boukebuffel
New member
Hey all,
first off I won't bore you with the question 'what is the best mic', but there is a set of questions that I haven't found an answer for in any FAQ or guide.
What I want to accomplish:
- recording my voice for commentary/tutorials on YouTube. No instruments or anything, just voice recording.
- I want the viewer to feel like the sound is pleasant to listen to. In that regard I should probably mention that my voice isn't particularly high or low, just normal I think.
- 75% of the recording will be voice over, 25% will be me talking in front of the camera without the mic visible. So I would like a mic that can pick up sound from 3 feet away aswell if possible.
My situation:
- I live in an appartment with traffic passing by noticably. Nothing extreme, about 10-20 cars and scooters pass by each minute.
- I intend to soundproof my living room as much as possible, but it will never be 'quiet'. I also intend to accoustically treat the part of the room that I will record in. It is a rather large room, used to be 2 rooms but now it's a long room, measuring 4m x 10m (13ft x 33ft).
- I purchased a Focusrite Forte interface
My budget is not set in stone, but I was hoping to get something that is noticably more pleasant to listen to than entry level mics. I aim at 300ish euro's/dollars.
So let's assume I will do all I can to position the mic well, treat the room etc etc. What type of microphone would be best suited to record narration both near the microphone and 3 feet away?
What I've gathered so far is that a dynamic mic would be best to deal with background noise, but comes at the cost of a less clear reproduction of my voice. I also wonder how well it will do when I record from 3 feet away and have to crank up the gain. Some people recommend getting a more expensive high end dynamic microphone that is more sensitive, so that it almost sounds like a condenser microphone. Do you guys think that is the case? And would cranking up the gain in order to hear my voice from 3 feet away introduce the same traffic noise problems that a condenser mic would have?
The general recommendation for voice over/commentary seems to be to get a condenser microphone. Several people recommend getting a super- or hypercardioid pattern in order to reduce the traffic noise problem somewhat. Is this true? Can the traffic noise of a highly sensitive condenser microphone be removed in post production?
And: is this background noise problem even the most important issue I'm trying to fix, or are there more important things to consider when trying to get a pleasant quality sound output from voice recording?
To sum up, in my mind there are three options open to me and I wonder if I'm correct on this:
- A high end (400-500$) dynamic mic, assuming the frequency response of a 'normal' dynamic mic is not suitable for narration. And assuming traffic noise would become a problem again when recording 3 feet away.
- A decent super/hyper cardioid condenser mic at around 250-350$
- An entry level cardioid condenser mic at around 100-150$, in the assumption that it will pick up less background noise due to not being as sensitive as the more high end ones
I am very keen on hearing your opinions on any of this, as I am completely new to this as you could probably tell
first off I won't bore you with the question 'what is the best mic', but there is a set of questions that I haven't found an answer for in any FAQ or guide.
What I want to accomplish:
- recording my voice for commentary/tutorials on YouTube. No instruments or anything, just voice recording.
- I want the viewer to feel like the sound is pleasant to listen to. In that regard I should probably mention that my voice isn't particularly high or low, just normal I think.
- 75% of the recording will be voice over, 25% will be me talking in front of the camera without the mic visible. So I would like a mic that can pick up sound from 3 feet away aswell if possible.
My situation:
- I live in an appartment with traffic passing by noticably. Nothing extreme, about 10-20 cars and scooters pass by each minute.
- I intend to soundproof my living room as much as possible, but it will never be 'quiet'. I also intend to accoustically treat the part of the room that I will record in. It is a rather large room, used to be 2 rooms but now it's a long room, measuring 4m x 10m (13ft x 33ft).
- I purchased a Focusrite Forte interface
My budget is not set in stone, but I was hoping to get something that is noticably more pleasant to listen to than entry level mics. I aim at 300ish euro's/dollars.
So let's assume I will do all I can to position the mic well, treat the room etc etc. What type of microphone would be best suited to record narration both near the microphone and 3 feet away?
What I've gathered so far is that a dynamic mic would be best to deal with background noise, but comes at the cost of a less clear reproduction of my voice. I also wonder how well it will do when I record from 3 feet away and have to crank up the gain. Some people recommend getting a more expensive high end dynamic microphone that is more sensitive, so that it almost sounds like a condenser microphone. Do you guys think that is the case? And would cranking up the gain in order to hear my voice from 3 feet away introduce the same traffic noise problems that a condenser mic would have?
The general recommendation for voice over/commentary seems to be to get a condenser microphone. Several people recommend getting a super- or hypercardioid pattern in order to reduce the traffic noise problem somewhat. Is this true? Can the traffic noise of a highly sensitive condenser microphone be removed in post production?
And: is this background noise problem even the most important issue I'm trying to fix, or are there more important things to consider when trying to get a pleasant quality sound output from voice recording?
To sum up, in my mind there are three options open to me and I wonder if I'm correct on this:
- A high end (400-500$) dynamic mic, assuming the frequency response of a 'normal' dynamic mic is not suitable for narration. And assuming traffic noise would become a problem again when recording 3 feet away.
- A decent super/hyper cardioid condenser mic at around 250-350$
- An entry level cardioid condenser mic at around 100-150$, in the assumption that it will pick up less background noise due to not being as sensitive as the more high end ones
I am very keen on hearing your opinions on any of this, as I am completely new to this as you could probably tell