Hot answers tagged microphone
16
The Fast Track Pro is an audio interface. It takes an analog signal and converts it to digital, and provides a way to connect to the computer. The USB microphone simply has a built-in interface.
It comes down to what you want. If you specifically don't want to always use the Fast Track Pro, then the USB mic might be a good option, although like you said, ...
15
When you listen to your own voice while you are speaking or singing, you are not only hearing what is being projected; you are also hearing the internal resonances of your skull and, arguably, your entire body. You are also NOT hearing a lot of the frequency attenuation that results from projecting your voice through your nasal cavities. So you think you ...
14
A lot of mikes do ship with windscreens (since they are quite inexpensive), the ones that don't often aren't for voice - you don't need a windscreen on a mike amplifying a guitar, for example.
Traditional foamy windscreens wear out too - the foam breaks down, they get full of gunk and quite nasty. A really dirty foamy can actually affect recording quality, ...
13
It depends. On a lot of things, but mostly on the particular microphone. Phantom power in general is not evil for almost all dynamic mics who don't need it, but if you for instance plug a ribbon mic in a phantom powered input without switching it off first, you might just destroy the microphone completely.
You will most likely find the answer inside the ...
12
Definition
Impedance is essentially a measure of how much a device resists, or impedes, the flow of alternating electrical current (AC). It is measured in ohms, the symbol for which is Ω.
Lower is Better
With microphones, a lower impedance is usually desirable. High-impedance microphones can cause a loss of high-frequency signal and are more prone to ...
10
Caution: Professional mics like SM58 etc are supposed to be connected to pre-amps, mixers etc. If you connect a SM58 to your computer's inbuilt mic slot you'll get only a very feeble sound.
If you are planning to upgrade from voice-chat style headset-mics, you should consider buying an audio interface too, (Try M-Audio mobile-pre or similar), or you could ...
10
I have no experience with those mics that you mentioned, but a common response to this question on other forums is a Shure SM-57. It is a simple dynamic cardioid mic that is very durable and seems to be useful in a wide variety of recording situations, but is particularly useful for recording snare drums and guitar cabinets due to its high tolerance for ...
9
There are a few major kinds of microphones:
Dynamic mics use an electromagnet attached to a diaphrahm. They're comparatively durable, so they generally can stand up to higher SPL. These are commonly used live, as well as for lound instruments like snare drums and guitar cabinets. A lot of really good ones are inexpensive as well (Shure SM57 and SM58, for ...
9
From your description it sounds like a microphone polar pattern switch, which governs whether the microphone should only pick up sounds coming directly from the front, or whether it should record sounds from all directions. Usually there will be a "cardioid" position, which suppresses sound from the back.
The MAudio Sputnik and Solaris microphones both ...
9
You have several options.
1. Remove the noise using an audio editor This can sometimes be effective but it depends on the type of noise. If you mainly interested in improving videos that you make in the future, it is better to solve the problem during recording.
2. Get a different camera This would (probably) solve the problem, but it is an expensive ...
7
A part from the classic SM-58, I've had joys with SM-57 and Beta 58. These are all similar, the Beta being the clearest of the lot. These are fine both live and in studio.
Another option is using cheap condenser microphones (I've used the AKG C1000 for instruments and AKG C3000 for voice) which are within your budget and decent for the price. These would be ...
7
I remember watching a Dave Weiner Riff of the week about recording acoustic guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ZMChcnKck
He goes through mic choice and placement for different sounds.
Placing the mic near the sound hole gives thick sound with lots of mids and lows, whereas a placement near the middle of the neck gives all highs.
Ideally you would ...
7
Almost any professional microphone will give you much better results than the built-in one that your laptop has. One issue is that you will not be able to connect a studio microphone directly into your PC (they typically have XLR connectors on them).
Here are two basic options you could choose between:
Buy a USB audio interface with microphone input and ...
7
On the microphone front, you will find that a lot of the better quality microphones have XLR connectors and many require phantom power. Because of this, you can't simply buy a good microphone and plug it straight into your computer without an good audio interface as well. However, for screencasting, where you generally require just one microphone, you can ...
7
Just add a compressor on your voice-over. Set the ratio to 2:1. Set a middle long release and a bit faster attack. (Or auto if you have it.) Then you lower the threshold until it gets better. Just play with the ratio and threshold until you get it right.
What the compressor does is that if the audio gets over the threshold in volume it will wait the number ...
7
A lot's been said about compression but nothing's been said about intelligibility. If you're producing VOs, trails, bumpers, idents or jingles with vocals over a bed, EQ is also your friend here. If you critically listen to professional productions, they often lowpass AND highpass music under speech in addition to heavily compressing and EQing the vocals. ...
7
If you use a new crappy cable, it's going to sound worse than a well-made and cared for high-quality cable that's 10 years old.
But by the same token, a well-used workhorse cable that's been cared for properly for 10 years might not sound as good as something studio-grade.
Age really has nothing to do with it. Quality, construction, and care are what ...
7
You have a few options:
1) You could waterproof an existing mic. Many do this by using a non-lubricated condom.
2) You could buy a hydraphone, but that might be more expensive than you'd like for an amateur project.
Both of these options (as well as building your own hydraphone) are described in more detail on this page at phonography.org
3) You may ...
7
The 3-pin XLR connector has two advantages over a 1/4" connector.
It provides balanced audio, which means that the cable is protected against electrical interferences from mobile phones or other devices. The longer the cable the more this can be an issue, if you don't use XLR cables.
A XLR cable can transport 48 V phantom power that some microphones need. ...
6
Cymbals
The regular way of micing cymbals on (R'nR) drumsets is by using OverHeads (OH)
Usually a set of 2 comdensator microphones.
It depends on how many cymbals and their placement, how you best place the mics.
The exact placement is highly a matter of engineer preference I think: I'll describe what I do.
With a standard R'nR kit, I usually place the ...
6
Please, please, please get a mic with an XLR over a USB connection unless you are just cranking out podcasts. If you are recording songs, you will eventually want to introduce a nice preamp and maybe some analog eq and compression into your signal path. This will be impossible of the A/D is built into the mic.
6
The job of a foam screen is to attenuate the velocity of wind before it hits the microphone. If you don't reduce the wind, then the mic will be overdriven, and you will get a badly distorted signal. You can't just filter that out after the fact.
This is also why an analog compressor or a digital compressor with a lot of headroom is a good idea between your ...
5
The "cocktail party problem" is actually a famous example in signal processing, and there are several different Blind signal separation or Source separation algorithms to solve it in different conditions. Are you doing this for homework in such a class? I've got an example of one on my website, but this statistical method (ICA) wouldn't work well for you ...
5
The standard configuration is 2 mics, one pointed at the sound hole (but from an angle, not directly out from the sound hole) and one up on the neck around the 12th fret. The first mic will give you the tone of the guitar (mids and lows), and the 2nd one adds the highs as well as some strumming and fret noise.
As always, this is just a starting point. ...
5
USB was designed as a general purpose bus. Hence, there will always be some latency. The more devices you have connected to the bus, the more problems you will run into. I suppose the only purpose a USB large diaphragm mic would have is for one or two mics during a pod cast. I would never use such a mic in my studio.
That being said, if you plan on adding ...
5
I'm guessing that you have the Perception 220? the maximum input SPL is 135 with a whooping 0.5% THD (here) so it's probably going to struggle a bit. I do put condensers on the kick drum but usually a bit far out, building a tunnel if possible (extra kick, or even a thick duvet will do). The shure beta 91 was built for this purpose and exhibits 156dB SPL ...
5
Before you buy any microphones, you will have to consider how you will connect them into your laptop. It sounds like you don't have a separate sound card, and the microphone input on your laptop is likely to be poor quality.
There are several options. First you could get a microphone that has a built-in USB interface (eg the Samson C01U). This will be the ...
5
You'll get the best audio quality with a boom mic and a field recorder who knows how o use the equipment well. However, if quality is your primary concern and you don't have a skilled boom operator, you might consider looking into lavalier mics.
Lavalier mics would essentially do what you're considering doing with the bluetooth headsets. You clip one onto ...
5
I assume you're talking about what I would call a lowpass filter sweep: a lowpass (hi-cut) filter starts out cutting out most of the signal, and gradually raises the cutoff frequency until the whole signal is heard.
I assume you're using some kind of DAW software like Reaper or Pro Tools or something like that. Generally, what you'll do is insert a lowpass ...
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