My First Setup - Opinions Requested

[celiakyle]

So, I'm setting up to record spoken word vocals in my home and my first purchase was a Samson G-Track usb mic and now I'm rethinking that buy and have a couple of questions...

1) Will a condenser mic & audio interface really sound that much better than my Samson?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/880256/outofthebox.wav

2) If so, can you weigh in on the following?

Mic
Rode NT1A
Rode NT1000

Any others? I read that the above are good for female vocals, not sure how that translates to spoken word. The SM7B and EV RE20 are out of my range atm and I'm not even sure I project enough for the SM7B...

Audio Interface
M-Audio Fast Track
Presonus Audiobox

Any others? For the A/I, I'll NEVER need more than one XLR port, so I'm looking for a decent A/I without extras I won't need.

 

[Shadow_7]

An audio interface plus any mic would likely yield comparable / better results. As far as interfaces, you might be better off with a stereo interface. A little more common and some of the mono interfaces can be a bit too low end. Plus if you want to / need to sell it later, one more selling point. Some of that low low end stuff you can't even give away most of the time.

 

[celiakyle]

Any particular interface you can recommend?

 

[Shadow_7]

M-Audio mobile pre is my USB interface. But it pales in comparison with my Korg MR-1000 field recorder. You could probably do better with a Zoom H2 / H4 / H4n IMO. And lots of options depending on your budget.

 

[Shadow_7]

As far as the sample, I didn't find anything particularly hideous about it. I'm not sure if you had the A/C running, or a high noise floor. But other than that you could make do with what you have. Various noise filters can take part of that noise floor out of there. And other relatively cheap ways to make due. If it is the A/C, you could do for some room treatment. Or just turn it off while recording. A dynamic mic might help isolate the environment. And other means to an end... Like a louder source, or just getting ultra close to said source. Lots of options.