voiceover recordings and equipment?

[billhdz]

Hello fellow Flashers!

This one is for the Pro's.

Can you help me? OR Do you know someone that can?

I am looking for a good affordable COMPUTER Microphone
to do voiceover recordings to use with my FLASH animations.

Do I need a mixer?

What microphones do you use and/or recommend
for this purpose?

I have a Macintosh G3 Computer with USB, Firewire, and a
regular computer mic input.

Thank You!

Bill H.
whernan@optonline.net

[sidrao]

here's a tip - there are hundreds of models to choose from (shure makes some very good mics), but you cant beat the quality of recording at a studio. if its for a professional application, then you would benefit from hiring a studio for a day to get the job done.

but my suggestion is to use any microphone thats reasonably decent. make sure to cut off all ambient noise (air conditioners and the like) before you start.

use a sound editing program like cool edit to clean up the sound (noise reduction, normalising the volume, etc) and at the end of this u should have fairly professional results. besides, once u compress the files for flash, the end results would sound pretty similar.

sid

[scaaven]

Hi. I dabble a bit in this area. I find that a really good affordable microphone is the Shure SM-57, or SM-58. Shure SM-57s and 58s are almost always part of ANY professional studio. These microphones don't amplify themselves like some computer mics, so you'll need some sort of amplifier, or some sound cards have a mini-amplifier built in. I have an Aardvark Direct Pro device for my computer. What that is, is 4 mic/direct lines in, and a max recording quality of 24bits/96Khz which is REALLY good. Cd audio is 16bits/44.1Khz to give you an idea.

I'm just throwing ideas at you. I think audio recording at home has grown so much these past years not only in quality, but reasonable pricing. So there you go

[coopster]

I have just finished a project that involved quite a few voiceover segments. I do not have equipment to record them, but our local school does. The recordings turned out wonderful, crisp and clear. And they even put them in a .wav format for me. (How swell is that?) Purhaps you could contact the band director and arrange something at a school in your area.

[billhdz]

Originally posted by coopster
I have just finished a project that involved quite a few voiceover segments. I do not have equipment to record them, but our local school does. The recordings turned out wonderful, crisp and clear. And they even put them in a .wav format for me. (How swell is that?) Purhaps you could contact the band director and arrange something at a school in your area.

Great Idea. Thank you. I'll keep that in mind.
But I enjoy working at the house and doing my
voice overs on my computer. The MAC G3 computer
comes with a microphone, but the quality is not
that good.

What type of equipment did they have?

Thanks!

[billhdz]

Originally posted by scaaven
Hi. I dabble a bit in this area. I find that a really good affordable microphone is the Shure SM-57, or SM-58. Shure SM-57s and 58s are almost always part of ANY professional studio. These microphones don't amplify themselves like some computer mics, so you'll need some sort of amplifier, or some sound cards have a mini-amplifier built in. I have an Aardvark Direct Pro device for my computer. What that is, is 4 mic/direct lines in, and a max recording quality of 24bits/96Khz which is REALLY good. Cd audio is 16bits/44.1Khz to give you an idea.

I'm just throwing ideas at you. I think audio recording at home has grown so much these past years not only in quality, but reasonable pricing. So there you go

Thanks scaaven!!!

I heard that the "SHURE BETA 57A" is a great mic.
Have you used one of these?

Do you use a Mixer board, or do you mix with your software?

Are you on a PC or MAC computer?

Bill

[scaaven]

I use Cool Edit Pro to mix my stuff. When the input sound to the computer is so good, I think it is MUCH better to edit it IN the computer. Otherwise, you're going to be spending WAY too much on a digital mixer, which will give you the same, if not worse, results. You shouldn't use analog mixers either because on the D/A A/D conversions, quality is lost. Go with computer mixing software.

Also, Cool Edit Pro lets you have up to 99 tracks which gives you amazing freedom. having a seperate box doing all that stuff costs alot of money.

Never tried the BETA 57a. I don't think I've seen that one yet.

[billhdz]

Originally posted by scaaven
Hi. I dabble a bit in this area. I find that a really good affordable microphone is the Shure SM-57, or SM-58. Shure SM-57s and 58s are almost always part of ANY professional studio. These microphones don't amplify themselves like some computer mics, so you'll need some sort of amplifier, or some sound cards have a mini-amplifier built in. I have an Aardvark Direct Pro device for my computer. What that is, is 4 mic/direct lines in, and a max recording quality of 24bits/96Khz which is REALLY good. Cd audio is 16bits/44.1Khz to give you an idea.

I'm just throwing ideas at you. I think audio recording at home has grown so much these past years not only in quality, but reasonable pricing. So there you go

Would you mind looking at this product and let me know what you think?

Please go to:
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/macintosh/

Is this card similar to yours?

Thank you!

Bill H.

[scaaven]

Hey. That sound card looks pretty good. My primary sound card is a Sound Blaster Live. I use that sound card for games and music playback on my computer. I use the Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 for recording because I wasn't satisfied with the options for recording with the Sound Blaster. But that's only because I'm sort of a perfectionist and I required multiple inputs. The specs on the sound blaster that you sent me should be adequate for recording for flash and stuff like that (because it'll lower the quality a bit during mp3 encoding). I got the Aardvark because the reviews for it are phenomenal, and I mainly use it for music recording, which requires a high deal of quality and clarity.

I guess if you want my advice, if you aren't an audiophile and you can handle sound that isn't perfect, but has good quality, then go for the Soundblaster. Also, if you require only one input at a time, then go soundblaster. But if you want really good sound, go for one of the higher end recording cards. Just look for any card with a maximum depth of 24-bit 96hhz or higher, and you can be sure the sound will be great. Find cards with that recording rate that have the amount of inputs you need.

Also, I got the Aardvark because I REQUIRED multiple inputs. Like whenever I would record my band live, I could set up multiple mics and record them all at once. Or doing acoustic guitar I would use multiple mics to catch the acoustics of the room. Just stuff like that. But if voice recording is your primary task, 1 or 2 inputs should be fine.