Sound advice?

[dionysus1999]

I want to record myself reading for Librivox.  I discovered after a little experimentation that the microphones that just plug into the front of the computer with the standard (1/8?) jack are for crap.  I suspect, from the research I've done, it's the sound card, though I don't think the microphones I have are quality, either. 

From a bit of research, I found that a USB microphone/headset has its own built in soundcard, and will produce much better recordings.    According to readers from Librivox, the USB headsets that are designed for gamers usually have decent microphones. 

I have a few audiophile friends on my list, anyone have something that's just gathering dust I could take off your hands?     I'm willing to pay a fair price for used equipment.  

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_earthshine_/]

I don't know how high of quality you're looking to go for here, but if you want to get into it now and then have the option of making upgrades, i suggest modularizing into a separate mic and preamp. So this means a standard audio microphone (which will have a male XLR connector for use with a real mic cable), and then some device to serve as a preamp.

If you go this route, the world of microphones is open to you. If you want to save some money at first, you could start with something as simple as a Shure SM-58 or even similar knock-off. They're used more for live vocals for music, but for the price, they're pretty good even for spoken word. You may even shop around and find something a little better for spoken word in that price range, but i'm not familiar with any myself. What's nice is that whenever you're ready to invest more (a few hundred bucks up to a thou or more), you can upgrade to a large-diaphram condenser mic, which is what you ideally want for this job. I believe AKG makes some very nice quality vocal mics for reasonable prices that will work wonderfully for clear, crisp voiceovers.

For the pre-amp, you can use a lot of things -- a small mixing board, a dedicated mic pre, or even some stereo systems will work. Basically all you need here is a powered device built to take a mic input (XLR) and output a line-level signal. The output will likely be in the form of pin (also called "RCA") connections, but there are very simple converters to get you from there to 1/8" stereo. Alternately you could get really hardcore and get a unit to do both pre-amplification and A/D for you, but this is overkill at this point, unless you anticipate wanting to get into higher-end or multitrack music recording soon.

Now, granted, i'm coming at this from the pro audio side. I'm entirely unfamiliar with what's out there in the computer world -- USB and other direct-to-computer mics. All the software-based audio i've done did the conversion from A/D downstream of pre-amplification, be it with a dedicated offboard A/D or via the computer's internal jack. There may be some options there that are less involved, but i can't speak to those.

So, yeah... my $.02½, fwiw. :) If you do decide to approach this from the audio side and have any questions, feel free to ping me.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I think that set up you have described is out of my price range, but it increases my knowledge of all those "black boxes" audio techs are always fiddling with.

Even this: http://www.zzounds.com/item--SAMC01U

is out of my price range, unless I can find one used. It's apparently considered a good microphone for podcasting, which is essentially what I will be doing.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_earthshine_/]

Wow... a USB condenser microphone. I guess the merging of audio into IT doesn't stop at recording. Wild.

I was hoping to find you something more like this little mixer, except with an XLR input or two (didn't see one in a quick search, but i believe they're out there for not too much more). Then you could start with a cheap mic (that one includes an XLR-to-1/4"-mono cable, even) and upgrade later if you wish.

That said, tho, the USB mic you linked to above makes it clear that there are some pretty advanced all-in-one packages out there for exactly your application. While i generally try to modularize when i can for better upgradability, i can't imagine you going too wrong if you find a USB solution you like for something like $100. That's not too huge an investment to walk away from if you decide down the road that you want to move on to something more professional... especially if you can get a few bucks for it used or keep it as a backup.

Good luck!

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, and I even have a microphone with the standard 1/4" jack. We inherited it, along with a Crate Amp from a guy who moved out of the country. Looks like the output is stereo RCA for the mixer, so I'd still end up running the recording into the computer through the sound card. I found a good website regarding computer recording:

http://www.pcmus.com/AudioTips.htm

I'm just dipping my toes in the recording universe, it's fascinating, if quite complicated.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_earthshine_/]

Definitely... and getting worse now that computers are involved. :) I, conversely, am always just barely exposed to what's out there in the computing world; i traditionally live a good 5+ years behind the state of the art in that regard, so things like these USB mics are news to me.

Re your sound card: unless you have documented reason to believe that your sound card's A/D is absolutely atrocious, i'd be inclined to believe that the limiting factor is your microphone, and/or perhaps the settings you're using to record. Granted, as above, i'm kind of out of the loop these days, but i have yet to see a computer soundcard that can't record decent CD-resolution (16-bit, 44kHz, stereo) audio when levels are set correctly, especially for voiceover purposes. That aside, you said you've done some research, so maybe your findings say otherwise, but it's counter-intuitive to me. It would especially seem surprising that a manufacturer would put a better quality ADC into a complete microphone in your price range than the one that would be included in a standard soundcard. ...but again, i'm out of the loop; it may well be that sound card ADCs are complete crap as a general rule these days. *shrug*

What's most critical is that you've got your hardware (whatever it is) sampling properly -- that the audio levels going into the input jack are complete (i.e., don't plug a mono plug into a stereo jack), hot enough to give good strong levels to the A/D (peaks as close to max as possible are best) but not so hot as to clip (never touching the max). After that, you need a mic that can do a reasonable job of capturing your voice, and to make sure that nothing is clipping anywhere (not the mic being too close to the source, nor any upstream electronics being pushed past their limit).

As a note, it occurs to me that you could do a pretty good test of where your weak link is by plugging some other sources into your computer's input. If you have an iPod, walkman, stereo w/ headphone jack, etc. and a cheap cable and adapter or two, you can send a clean, properly-leveled audio signal into your system and see what you get. Sending a nice line level into your system, checking the meters/levels, and recording something might be a great way to get familiar with the setup, as well as find out if your sound card is really the problem. If you can set the levels right and get great audio, you'll know it's your mic.


Sorry if any or all of this is redundant with what you've already figured out. As i re-read your post i notice that you were really just looking for a decent USB mic. I just wanted to see if i could help and, admittedly, i always get caught up in talking audio. :)

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I did try a couple test recordings with two different mics. Too quiet was the main problem, they need amplification. From what I learned reading on Librivox and other online sources, they do indicate that most standard sound cards in computers don't have what takes to get a decent recording.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_earthshine_/]

Too quiet was the main problem, they need amplification.

Ah, yes, then that makes sense. Plugging even a decent dynamic mic into a line input (even on a computer, where the line in often doubles as a mic in) doesn't work too well. Having upstream pre-amp of some kind (standalone pre-amp, mixer, etc.) would solve that part of the problem.

... most standard sound cards in computers don't have what takes to get a decent recording.

Wow... that's a bummer. Maybe they've really dropped in quality in the last few years? I've got a MacBook that's only 1-2 years old, and my line input works fine, even for music, when i've got a good signal inbound. Are you on a PC? Maybe they cut back on the PCs because they figure most people will upgrade their hardware for specific applications? Wild.

Well again, good luck, and if you decide you want to experiment with anything on the audio side, feel free to ping me if you think i can help.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I suspect that one of the things you get for the premium price of a Mac is a quality sound card. My PC is definitely in the budget category, even though they advertised it as a multimedia machine.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_earthshine_/]

Hrm... you may be right about that. Mac walked away from the hardcore all-in-one AV machines back in the mid-/late-90s, but i wouldn't be surprised if they recognized that their market still preferred strong capability in that department even in the off-the-shelf machines.