Which mic to use?

[CeasarBoobage]

For us budding wanna-be audio creators, what kind of mic would you experienced folks recommend?
Of course an omni-directional mic wouldn't be ideal for a home "studio", but what kind of studio mic is worth the money when we produce free content?

There are some "podcaster package deal" things on Amazon, but when $50 buys an entire setup of anything, I'm highly suspicious. When a high-end mic cable can cost more than the entire cheapo package deal, there's no way that anything in the set will be worth the shipping when it breaks.

Is there a good price point where the "best of the cheap" and "cheapest of mid-grade" collide?

 

[Gamine67]

Search Wirecutter, they did the research.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08TTW634T?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I used this mic for the audio I made of my Hog Roast story which will be posted tomorrow. It seemed to work fine. I used it with the Audacity software which was pretty easy to use (and is free).

 

[SyleusSnow]

It mostly depends on how much you want to spend. I'd stay far away from the cheapo Amazon bundles. Start with a brand-name USB dynamic mic... the Samson Q2U is still a great starter mic for voiceover and is inexpensive. Or search youtube for "best podcast microphone" and look at recent results. Many of those reviews are sponsored or just parrot the latest trendy new mic, though. The channel Podcastage has unbiased reviews of different mics going back years, and Booth Junkie is excellent for learning about all things voiceover: mics, technique, filters, editing, room treatment, you name it.

More important than any specific mic is where you record... a room with lots of echo or outside noise makes even the best mic pointless. For voiceover you want as dead a recording space as possible. Many voice artists start out recording in their closet... the clothes deaden echoes. Others record in their car (while parked, of course) and others hang up moving blankets to kill room echo. Don't bother with those acoustic foam squares.

As JuanaSalsa says, Audacity is great for editing and producing the final audio. And there are tons of youtube videos on using Audacity for voiceover. If you keep at it you could move on to Reaper or some other DAW, but there are professional voiceover artists who do all their producing in Audacity.

 

[DoctorSmith8]

It mostly depends on how much you want to spend. I'd stay far away from the cheapo Amazon bundles. Start with a brand-name USB dynamic mic... the Samson Q2U is still a great starter mic for voiceover and is inexpensive. Or search youtube for "best podcast microphone" and look at recent results. Many of those reviews are sponsored or just parrot the latest trendy new mic, though. The channel Podcastage has unbiased reviews of different mics going back years, and Booth Junkie is excellent for learning about all things voiceover: mics, technique, filters, editing, room treatment, you name it.

More important than any specific mic is where you record... a room with lots of echo or outside noise makes even the best mic pointless. For voiceover you want as dead a recording space as possible. Many voice artists start out recording in their closet... the clothes deaden echoes. Others record in their car (while parked, of course) and others hang up moving blankets to kill room echo. Don't bother with those acoustic foam squares.

As JuanaSalsa says, Audacity is great for editing and producing the final audio. And there are tons of youtube videos on using Audacity for voiceover. If you keep at it you could move on to Reaper or some other DAW, but there are professional voiceover artists who do all their producing in Audacity.

I've used Audacity for years. If you only need to record one track at a time, it's hard to beat and simple to use.