Media Music Blog

I have produced these microphone comparison tests to illustrate the difference in quality between various microphones types. If you have read my previous posts on this you will know that I recommend using a professional condenser mic for podcast and vocal recordings. Here you can hear why.

All tests have been recorded using audacity and a professional mic pre-amp. There has been no processing other than normalisation to increase the recorded signal.

The first test effectively shows the superior sensitivity of a condenser mic over a dynamic mic. With a decent condenser mic you should be able to capture two people in conversation using the one mic, This is not possible with a dynamic mic without introducing unacceptable amounts of hiss.

AKG C1000S - Condenser mic - close mic’d

Sennheiser - Dynamic mic - close mic’d

Not much difference, close mic’d however is a recording method prone to pops from plosives.

AKG C1000s - Condenser mic - at 6 inches from the source

Sennheiser - Dynamic mic - at 6 inches fron the source

Micing at about six inches is a much easier recording technique and introduces less popping problems due to plosives. (P’s & b’s)

For me, the condenser wins every time for voice-over work due to its increased clarity over the dynamic mic and its ability to record sound sources from a distance without introducing hiss. However, I will let you decide for yourself! You can hear from the test so far, both microphone types are usable depending on the microphone placement.

The final two microphones are probably the most common I hear on screencasts / podcasts and are the ones I least recommend.

Basic Multimedia PC mic

Packard Bell headset

Hopefully, this along with other posts on this subject gives you a good idea about the best microphone type to use on your podcasts and screencasts in order to get the most professional results.

Feel free to comment

Links where you can buy these microphones at really good prices on Amazon

Condenser mic - AKG C1000S

sennheiser dynamic microphone

Multi-media PC mic

Various PC headsets

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This short article contains the notes for a screencast - click here to view it.

The screencast and accompanied notes is aimed at beginners in digital audio.

Free Audio Editing Software

Professional audio recording is reliant on a number of factors. Generally speaking it comes down to the quality of the software / equipment and your sound engineering skills.

Audacity is freely available as open source software for audio recording and editing. As a professional sound engineer I would not use it to produce work for my clients, however, I think it is ideal for achieving good quality audio recording and production for the home / small business DIY podcaster / videocaster.

The software is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. There is also a plugin pack that is worth the download and the lame encoder for creating mp3 formats.

After installation

Installing the software was very quick and painless on my machine. Upon opening the program, it is very easy to use and has a nice simple layout. Clicking the record button in the transport bar at the top of the screen starts it recording instantly. Providing your microphone / soundcard is setup correctly you should have no problem getting many takes recorded.

Audio Recording / Editing

The test was recorded on my Zoom H4 digital audio recorder and imported to audacity for editing. The import went very smoothly. I did the recording remotely and although the record function in audacity is very good, the quality will be dependant on your sound card. In this case, I knew the sound card on my office machine would give an inferior result and I did not want the built in soundcard influencing the quality of the audacity test.

The audio seemed quite low once imported which is quite usual for digital recording.

Removal of unwanted sections

Removing unwanted sections of audio is really easy. Hover over the area you want to remove with your cursor, left click and drag to highlight the area you wish to remove and click delete. This deletes the section and closes the gap.

Normalize

The normalize function makes the recording as loud as possible without causing a clip (distortion). To use this, simply select the area you wish to normalize by pressing Ctrl+A for the whole track or use the mouse to select a portion of the track.

Once you have highlighted the area, go the effect menu and select the normalize function. Applying the default setting will do the trick. When you play it back it should sound much louder.

Equalization

Equalisation or EQ alters the tonal qualities of the audio to make it sound clearer. From the effect menu, select the Equalization option. Start with a flat line and by clicking on the line you can create a node that you can drag in all directions. Use nodes to reduce the bass at below 100Hz and boost the high frequencies around 5000Hz. This should make the audio sound clearer and brighter. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the EQ setting, it is not an exact science.

Compression

Audio compression is a widely used process by radio stations to make their output seem as loud as possible. Without getting too technical, it basically brings the quietest points in the audio closer to the loudest points that gives an overall perceived loudness. Again, this is in the effect menu, under compressor. For the purpose of the demonstration I have used the default settings, however, you can experiment with the settings.

Finally…

Here is the before and after comparison in mp3

 

 The raw file [0:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The editied version [0:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
 Audacity Screencast #1 [6:51m]: Download

If you have any related comments or questions please feel free to leave a comment. I will be open to the possibility of producing additional screencasts about Audacity / audio recording and production.

Links

Software used

• Audacity

Hardware Used

• Zoom H4 Audio recorder - Read My Review >
• AKG C1000s Microphone

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High quality royalty free background music, audio editing services and podcast recording / production at Media Music Now

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