend what they thought best and ignore price.

However, what you want to do is unlikely to work very well.

For Dragon Naturally Speaking a headset mic. is really the best option.

A few years ago I spent ages with Nikolai Tolstoy trying to get a desk mic. to work and trying quite a few different options.

Dragon works best when the mic. capsule is at a steady distance from the mouth so it can learn your voice and does not have to also try and learn all the very many variables caused by a variable speaking distance and various changes from an off-axis response and head turning. With a headset, you get a fixed and unchanging mic. to mouth configuration and Dragon works well and reliably with that combination.

So, I would keep your existing headmic. for Dragon and get a different mic. for your podcasts.

The Shure recommended earlier is, indeed, an excellent mic. for what you want to do; but if it is way above budget I think I would look at a reporter mic. designed for speech, like the Sennheiser MD46 for example.
Click to expand...
Thank you John very much indeed for taking the time to write to me I have been looking at the Sennheiser MD–46 online and it does seem to be a very nice microphone and is much more in my budget. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is come a long way from those early days and as well as a headset they do have approved tabletop and handheld microphones. But I doubt very much that these would be suitable for podcasting work. I also use of Philips Voice Tracer 600 which to my ears sounds a bit scratchy but DNS resolves this extremely well.

But as you said if all else fails I still have my headset.

Robert…
 
Robert42 said:
Thank you John very much indeed for taking the time to write to me I have been looking at the Sennheiser MD–46 online and it does seem to be a very nice microphone and is much more in my budget. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is come a long way from those early days and as well as a headset they do have approved tabletop and handheld microphones. But I doubt very much that these would be suitable for podcasting work. I also use of Philips Voice Tracer 600 which to my ears sounds a bit scratchy but DNS resolves this extremely well.

But as you said if all else fails I still have my headset.

Robert…
Click to expand...

Good - personally I would concentrate on getting the best mic. in your budget for podcasting and if it also works for Dragon, that is a bonus - and if it doesn't, you still have the headset.

That's the best way to spend your money.
 
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