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Hello all and thank you for having me.

Ok, I think this is a strange one however I think that an audio forum would be the best!

I have a video studio which is great however I need help with the audio.

I have an amplifier and (I think) an omnidirection MIC. I will get the make and modles later today and put it in this post.

The problems I have is:

  • Background ambient noise (Room is sound proofed)

I mic and amp i have now is very good and use a XLR connection. I paid over 1200 euros for both, new. They are great but the mic picks EVERYTHING!!

Please can you help me!

I do not want to change the AMP but of coure the Mic i have too!

My Goal is to have AMAZING VOCAL AUDIO, Very clear and loud... This is not for singing but just for talking and reading.

Thank you

Comments

RemyRAD Sat, 01/14/2012 - 21:21

For announcing purposes, you generally want a Uni-directional (cardioid pattern) dynamic microphone or a Large Diaphragm Condenser Uni-directional cardioid microphone. And for good sounding tracks, you'll need some compression and you want some downward expansion to virtually eliminate the room entirely. Most software is capable of doing this. It might take you a little experimentation to get it all right. I've recorded thousands of commercials with hundreds of the best announcers in the US. Processing of the microphone is very important for proper sounding announcer tracks. Without any processing, it will sound, regardless of the quality of the microphone, surprisingly awful. Listening to people speak requires some processing. At least some compression but that raises room noise & gasping breaths of air. Downward expansion or gating, set to the proper threshold just below that of speech, we'll eliminate a lot of roomy sound and asthmatic sounding breaths. And that's a critical ingredient in cutting good commercials, talking books, explanatory examples, etc..

Commercial cutter
Mx. Remy Ann David

thatjeffguy Sun, 01/15/2012 - 11:25

Also you can remove the offending ambient sound using a program like Izotope. It is not cheap, but has saved my butt in a couple of occasions, like when the bass player used the club's old DI box which injected a loud BUZZ into the signal... Izotope has a feature that allows you to sample the offending noise and then it subtracts those frequencies which comprise the noise from the signal. In most cases it works with little or no noticeable affect on the remaining audio, but not always. Worth considering, though.

Jeff