Every week I get a new post about a new microphone that’s come onto the market. I’ve heard a lot of podcasts, some of which are recorded well, some of which .. well .. sounds like the producers need to use a different microphone.
Microphones are very personal — like a musical instrument. Just like one musician might be totally in love with her Stradivarius violin, another might think the bargain instrument they got in a used instrument shop is just perfect.
I’ve tried out a lot of microphones — some of them are just bad mikes. Others are great mikes but they’re not compatible with my voice. Here are my favourites and why I like them.
Audio Technica 822 – if I could only have one microphone, this would be it. It’s an omni-directional microphone — it will pick up sound in a circle. It’s great if you like background sound (which I do). It records both music and ambient sound beautifully. And there is nice separation between the left and right channels. When a car goes by, you can hear it move from one channel to another. It’s also great for recording three people at once — you can position your interview subjects at three points — left, right and centre. It will pick up the people on the edges too, not just the person in the centre. Drawbacks: this mike is like a wide angle lens. it picks up everything, so make sure the background sound is congruent with your subject (for example, if you’re recording an interview with a farmer, don’t do the interview in a factory). About $400.
Electrovoice 625 – this is the workhorse of the ENG (electronic newsgathering) industry. It’s also the first mike I fell in love with. Again, it’s an omni. This microphone is so rugged that you can use it to hammer in your tent pegs when you’re doing sound remotes in the great outdoors. (According to legend, somebody actually ran over this with a tank to see if they could wreck it. It worked fine after they dug it out of the ground). What makes this mike great is that the case is rugged, which means handling noise is reduced. It also has a built in windscreen and limiter, making it much more difficult to get a bad recording. Disadvantages: it’s a “dynamic” microphone (runs off a magnetic coil instead of a battery). What that means in practical terms is that the sound output to your recorder might be low — you can boost the sound on your computer but you will get hiss. You can solve this by buying an impedance matcher. Cost: around $240.
Samson C01U – a lot of people are using USB microphones these days — which means they connect to your computer directly. This year, when I worked as Broadcast Tech consultant with the Laurier Brantford University Journalism Department), I got a chance to use this mike. I like it. Seems to be fairly robust, sensitive but not so sensitive that your mike technique has to be perfect. With a windscreen and pop filter (which I highly recommend for any studio mike), you will get a pretty good recording with good frequence response. Disadvantages: leave this one in the studio. Not suitable for field recording) Cost: under $100 – which is a bargain for this baby.
In posts to come, I will talk about other types of mikes — shotguns, using a boom pole, uni-direction (cardiod microphones) and other ones you might want to try.
Two things to remember: Beware the internal microphone — a few of them are not too bad. Many are dismal and not worthy of the name “microphone”.
It’s about technique as much as it is about equipment. The best equipment in the world will only make you sound good if you know how to use it.
