Cheap USB Voice-over mic ?

FiddlerMD

FiddlerMD

Well-known member
I need to get an inexpensive - OK-sounding USB mic for voiceover work. I hear blue snowball is a good candidate for this. Right now I'm suing an oktava hooked up either to soundcard or directly to the camera - while the sound is good, it picks up a lot of ambient noise and isnt very portable.

If you guys can recommend something that sounds 70% as good as oktava but reject more noise, I'll have a winner.

Thanks for you suggestions.
 
A couple of comments. First if your using a cardioid or Hyper Oktava your not going to reduce your "ambient noise" much unless your talking about picking up too much of the computer/ camera noise and in that case the only real answer is to get the mic farther away.

That said a dynamic mic tends to drop off in sensitivity faster than condensers so you might look at one of those XLR<>USB inline converters and a SM58 or Heil PR40 (though the last will be over your budget).
And I have a very out of left field suggestion. A ZOOM H2. As weird as it sounds the H2 is not only a very handy little recorder for picking up the odd SFX it will also work as an audio interface for a PC or Mac. As an audio interface you can use it's microphones. So you get a nice little recorder, a USB computer interface, AND a USB mic. You can put it in mono mode and the "stereo" file will be two track mono, which is pretty much what your looking for. You can get it as far as a USB cord will reach (about 15-20 feet). And you can pick them up for around $160 all in. It also comes with a dodad that lets you use it in a mic clip and a little desk stand. It also has the same threads as a still camera so any old tripod you have sitting around will work also. It would inherently tend to pick up more "ambience" but you can take it in the closet and do your VO which should kill just about any ambience.
 
You can also use a box like the Emu Tracker Pre. 0202, 0404, and equivalent units from other vendors can provide XLR input, phantom power, an high resolution AD conversion. The typically $140 Tracker Pre is USB powered and records up to 24bit@192khz.
 
Look at those EV omni ENG mics, I have one and it sounds way better than any cheapo condenser. Then all you need is one of those inline XLR to USB interfaces.
 
Noiz2 said:
A ZOOM H2. As weird as it sounds the H2 is not only a very handy little recorder for picking up the odd SFX it will also work as an audio interface for a PC or Mac. As an audio interface you can use it's microphones. So you get a nice little recorder, a USB computer interface, AND a USB mic.
Click to expand...

Took the words right out of my mouth...great idea. I have one of these and it works fine. GREAT suggestion Noiz2.:beer:
 
I actually started looking at the H2 / H4 myself before I got back to this thread. Seems like a worthwhile investment. I like the H4 for the XLR inputs. How are these recorders by themselves though? If i'm in a decently quiet space, how is the built-in mic quality? enough for a narration or VO track?
 
But David how strong are the bars? I know you don't like to judge sound with your ears.

For the rest of us that actually listen. The H2 and H4 are in fairly common use in the film industry. The H4 is used by a designer I know who is very picky, her usual set up is with a pair of Schoeps. The H2 is used by a lot of folks to pick up ambiances discreetly. A few that I know and are also very particular swear by them. I just got the H2 and haven't done a lot with it yet. You are not going to get world class mic elements or amp circuits for under $200, but the quality seems to be at least as good as the DAT's we were all using not long ago, and probably a bunch better than the circuits in your camcorder. Talking about "amp noise" becomes a very hard thing to nail down. It is usually talked about be either folks who don't understand gain structure and have done something very wack and are blaming the box or by folks who hook it up to a scope and say "see it's noisy". In the first case you just can't deal with, I mean if you drive your car into a brick wall and then start complaining that nobody said that would be a problem... The second case has some merit. The noise on the scope is real, but the question is does it really matter? If you can hear it, yes it does matter. Often what people get worked up about actually makes no "real" difference.

So get one where you can return it. Try it out and see if it works for you. A lot of folks with other options have chosen these two so for a lot of people if it's there it doesn't make any difference.

That said I would as a rule go for the newer one. There were changes based on experience. If your up in the H4 zone you should also look at the Olympus recorder, metal case, easier to stick in a pocket and sounds very good.

BUT the topic was a USB mic so...
 
which olympus are you referring to? ls10? doesnt seem to have xlr in - that would be nice

If i go the portable recorder route, i'd want to be able to hook up any mic to it
 
Noiz2 said:
But David how strong are the bars? I know you don't like to judge sound with your ears.

For the rest of us that actually listen. The H2 and H4 are in fairly common use in the film industry. The H4 is used by a designer I know who is very picky, her usual set up is with a pair of Schoeps. The H2 is used by a lot of folks to pick up ambiances discreetly. A few that I know and are also very particular swear by them. I just got the H2 and haven't done a lot with it yet. You are not going to get world class mic elements or amp circuits for under $200, but the quality seems to be at least as good as the DAT's we were all using not long ago, and probably a bunch better than the circuits in your camcorder. Talking about "amp noise" becomes a very hard thing to nail down. It is usually talked about be either folks who don't understand gain structure and have done something very wack and are blaming the box or by folks who hook it up to a scope and say "see it's noisy". In the first case you just can't deal with, I mean if you drive your car into a brick wall and then start complaining that nobody said that would be a problem... The second case has some merit. The noise on the scope is real, but the question is does it really matter? If you can hear it, yes it does matter. Often what people get worked up about actually makes no "real" difference.

So get one where you can return it. Try it out and see if it works for you. A lot of folks with other options have chosen these two so for a lot of people if it's there it doesn't make any difference.

That said I would as a rule go for the newer one. There were changes based on experience. If your up in the H4 zone you should also look at the Olympus recorder, metal case, easier to stick in a pocket and sounds very good.

BUT the topic was a USB mic so...
Click to expand...

There are lots of posts here and some elsewhere about noise with the H2/H4. Dan was one of the posters. However, I think he bought an H4n.

BTW, I like my ears but realize there are limitations to my speakers/headphones. And that my ears are not the same as other people's ears. The same reason to setup the exposure with a waveform analyzer rather than the monitor.

Example, I heard a difference between two recordings of the same mic to different amps/recorders. Looked at the spectral analysis and saw a boost difference around 1khz. Then looked and listened while adjusting the gain and Q to get it to sound and look like the better sounding example.
 
Noiz2 said:
The H4 is used by a designer I know who is very picky, her usual set up is with a pair of Schoeps.
Click to expand...

I'm betting she runs those Schoeps' through a preamp of some kind first, which would tend to eliminate the H4 as a source of noise. That would be the smart move.

I have an H4 -- not H4n -- and it works great for me. It's a great little recorder for use with a boom mic, especially routed through a preamp. I've gotten used to the funky menu system, so that's not a problem for me.

I've also used the H2 and wish I had one to supplement the H4. It's great for recording ambient sound.
 
FiddlerMD said:
which olympus are you referring to? ls10? doesnt seem to have xlr in - that would be nice

If i go the portable recorder route, i'd want to be able to hook up any mic to it
Click to expand...

Personally I think that is probably a mistake. The whole point (for me) of a small flash recorder is portability and ease of use (in that you just pull it out and can record). If I'm going to start carrying mics and zeppelins and a preamp there isn't much reason to have a tiny recorder that is inherently harder to use (small buttons small menus etc). So when it came down to it for me I didn't care about XLR ins. If I really needed to go that rout I would be using the MixPre with it and it has a 1/8" phono out at -10 so that would be an easy connect.
 
David, I will agree that in analyzing and in the lab your on solid ground. My point is that this is not a AES research site. A working sound person is not going to screw around with the one that doesn't sound as good, except maybe for curiosity. People spend way too much time discounting their ears and looking at specs. If your a mic designer it's a different story but if I'm hiring you and you have to run off to the lab to have an opinion every time I ask a question your gone. If I say X sounds bad and you say "look it's better" and show me some graph, your gone. I want someone who knows their ears and trusts them, AND produces good results (but the later comes from the former). Now you can make the argument that your training your judgment by confirming your impressions and that is TOTALLY legit and well not a bad idea. I object because you often post the cart before the horse. But this was a different thread and I probably shouldn't have (to stay with the metaphor) beaten a dead horse.

All my points about "reports of noise" still hold. People use this stuff in way too many different ways to get much beyond a "heads up". Plus, strange as it seems, firmware updates sometimes change these issues. That may be , for instance, why the PMD671 was getting a "noisy" rep on boards. As far as I can tell 1) an early firmware had some issue that caused noise??? 2) people seemed to get confused and direct criticism to the 671 that was based on experience with the 670. Bottom line was there was a lot of "talk" about noise. I wasn't much concerned when I bought it because all the "noise" talk had to do with the preamps and I wasn't going to be using them anyway. Also I bought local and they let me have a two week trial. When I got around to testing the preamps (yes I do use spectrograms etc for some things) I didn't hear them as being noisy and they didn't show an elevated noise floor. I suspect that people were using low output mics and cranking the gain all the way up. There was a post on this board not long ago with someone complaining about X camcorder being noisy based on some footage he shot with the gain cranked all the way up.

I haven't done a ton of recording with the H2 but I don't find it particularly noisy. But that would also depend on what your expecting. I'm not expecting a $160 recorder with built in mics to be comparable to a pair of Shoeps run into a Nagra V. In that comparison I'm sure the H2 would be much noisier. But that's apples and oranges, $160 VS $10,000. To be fair you would have to compare it to something else in the under $300 range.

DavidNJ said:
There are lots of posts here and some elsewhere about noise with the H2/H4. Dan was one of the posters. However, I think he bought an H4n.

BTW, I like my ears but realize there are limitations to my speakers/headphones. And that my ears are not the same as other people's ears. The same reason to setup the exposure with a waveform analyzer rather than the monitor.

Example, I heard a difference between two recordings of the same mic to different amps/recorders. Looked at the spectral analysis and saw a boost difference around 1khz. Then looked and listened while adjusting the gain and Q to get it to sound and look like the better sounding example.
Click to expand...
 
Yes but not into the H4. She's using the H4 with the built in mics. I think she has used the Schoeps with the H4 and in that case maybe? she used a preamp. I mean in that case I probably would. But she's using for the same reason I'm using the H2 and that is small portable with good quality. If you have the time and equipment use the best, but the fact is a lot of times it's get it now or don't get it. The small portables are used (at least by FX folks) primarily as A) a "package" you can keep on you or in your car to get those things you come upon and B) as plant recorders. Something you would risk say putting on the railroad tracks, or plopping on a table in a restaurant, or sticking in the chandelier at thanksgiving. None of the above really work well with full packages.

chapelgrovefilms said:
I'm betting she runs those Schoeps' through a preamp of some kind first, which would tend to eliminate the H4 as a source of noise. That would be the smart move.

I have an H4 -- not H4n -- and it works great for me. It's a great little recorder for use with a boom mic, especially routed through a preamp. I've gotten used to the funky menu system, so that's not a problem for me.

I've also used the H2 and wish I had one to supplement the H4. It's great for recording ambient sound.
Click to expand...
 
ok the thread is getting hijacked a little - originally I wanted to know about a USB mic for quick VO work. This is why the H2/H4 also entered into my assessment - easy VO. This is also why running an XLR mic to it is an option for me. I am not a sound person and almost never do boom-type work. Just VO in a reasonably quiet space, and maybe the odd sound effect here and there. Would you say that the build-in mics on those recorders compare well to an Oktava for VO work?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top