Sound equipment for videos

Check out Mike Stewart's offerings at InternetAudioGuy.com. Mike is a good guy and offers packages in several price ranges.

Thanks for the info guys!

Altitude has good advice for you. I use the Samson USB mic and it has a really nice warm sound. I do have my suspicions that the USB version creates more hiss than the standard analog version.

I'm NOT a sound engineer, so I defer to Dave/Altitude, but better editing software (e.g. Sonar or ProTools) and recording at a relatively high bitrate (128 kbps) may also make a big difference on your sound quality.

The quickest easiest way to improve your audio quality is:

1. Never plug a mic into your computers sound card. Always use a usb microphone headset or external usb audio card or usb preamp with pro xlr mic.

2. Use an external usb analog to digital audio converter. A good basic one is called the iMic it runs $40 and you can plug any mic with a mini jack into it.

3. If you are using a cheap mic or a headset mic don't position it right in front of your mouth. Position it just above your mouth out of the air stream to reduce pops. Don't breath heavy into the mic and if you just ran a mile catch your breath before recording.

If you just do those things you will greatly improve the quality of your recordings without having to break the bank or reinvent the wheel.

I recorded this presentation in my hotel room, on my laptop, with a $10 mic and a $20 usb external analog to digital audio converter (external usb sound card) as an example for a seminar I was flown out to speak at in Australia:

Luxury Homes For Sale Australia

All I did was use the tips I listed above.

If you want to step it up a notch what I use in my office when I do screen recordings is:

MXL Mic Mate xlr to usb and a Audio Technica AT3035 condenser mic

I recommend you check out the BLUE Snowball usb condensor mic.

Blue Microphones: Products: Snowball

It's around a hundred bucks. BLUE makes VERY high-end multi-thousand dollar mics so this thing represents a "huh?" to most audio pros.

It's also multi-pattern, which means you can adjust the field of sound the microphone picks up to minimize background noise (hypercardioid), catch a wider audio field (cardioid) or very wide field surrounding the mic (omnidirectional).

One caveat, if you're running Vista, you may have trouble with USB audio compatibility but that's not specific to this mic as much as to Vista and frankly that may not even be a problem any more (I run Macs and Win XP).

Everyone advice in this thread has been excellent, IME. You have a wealth of choices and can create very good sounding audio for a relatively small amount of $$$.

Personally, I use an AKG C414 and MOTU audio gear but I record music.
VO stuff is significant step down in the complexity department (only one or two channels of audio instead of 32) but the fundamental rules of good audio always apply. It starts with the source > mic > mic pre > signal processing > analog to digital conversion.

The Snowball covers that whole chain for a C note. Sweet.

Brian

Frankly if you are going to be looking at the fancier mics you might be better off getting an xlr to usb preamp connector that can work with any xlr mic.

I have two models from different companies:

The MXL Mic Mate™ USB Adapter

CEntrance, Inc. / Products / MicPort Pro

The mic mate is a lower cost simple to use plug and play device which you can pick up for $49-$79. I got mine at the local Guitar Center pro audio shop for $49

The Mic port pro is more spendy... almost twice the cost. but has the advantage of headphone input and mic and headphone volume control. its also slightly more compact. I received mine from the company as a review product.

By using these you will be able to replace, switch, or upgrade your mic at any time.

On the Blue Snowball mics... there were some really bad reviews of the first versions.

You probably are far safer going with a usb to xlr preamp and getting a solid trusted condenser mic than going with a combo that could be prone to technical problems or breakage.

Also you can take a look at m-audio or edirol xlr to usb single and dual channel preamps. Both companies have offerings in the $130-$200 range.

I created a little demo to show off some video technology but in it as an example I show my mic and xlr to usb setup that I use for screen capture:

xlr to usb setup

I have both the Samson C03U and the Audio Technica 2020. The Audio Technica 2020 gives you much better quality than the Samson.

I personally use the Samson C01U USB condenser mic. It cost me $89 Canadian and it works extremely well... Most computers will recognize it as soon as you plug in the USB connection.

Mike Hill

As Janet mentions, I've found the Audio Technica mics to be superior in sound quality.

The AT2020 USB is a great value!