Recording Standard Microphones.

surrealitycheck

Greetings gentlefolk.

I would very much like to get my hands on a reasonably priced but nearly studio quality mic. I am, however, totally unsure if a standard crappy built-in soundcard will record with enough fidelity, or even how much technical wizardry goes into high quality voice recording.

What should I know for this kind of stuff? Will getting a much better mic help as much as I think, or do I really need a beautiful oaken room with a guy sitting at a huge desk of dials on the other side of some plate glass?

Technicality

I'm not an expert, but heres what I've picked up trying to record stuff with good quality on the cheap.

You can't just plug a proper microphone into a mic in on a soundcard or it sounds awful, so you need a proper microphone preamp, and a soundcard with a line in input (or some sort of usb mic I guess).

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, ambient noise (cars driving past etc.) becomes the most annoying factor even on cheap equipment, so if you live on a busy street or near an airport or trainline soundproofing will be crucial, and even if you don't you will have to put up with re-recording when someone walks up the stairs in the house or something.

I've never tried out expensive equipment but I'd imagine in most situations its a bit of a waste if you aren't soundproofed.

surrealitycheck

You can't just plug a proper microphone into a mic in on a soundcard or it sounds awful, so you need a proper microphone preamp, and a soundcard with a line in input (or some sort of usb mic I guess).

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, ambient noise (cars driving past etc.) becomes the most annoying factor even on cheap equipment, so if you live on a busy street or near an airport or trainline soundproofing will be crucial, and even if you don't you will have to put up with re-recording when someone walks up the stairs in the house or something.

Luckily, I live in the middle of nowhere at the moment. Benefits of the English countryside!

What is the cost factor on stuff like a pre amp, etc?

And a good USB mic is a serious option? If so, awesome! Do you have any suggestions for model, etc?

Technicality

I built my own preamp, so I really couldn't say.

The reason I put that little mention of usb as an option in is I recall somebody mentioning something in the D&D musicians thread as an industry standard. My memory is hazy but I recall it had some silly name, and a bit of googling makes the "blue snowball" seem a likely culprit.

surrealitycheck

Thank you, that is absolutely perfect.

Pheezer

My band uses a Tascam US-1641 to record, but you don't need eight XLR inputs and ten pre-amps to record one mic. M-Audio makes some decent gear that combines reasonably good pre-amps with USB outputs for good prices. So does Tascam and Presonus and Zoom makes one that has a microphone built right in. You only need one mic pre-amp built in for what you want to do.

After that any mic will do. If you buy a Shure SM-57 at a pawn shop you'll be able to sell it for pretty much whatever you paid for it later on.

Edit: I should say any mic that doesn't require phantom power will do. Most do not. The mics that require it most often are higher end condensor mics designed for vocals and mics designed to be used as overheads in drum recording.

surrealitycheck

I actually literally just bought the blue snowball that he suggested. It seems pretty great, but do you have any opinions on it?

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-SnowBall-Microphone-Bundle/dp/B000EOPQ7E

Pheezer

Yeaht that looks like you probably couldn't beat it for the money.