Need a few microphones for a very different purpose

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jgric2

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Ok hey guys!

I am a complete newbie when it comes to anything to do with audio devices so bear with me here :)

I am a computer programmer who has been developing a application AI that is run on a server PC in my house, and basically it is an AI like JARVIS off the iron man films, the coding of it is almost completely done which i am very happy about!, but now i need to place microphones throughout the house. I am thinking of using a single microphone input jack on the server pc using some kind of microphone splitter to hook multiple mic's into the same input jack as it would be easier to implement in the long run :), im just not sure if that is completely possible however :/

also i am thinking of purchasing 4 microphones, one for my room, one for the family room/kitchen, one for the lounge room and one more for the other bedroom.

the microphones don't have to be anything special just good enough to pick up mediocre sound quality from someone speaking anywhere in that room.

so those are my 2 questions i guess, 1. can i hook multiple microphones though a splitter into one input jack. and 2. what is a cheap microphone i should purchase that could do this job for me.

Thank you everyone and if you need further info just name it :)

- James
 
jgric2 said:
Ok hey guys!

I am a complete newbie when it comes to anything to do with audio devices so bear with me here :)

I am a computer programmer who has been developing a application AI that is run on a server PC in my house, and basically it is an AI like JARVIS off the iron man films, the coding of it is almost completely done which i am very happy about!, but now i need to place microphones throughout the house. I am thinking of using a single microphone input jack on the server pc using some kind of microphone splitter to hook multiple mic's into the same input jack as it would be easier to implement in the long run :), im just not sure if that is completely possible however :/

also i am thinking of purchasing 4 microphones, one for my room, one for the family room/kitchen, one for the lounge room and one more for the other bedroom.

the microphones don't have to be anything special just good enough to pick up mediocre sound quality from someone speaking anywhere in that room.

so those are my 2 questions i guess, 1. can i hook multiple microphones though a splitter into one input jack. and 2. what is a cheap microphone i should purchase that could do this job for me.

Thank you everyone and if you need further info just name it :)

- James
Click to expand...

Not sure what the intent here is as a single input won't give you and idea what room the voice is coming from. A multichannel interface would give you more options Channel 1, bedroom, channel two living room, etc.) seems that would be better. But. for a single input with multiple mics, I would suggest a mixer. That gives you the ability to get everything to individual levels and would be a lot better than splitters. Take you main outs to your computer. You can pick up a mixer that is just analog rather inexpensive ort maybe even used. I think that would be your best option second to multi inputs.
 
well i am very new when it comes to most of this so you may be right!

but i am currently using sox.sourceforge, to record speech for the application which then gets the recorded file sends it to the net and uses googles speech to text engine, and to my knowledge sox can only have one microphone input being the default set on the windows PC, so thats why i wanted them all comming through on the one microphone jack.

but another question i really need answered is a price i should expect to pay for a microphone from a local retailer to do this for me :)

thanks
- James
 
jgric2 said:
well i am very new when it comes to most of this so you may be right!

but i am currently using sox.sourceforge, to record speech for the application which then gets the recorded file sends it to the net and uses googles speech to text engine, and to my knowledge sox can only have one microphone input being the default set on the windows PC, so thats why i wanted them all comming through on the one microphone jack.

but another question i really need answered is a price i should expect to pay for a microphone from a local retailer to do this for me :)

thanks
- James
Click to expand...

I think on that one you will have to go do some experimenting. If you are trying to mic a whole room vs. up close, those would require different mics. Maybe a boom mic like for video cameras for whole room. These seem to be around $50, but you should probably check ebay or craigslist to get this used. That could keep your cost down.
 
allright i will check there :), and when i get home i will check some retailers :)

so boom mic you say?
 
jgric2 said:
allright i will check there :), and when i get home i will check some retailers :)

so boom mic you say?
Click to expand...

Just a suggestion for whole room micing. Others here might have a better idea as I would say the same type of mics used for overhead drums might work, but I would think for whole room micing at what would be a lower source volume (conversation level), the boom mics would probably get you there. You will probably encounter a lot of gain noise, so if you can find a program that could filter that out, your speech recognition would improve. You might want to look for a mixer that has a threshold setting to reduce gain and ambient noise.

I would assume to get the results you want, you have to get the voice pretty clear. A mixer with compression might do the trick. Another source to look into would be movie and film boards. I would think they run into this situation often.
 
DM60 said:
I think on that one you will have to go do some experimenting. If you are trying to mic a whole room vs. up close, those would require different mics. Maybe a boom mic like for video cameras for whole room. These seem to be around $50, but you should probably check ebay or craigslist to get this used. That could keep your cost down.
Click to expand...

Hold up, unless I'm mistaken, those boom mics are usually super dooper directional!

Jgric, will people be walking over and talking into these mics, or are the mics expected to just pick up all/any speech in the room?
 
hmmm, i might upload a sample of what my headset currently records and what the recognition program is currently capable of understanding :), its pretty low quality and the thing seems to figure it all out pretty easily :)
as you can see i said, jarvis can you hear me, and it was very crackily/low quality yet the online speech to text engine still translated it perfectly :)

mediafire.com/?9kw6sor7uchtft7

sorry wouldnt let me upload it here
 
and @Steenamaroo

its meant to pic up all the speech in the room :), like in the iron man movies basically :)
 
Ok,
For combining the signals, I think you're gonna want a basic mixer with 4 mic inputs.

It sounds like the type of mic isn't really going to matter. If speech recognition is the goal and your software is getting by at the minute, I'd just find 4 of the cheapest dirtiest dynamic mics you can get.
Seriously - An ebay karaoke joblot or something.
Use the mixer to roll off extreme highs and bass.
 
You could place contact microphones on the windows of your house and with a little fudging and experimentation utilize the vibrating windows to act as an extension of the contact microphone.
 
Hmm in why does nobody here mention condenser microphones? Like those SDCs , believed that they were very sensitive and good for picking up background sound?
 
Just cost more than anything, although in fairness, I never asked for the OPs budget.
 
I would look into some cheap omnidirectional mics. If you get a mic with a directional polar pattern, like cardioid, sound will be rejected from some directions but not others, meaning certain parts of the room might sound quieter. That would complicate speech recognition (which is where I assume you are going with this).
 
yes speech rec is exactly what i need it for so i think a omni-directional is the way i need to go :), and my budget would probably be around a total of $400 - $500 for everything :/
 
General thought: you're probably going to do better asking people who do broadcast and general sound contracting type stuff, than recording people.

If you look around, there a low-priced products specifically made to combine multiple mics, e.g. the second item on the link below, which (sadly) combines only 3 mics, not 4, but (happily) costs a whopping $29.99

Broadcast Supply Worldwide |Equipment for Radio Broadcasting and Audio Recording | BSWUSA.com

As for mics, look at mics that are specifically marketed for conference room speech pickup, or possibly surveillance (on the surveillance: the type that's planted in a room, not carried with a big reflector to listen in on people 500 feet away). Most likely, it'll be a boundary mic or an omnidirectional small-diaphragm electret condenser. There's nothing inherently expensive about a SDCs: your typical cheap video camera has one built in that might not even cost a dollar. Conference room mics cover a wide range of prices. How much you need to pay depends, I think, on how good your software is at distinguishing voices from background noise and understanding low-fidelity speech. If its better than a human ear, you don't need a very good mic at all. If it's about the same (or worse), you may need to spend more. The cheapest boundary (PZM) mics seems to be around $30 each.
 
Found these overpriced mics and mixers on C/L in my area.
AT mixers and mics. I have seen them cheaper on the Bay....

Upgrading to wireless sound, a guy at work give me 4 of these little 4-channel AT341 mixers, and a couple of 8-channel BiAmp Advantage System Ones, to play with.
 
jgric2 said:
..as you can see i said, jarvis can you hear me, and it was very crackily/low quality yet the online speech to text engine still translated it perfectly :)

mediafire.com/?9kw6sor7uchtft7
Click to expand...
That snippit though is very close to a mic with lots of articulation. Yes there's the crackling' but it doesn't mask the voice. A mic in a room' is quite different. Might be limitations worth trying it first, different distances mic-to-person.
 
JG96 said:
K-Micro Silver Bullet Matched Pair :: Condenser Mics Trinity, Unity, Prophecy, K-10, K-micro, Silver Bullet :: Karma Mics - Dynamic mic - Condenser Microphone - Recording Microphone - San Jose, CA
Click to expand...

^^^This was gonna be my suggestion^^^ - omni directional, super small to hide away in the corner of a room or something, pretty sensitive. And as others have a said, a little mixer would make sense if the software can only detect one mic source. Although nothing fancy something like this would do the job; Behringer Xenyx 1202
 
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