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Creating GET WISDOM 1: Choosing and Using a Mic
Posted on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 3:23 PM by Jason Barker
I've decided to write a short series of articles describing how I create GET WISDOM! The Orthodox Bible Study Program for Teens. There are a tremendous number of priests laypersons working in Orthodox ministries who could provide superb content for radio programs and podcasts. For those interested in creating such programming, I hope you might be able to learn a little about audio production from the learning experiences through which I've gone (and continue to go).
There are many tutorials and overviews of podcast production (see here and here for two older but still useful examples), and thus I will not give such a general introduction to podcasting. Instead, I'll discuss some of the specific decisions I've made and approaches I take in my specific circumstances.
I'll begin by discussing the microphone I use, since the mic is the most important piece of equipment in audio recording.
I was somewhat fortunate in deciding to engage in an audio recording project that my bachelor's degree is in communication, with the emphasis in broadcast production (albeit television rather than radio). Thus, despite the fact that I haven't engaged in any production since I received my BA (sixteen years ago - egads, I'm growing old), and the fact that almost none of that work involved radio production, I nonetheless still had buried in the recesses of my memory general knowledge about microphones and audio recording.
I therefore knew that the best microphone for my circumstances - recording in a bedroom converted into a typical home office without any any acoustic treatment - is a dynamic microphone. Condenser microphones are much more popular with podcasters than dynamic microphones (see here for an explanation of the different types of mics), in large part because a decent condenser mic is less expensive than a decent dynamic mic, but dynamics are much better at off-axis sound rejection (meaning they do not pickup a lot of background noise coming from behind - and even the side of - the mic). Because my office has noise coming through the window from the highway about one-half mile away, as well as standard room echoes (particularly from the hollow closet door beside my desk), a dynamic mic was absolutely my preference.
My specific microphone I initially intended to purchase was a Shure SM7B, which has a good, rich sound and is very forgiving for people with poor mic technique (which absolutely includes me, as I'll discuss later). Unfortunately, dynamic mics require a lot of gain (the amount of amplification of an audio signal), and the SM7B requires a particularly high level of gain: in fact, it requires more gain than the mic preamps on most interfaces can provide without distortion (all professional microphones plug into a preamp to provide sufficient gain for recording; the preamps are the primary feature of most interfaces, which are the way you connect a professional microphone to a computer).
Therefore, after a mind-numbing amount of research and experimentation, I purchased a Heil PR-40 dynamic microphone. The Heil is popular with many podcasters (such as Leo Laporte), and its required gain level can be met by the preamps on most interfaces (it works very well with my Mackie Onyx Satellite, which I'll discuss in my next post). While the PR-40's sound is a bit "bright" for my voice (something I knew when I purchased it), I've nonetheless been pleased with the mic.
The biggest problem with the Heil PR-40 is that it requires very good mic technique (meaning the way in which you speak into the mic). As you can tell from listening to GET WISDOM, I have absolutely atrocious mic technique. I know how to speak into a mic (see here and here for good video tutorials about mic placement) - my collegiate training, combined with all the radio programs and church presentations at which I spoke in my days in Evangelical Protestant parachurch ministry, gave me a reasonable amount of experience in using a mic - but I have a very strange speech style. In addition to simply being very soft spoken, a serious childhood speech impediment, combined with a lifelong struggle with stuttering, causes me to speak in a way that does not record well: I have a serious problem with plosives (hard consonants like p, t, and k), as well as with excessive saliva (you might find it disgusting to mention salivation, but you'll be amazed - and possibly repulsed - by some of the things you hear the first time you record yourself). In case you are unaware of this fact, bad vocal habits and tics that are minor - and perhaps even generally unnoticed - when you are speaking in person can be horrendously irritating when someone is listening to them through headphones.
If you listen very carefully to my recordings (and, of course, I hope you don't listen THIS closely, but it might be useful in helping you identify problems you may have when recording), you'll hear three general problems: I have a very harsh, but flatly mid-range, voice; I tend to really slam out hard consonants at the beginning of sentences or clauses (e.g., saying "Corinth was..." can sound like I've just snapped a piece of wood); and saliva - specifically, saliva bubbles - can create a crackling sound when I speak. Regarding my voice, there is little I can do; I use a small amount of equalization, but only enough to add a little extra depth without changing the true sound of my voice (I'll discuss this in a later post). I've been able to reduce - but certainly not eliminate - my problem with plosives and mouth noise (the technical term for problems with things like saliva) by careful mic placement. I have the mic placed about twenty degrees to my left, elevated on its stand so that the center is about even with my left cheekbone, with the front pointing at the corner of my mouth. I also speak about three inches from the mic (perhaps slightly more, since I cannot measure exactly with the mic at an angle). This lets in a little more room noise than I would like - the Heil PR-40 works best when you can speak VERY closely - but it is the best compromise for moderating my speaking problems until I my mic technique improves and I can work the mic more closely.
If you purchase a Heil PR-40, and want to gain a better understanding of how to work this particular mic, Leo Laporte streams video of himself doing his Tech Guy radio program on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. You might get a better understanding of what I've just discussed by watching how Leo works his mic.
You will almost certainly need a pop filter when recording (a pop filter is a screen placed between the mic and your mouth that stops the explosive rush of air created when you speak plosives). I use a Sterling Audio PF1 metal screen; I chose this simply because I knew the metal would survive being grabbed by a highly inquisitive three year-old (and it has already proved its worth in this regard on several occasions), but if your circumstances do not require a particularly durable pop filter, then you would do fine with a less expensive nylon screen.
In my next post I'll discuss the rationaled behind choosing the interface I use.
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