Voice over recording

[Marcaaroni]

Somet time next week I will be recording a voice over for a training video that I am editing, I intend to use a good quality handheld mic (xlr plug) and run it through my beach box to mini disk.
My question is should I set my beach box to mono or stereo.

[DAVE M]

Mono - You only have the one sound source, so it's mono.

I assume that you mean that it's a hand held TYPE mic - don't try to H/H it while recording. Experiment with proximity effect 'til you get a decent sound. monitor on good quality enclosed cans.

[John Willett]

Exactly right Dave – I could not have said better myself.

You need to be very careful if using a microphone for stage vocals for voice-over work, as stage microphones are normally designed for very close work and can often sound quite thin when used at a longer distance for voice-overs. So I would definitely endorse Dave’s comment about proximity effect and experimenting.

John http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/singer.gif

[StuartV]

A tip to help eliminate proximity effect and "popping".
Set the mike up, on a stand in front of your voiceover. Between the "voice" and the microphone (about a 6 - 12 inches from the mike) position somehow (another mike stand) a 6 inch diameter pop shield easily made from (excuse me whilst I go into Val Singleton mode) a wire coat hanger (formed into a hoop) and the material from a set of tights/stockings stretched over the hoop.


Stuart

[Marcaaroni]

I recorded the mentioned voice over 2 days ago, and for anyone interested this is the method that I used.

First of all the microphone, I have hired a Studio condenser Mic (Audio Technica At4033 large diaphram) which came with shock mount, phantom power supply and table stand.
This will be routed through my Beach box and into my newly purchased Extigy (Soundblaster USB external unit with USB connectivity) this is connected to my Sony Vaio Laptop via USB, and I will be recording straight to wav file using Sound Forge 5 (stereo 48 khz).
I have run a few test recordings to get used to the set up and im am pleased with the quality so far, I am hoping that the location that I am recording in is going to be favourable, I have been told that it is a quite basement in the clients home.
The advantage for me is that I can easily do a rough edit as I am working (dumping all the rubish takes, and that the sound is going straight to file so that I don't have to re-record it into my edit system I just transfer the files.

I will let you know how it all turns out.
Thanks again to the people that offered advice.

[John Willett at Home]

Another way to avoid "popping" is to have the microphone slightly off-axis so the plosives do not go directly into the microphone - normally about 45-degrees is OK.

John http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/singer.gif

[DAVE M]

I used to be involved with rock recording and we used to suffer from the singer's urge to eat the mic.

No matter what we did they'd move into the mic and cause pops.

the solution was to tell them to move back a
"dicks" length from the mic.

Every one moved back 12 inches and wouldn't come any closer - even if we needed them to.

[John Willett at Home]

Dave, I love it http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Christian Lett]

A fabric loudspeaker grille (like the ones you get on regular hi-fi speakers) makes a good pop filter.

Christian.

[John Willett]

But Stuart's suggestion (above) is a lot more fun http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Koyaanisqatsi]

You should also remember that the best way to deaden ambient sound (i.e., background noise due to location) is with clutter (i.e., a couch here, a chair over there, a hanging towel/blanket).

Background sound comes mostly from open space, where the sound waves bounce back and forth (sonar, in essence), so by randomly breaking up the space you're in, you "redirect" the noise.

Most people think that they'll be all right if they build themselves a little box, but that's not the way to go (it actually causes worse sound problems).