Equipment for Voice Recording
Writing by Voice
by Joseph T. Sinclair
About ten years a go I investigated voice recognition software. I found it to be surprisingly accurate but still too inaccurate to be useful for writing by voice (dictating). Nonetheless, I wrote a short book by voice as I hiked in Colorado. It took about five long hikes (about 25 hours). Instead of using the software, I had it transcribed by a person.
Writing by voice worked out well for me. It was superior to typing and cut my rewrites in half as well as cut the original writing time. I was quite pleased with myself. As I hike almost daily for exercise, it was a way to make productive use of hiking time. But the cost of transcription by a person is high, even when a highly efficient transcriber does it.
After a nine-year hiatus from writing I decided to again pursue a writing and publishing career. Dragon (Nuance) had a sale on their latest software (Ver. 12.5) in the spring of 2013, which I happened to see online. And I thought, why not? So I bought it. This time I found it to be very accurate and indeed very useful for writing.
I dictated about 50,000 words in 2013, a lot considering I didn’t even write a book. In fact, I have so much writing to do now that I may run out of hiking time and may need to dictate directly into my computer sitting at my desk.
The software costs about $200 unless you buy it on sale (Dragon Naturally Speaking, http://nuance.com). But the equipment is now very inexpensive. I use a highly rated $45 digital recorder (Phillips DVT1000) and a cell-phone headset with a mini-boom mic featuring a windshield. (Plantronics MX500i, original price $70 and now available for about $20 online).
A $20 cell-phone headset works almost as well ( JBuds J6M). Of course if you work at your computer, you don’t need the recorder, just an adequate mic; that is, not a professional mic but a better-than-average mic. However, if you have professional equipment, you can certainly use it.
In lieu of using a separate recorder, use your smart phone. I’ve used my Samsung Galaxy 3 with both the Smart Voice Recorder app and the Easy Voice Recorder app. They work well. I use a separate recorder only as a matter of convenience; it’s easier to control outdoors in the sunlight than a smart phone app.
Having experimented considerably with equipment, I can vouch for the equipment I’ve cited. Nonetheless, there are many choices. The point is that you no longer need expensive or professional equipment to record adequate-quality dictation.
Go to the Nuance website (http://nuance.com), the Speech Recognition Solutions website (http://www.speechrecsolutions.com), or the Speech Technology website (http://www.speechtechnology.com) for more information on proper equipment.
To make it easy to use the Dragon voice recognition software, I use only simple punctuation commands (e.g., Comma, Period, Colon, New Paragraph, etc) to write. Dragon features a multitude of voice commands to control your equipment and the software. Someday I hope to learn some of those commands. In the meanwhile, I find the punctuation commands work just fine.
Writing by voice isn’t for everyone or every book. But give it a try to see if it works for you. You may find, as I did, writing by voice makes it easier to get your writing down on paper, so to speak, more quickly, smoothly, and coherently than with a word processor.
Equipment for Voice Recording
by Joseph T. Sinclair
As the popularity for the spoken voice grows for use in websites and blogs, in ebooks and book apps (digital books), and in digital training and other digital multimedia presentations, you need to get up to date on the equipment you can use to professionally record voice.
The current equipment for recording voice is much more competent and much less expensive than it was just a few years ago. The chipmakers make audio chips in huge volumes inexpensively , which do miraculous things, take up little space, and require little energy. These tiny chips appear in all different types of audio equipment from simple headsets to the complex audio systems inside many present-day desktop, laptop, tablet, and smart phone computers. Thus, today you can buy a first-rate voice recorder for dictation for less than $50.
But dictation is not what you’re after. What you’re after is good solid spoken voice recordings with professional sound. For that you need a certain minimum grade of recording equipment. This article focuses upon that minimum threshold of quality. As you know, you can spend as much as you want to for microphones, recording equipment, and audio editing software. But you’re not trying to make a platinum hit tune recording. So in most cases you only need something at the minimal level of quality or above.
With the advent of tablets and apps, you will note that digital books have become a major part of the overall book market. In the last couple of years, authoring software has become easier to use and less expensive, and the trends will continue in the future. What this means is that it will be much easier to integrate audio into digital books via authoring software in the future.
With the advent of HTML5, it is now quite easy to integrate audio into webpages with very little confusion, frustration, or effort. In addition, it has become apparent that HTML5 will be the basis for future digital books as they evolve into more robust multimedia publications. Thus, we can expect that audio will continue to evolve as a media in digital form and will be used more and more for information products.
Think of digital (and online) training is just an extension of a “How To” digital book. Training products in a digital format have been used by colleges, universities, and other training organizations for well over a decade. Many of the innovations in using multimedia with text were developed in these digital training products. For training, the evolution of integrating audio into digital learning products continues and will accelerate in the future.
All in all, the future is bright for the integration of audio into digital information products from books to training courses. The actual integration of audio is beyond the scope of this article, however, and this article simply provides you with a review of the equipment you need to professionally record the spoken voice yourself.
As a practical matter it’s easy to make a recording of your own voice. It’s even easy to do an interview. And it is easy to do a panel discussion with a moderator. There are specialty situations, however, where you may not be successful in recording voice in a professional manner without some assistance from an audio engineer or someone else equally as knowledgeable. For instance, recording voice with video has its own special problems that require expertise.
Although recording voice can be easy to do and easy to manage, your performance as a recording artist is another matter. And that’s beyond the scope of this article but nonetheless something that you will need to pay attention to.
Without giving specific prices—only generic estimates—I have tried to give you an idea of what equipment might cost. The cost estimates are based on widely discounted prices, not manufactures’ list prices.
Microphones
A voice recording starts with a microphone. You will want to use the best mic that you can afford. Although cost is often a good gauge to use for mic quality, you can still find some bargains.
Good mics are more responsive and provide better sounds than mediocre mics. Inexpensive mics can actually sound pretty good which indicates how high the quality of audio electronics is today compared to 15 years ago. But expensive mics sound better.
Right around $100–150 seems to be the bottom of the professional mic range, and you have your choice of several time-proven mics in this price range.
Before you choose, however, you need to decide what kind of mic you need. You have two considerations to make: direction and signal strength.
Direction
From which directions does the mic suck in the sound? It makes a difference.
Unidirectional Mics
Cardioid (unidirectional) mics pick up sound directly in front and to a lesser extent to the sides. Because unidirectional mics do not pick up much sound to the sides or to the rear, they are good in situations where feedback is a potential problem such as at performances which use loud speakers on the stage (so long as they are not pointed at the speakers). They do a good job of eliminating background noise so long as the primary source of the background noise falls outside their pickup pattern.
Unidirectional mics work well for recording voices at a training presentation where each presenter has their own mic. One unidirectional mic doesn’t work well to record two voices when placed directly between the two people (i.e., the sound comes to the mic from the sides). It works a little better when placed in an offset position between the two people.
Omnidirectional Mics
An omnidirectional mic is responsive to sound all around it.
Omnidirectional mics provide a more natural sound because they pick up background noise. After all, we hear sound against a background of noise. So long as the background noise is not out of control, omnidirectional mics can provide a good sound. An omnidirectional mic between two people, or more, will pick up all the voices and may work well for multiple voice presentations where individual mics are not convenient. But beware of excess background noise.
Signal strength
A mic is an analog device and mechanically produces a weak signal in response to sound. Two different types of mics each handle the signal differently.
Dynamic Mics
Dynamic mics can be either unidirectional or omnidirectional. They work strictly in physical response to sound and require no power. They are not as responsive as condenser mics (see next section), and they exhibit a phenomena known as the proximity effect. When you speak too close to them (about 3 inches), they convey an excessive bass sound. When you speak too far away (over 12 inches), their response diminishes. Consequently, you must use precise mic placement to maximize the quality of the sound.
sidebar Proximity is Your Friend
Use the proximity effect to your advantage to deepen and enrich your voice. You won’t be the first.
Dynamic mics do not perform well recording from a distance. For instance, a dynamic mic does not make a good omnidirectional mic for recording a multi-person presentation unless the people are unusually close together.
Condenser Mics
Condenser mics can be either unidirectional or omnidirectional. Condenser mics use internal electronics to boost the weak analog signal and make the mics more responsive.
A voice can be up to 24 inches away from the mic and still be picked up with robust quality. One condenser mic can effectively pick up the voices from a multi-person presentation. If you can’t find a place to record that has low ambient background noise, however, don’t try to use a condenser mic; they’re too sensitive. They will pick up even the faintest background noise. Because professional-quality condenser mics include internal electronics, they are more expensive.
Electret condenser mics are much less expensive and just as responsive as condenser mics. They are popular for lavaliere mics (tiny mics that attach to a shirt or coat lapel or hang around the neck). But electret condenser mics are not necessarily high quality mics. In contrast, virtually all condenser mics are high quality mics.
Because a condenser mic uses internal electronics to amplify its signal, such electronics add noise to the signal. Although the noise may be almost imperceptible, it remains one consideration in using a condenser mic, particularly an electret condenser mic.
If you need to record from afar or want to get full response for a crisper sound, particularly for digital recordings, a condenser mic makes a good choice. To put things in proper perspective, however, you do not need condenser mics to produce professional quality sound.
Mic Power
Condenser mics and electret condenser mics need power to work. They run on batteries or phantom power. You supply phantom power to a mic via a balanced cable (XLR). A professional mixer provides the source of the phantom power. Some recorders also supply phantom power.
Power adds a layer of operating maintenance that may not be worth the effort. You must make sure condenser mics are turned off when not used and turned on when used (so batteries don’t burn out prematurely). You need to carry spare batteries with you into the field and remove the batteries for mics that will not be in use for a long time.
If you use phantom power (up to 48 volts) instead of batteries, you need to be careful that you follow recommended operational procedures; otherwise you may permanently damage an item of equipment.
If you can live without the sensitivity that a condenser mic provides, you might consider limiting your mics to the dynamic variety.
Cost
Cheap mics (below $70) can sound pretty good these days because an up-to-date digital recorder is so much better in the low-end price range than just ten or fifteen years ago. But you will want higher quality mics for professional recordings.
Microphones at about $70 represent the institution quality used in public places such as churches, schools, and auditoriums but are not necessarily designed for recording. About $100 represents the low end of microphones used for entertainment and broadcasting (professional quality). But mics can cost thousands, and studio and broadcast mics costing between $300 and $1,000 are commonly used in professional audio production (e.g., radio stations).
sidebar Built-in Mics
Some recorders have built-in mics. These mics are right next to the recording mechanism, and they can pick up electronic noise. They’re usually not the highest quality. Thus, it’s uncertain whether you’ll be able to create commercial quality recordings with such mics.
If you have a tight budget, your money is better spent on a good mic than on any other item you might purchase.
Lone Voice
If you record alone and not in a studio, the choice of mics is easy. Use a cardioid dynamic mic. A dynamic mic will not pick up ambient noise, and you can record in almost any quiet place. If you use a condenser mic, it will pick plenty of ambient noise (e.g., a dog barking in your back yard or next door). In addition, for a condenser mic you will have to create a recording space that simulates a studio (e.g., carpeting on the floor, blankets over the windows, blankets hanging on the walls, and other acoustical treatment).
A $100 professional dynamic mic for singers makes an excellent choice. The Shure SM58, the Audio Technica ATM41a and ATM410, and comparables at around $100 are adequate. Keep in mind that mics are essentially analogue devices, not an invention of the digital age. The old models are not necessarily obsolete.
I have used a variety of mics under $400 over the years including several condenser mics. And I’ve ended up selling all of them on eBay except the two which I still use. They are the Shure SM7b and the Audio Technica ATM41a, both dynamic mics. If you want to spring $300 for a studio mic, the Shure SM7b and Heil PR40 are good choices.
Stand
You will need a solid mic stand, either a floor model or desktop model. These are not expensive items. Do not record with the mic in your hand.
Mixer
You will need a professional mixer to record with more than one mic whether dynamic or condenser.
For a dynamic mic you will most likely need a preamp to make the signal strong enough to record. It’s better to use a mixer, however, as a mixer has preamps built in and provides additional controls over the signal that may come in handy. For multiple dynamic mics, a mixer can save you the cost of multiple preamps.
For condenser mics you will need the phantom power supplied by a mixer. Some condenser mics, however, have their own battery power supply, and you can use one (but not more than one) without a mixer.
You’re not recording in a music studio, so you won’t need a 35 channel mixer. A small mixer will do, one with enough channels to plug in each mic that you use. A mini-mixer, such as the Mackie 402-VLZ3, the 402-VLZ4 (about $90), or comparable is fine for just one or two mics.
Pop Filter
There is a problem with the human voice. It pops with plosives. To mitigate such ungainly sounds you need to use a pop filter. This is merely a hoop with nylon stretched over, which you place in front of a mic. It’s held in place by a long flexible arm that attaches to your mic stand.
A pop filter is inconvenient, awkward, and just another item to keep track of and set up. There is another way which you may find acceptable. First, you can take and put a foam cover over your microphone. There are thin foam covers available for the reducing plosives and heavy-duty foam covers for decreasing wind noise. These affect the quality of the sound, but not so much, in my opinion, that you need to worry about it. A wind cover, of course, is only to be used outside when there is a breeze.
The second way to deal with the pop problem is to take a nylon stocking (hose) and stretch it over the microphone. This may not be something you want to do in public, but in private it’s OK.
If you find that either of these workarounds degrades the sound too much, use a regular pop filter.
There are some microphones that come with a foam pop filter build in, such as a Shure SM7a. Such microphones have been engineered to be used without an external pop filter.
Recorder
The digital recording technology has advanced so far in the last fifteen years or so that today’s $150 digital recorder produces the professional quality of yesterday’s $900 recorder and can do so in a very small package. Such recorders can even come with XLR mic inputs, (information on XLR below), phantom power, or preamps. Check out the TASCAM, Sony, Zoom, Roland, M‑Audio, and Olympus brands, which are all available at discounts.
You want to be able to record in PCM mode to create a WAV file at a bit rate of 24 and a sampling frequency of 96 kHz to insure maximum quality (better than CD quality). If you need to, you can easily convert to other digital file formats (e.g., mp3) with audio editing software.
These small recorders come with built-in electret condenser mics. The mic quality for some may be marginally satisfactory so long as you don’t hold the recorder in your hand. Use a mini camera tripod (inexpensive) as a stand for the recorder. Still, a dynamic mic(s) is preferable in a non-studio setting.
Can you directly plug in a dynamic mic and expect to get an adequate sound level? Perhaps. It’s worth a try. But my experience is that you will need a mixer or preamp to boost the signal of a dynamic mic enough to make a good recording.
Cables
You can save a bundle by buying cheap cables, right? After all, they’re only wires.
Don’t count on it. In fact, don’t do it. Substandard cables can decrease the quality of your sound considerably and even introduce noise or interference. Use only professional quality cables, connectors, and adapters.
sidebar First Time
The first time I hooked up a mic and a recorder with an unshielded cable, I picked up the local radio station. You can imagine my surprise when I played back the recording and found I had an unexpected accompaniment.
There are two types of mic cables: high impedance unbalanced, and low impedance balanced.
Generally, inexpensive mics are high impedance and use an unbalanced cable permanently attached to the mic with a 1/4‑inch jack or a 3.5mm mini jack at the other end. These mics work OK in many situations with short cables. With long cables, they tend to pick up noise.
If you use high quality mics, you will find that virtually all are low impedance, have XLR connections, use balanced cables, but do not come with a cable. Balanced (XLR) cables give you a measure of safety that will pay off sooner or later, and you can purchase such cables in a variety of lengths from 3 feet to 50 feet.
What do you do if you have a low impedance mic with a balanced cable but need to plug it into a high impedance input? You need a transformer.
A mic impedance-matching transformer enables you to use a low impedance mic for a high impedance mic input. (This is the situation when you connect a balanced cable directly to a recorder that doesn’t have an XLR input.) A transformer looks like a connection adapter and costs about $15. One consideration is that it may add noise to the signal, particularly from light dimmer switches that are in the recording vicinity.
sidebar Not the Same
Don’t use a 3‑pin to 1/4‑inch jack adapter as a substitute for a transformer; it’s not the same.
In a system, you need different cables between different devices and different connectors on the cables. Sometimes it can get very complex. You have to use adapters to change one connector into another connector.
The rule to remember is to use high quality cables as short as possible with as few connections (and adapters) as possible. Each connection and adapter may add unwanted noise to the signal. Always use balanced (XLR) cables for professional mics, and shielded cables for all else. Markertek (http://markertek.com) will make cables to your specifications with the proper connectors you need at each end (for a reasonable price).
Other Equipment
You can use studio sound equipment such as a limiter, compressor, gate, equalizer, or hybrid to accomplish certain audio refinements or enable specialized uses, but I don’t recommend them. They are bulky, come with time-consuming learning curves, and often require complex cable hook-ups that make them not worth the trouble. Spend your money elsewhere. Note that some mics and recorders have some of these capabilities built in.
Studio
With a dynamic mic you can find a quiet place and record. Pick a well padded room with plenty of carpeting, soft furniture, curtains, no echo, and no ongoing loud noises from outside, and your recording will sound like it was made in a studio. You may need to turn off the heating or air conditioning while recording to avoid picking up unwanted background noise. But you don’t need a studio with a dynamic mic.
With a condenser mic you need more. Some people use a walk-in closet where lots of clothes hang to deaden ambient sound and keep out background noise. Others clear out a regular closet and install acoustical wall coverings to accomplish the same. In other words, they setup a mini-studio.
You can also purchase a mini-studio in various sizes from desktop to full height. Or you can build a mini-studio. Simply make a frame out of inexpensive PVC piping big enough for you and a floor mic stand or a small table and then drape lots of inexpensive blankets over the frame. As a last resort use a well padded room (see above) or a normal room with carpeting, blankets over the windows, and blankets on the walls.
In other words, if you use a condenser mic, use an expensive one to justify the effort to fashion a studio. Otherwise use a dynamic mic.
Editing Software
You will need to use audio editing software to process your recordings into presentable audio. Most such software is easy to use to do the basics, and you shouldn’t need to do more than basic editing. The editing is the final step in the audio workflow.
There’s no shortage of good audio editing software. Audition (Adobe), Sound Forge (Sony), and Audicity are old favorites, and Audacity is freeware. But check out other comparable editing software too.
Laptop
You can use your laptop as a recorder. But what about quality? Well, laptops range in price from $250 to $3,500. Thus, you can assume that the sound systems within laptops also range quite a bit in quality. The chips for digital sound systems are so inexpensive now, however, that you can find high quality sound even in inexpensive laptops. To plug your dynamic mic directly into a laptop, you may need an impedance transformer and a connection adapter.
One potential problem with a computer sound system is noise. A digital recorder doesn’t have moving parts, and its electronics are devoted to just record. A computer has moving parts, not the least of which is the disk drive. In addition, it has a rich array of electronics that have nothing to do with recording. This all adds up to potential noise that may affect the quality of your recording.
Podcasting
You might note that I’ve not mentioned podcasting, which has been very popular for the last decade. Manufactures make audio equipment just for podcasting. For instance, they make microphones that you can plug directly into the USB port on a computer. No muss and no fuss with special cables or connectors. I have no way to evaluate such equipment, because I’ve never used it. But I have listened to dozens and dozens of podcasts, and many put out sound that’s below professional quality.
You can set yourself up with podcasting equipment for two-thirds of what minimal professional audio equipment will cost you. However, you may be disappointed with the sound. Whether you can achieve professional recording excellence with low-end podcasting equipment is a little iffy, but if you’re on a budget, you might give it a try.
That is not to claim, however, that all podcasters use pedestrian podcasting equipment. Many use professional equipment and produce a professional sound.
What I Use
My recording system is simple. I use either an Audio Technica ATM41a or a Shure SM7b mic. I connect either with an XLR cable to a Mackie 402-VLZ3 mixer. I connect from the mixer to an Olympus PCM LS-10 digital recorder via two XLR male connectors/cables joined into one 3.5mm 3‑pole female connector. To that I add a cable with a male 3.5mm 3‑pole connector at each end.
I record on a small, sturdy, folding table with a metal desktop mic stand placed on top of a rubber mouse pad. I mount the recorder on a small camera tripod. If I use the ATM41a mic, I attach a pop filter to the mic stand.
This system not only works well at home and the office but also on the road. I usually sit in an office chair unless the one available is too squeaky; then I sit in any noiseless chair available. Or I oil the squeaky office chair. WD-40: you can’t record without it.
The author of these articles, Joseph T. Sinclair, is the author of twenty How To books published by national publishers.
For low-cost non-exclusive reprints rights for these articles, contact sales@AppworthMedia.com.