What audio gear do you recommend?

$250 USD Zoom H4 (doesn’t require an external mic, but sounds better with one)
$150 USD Zoom H2 (doesn’t require an external mic, but sounds better with one)
$100 USD headset mic
$??? iPhone (price varies)
$60 Blue Mikey (works with any iPod of any generation)

Please keep reading for QN audio samples as well as detailed studio details and audio samples from five Minions.

What audio gear do you use to record QN?

Recorder Zoom H4. Recording into a computer can be tricky, because of the white noise computers generate. The Zoom H4 has come down in price from $400 to $250, and does NOT need a mixer in order to work. It’s silent as well.

Mixer None – some set-ups require mixers, mine doesn’t.

Microphone Behringer Studio Condenser C-1 Microphone. Condenser mics tend to give the warmest sound for voice acting. You can hear the significant difference in these two sound clips.

[sitting in an office, recording into a headset ]
[standing in a closet-studio, recording into a condenser mic]

Pop Filter Stedman Proscreen 101 (It’s made of metal. I use it because my Ps and Ts have superhuman strength and barrel right through pantyhose, but almost everyone can use a coathanger and pantyhose with no problem at all.) This handy gadget – which can be cobbled together in ten minutes from pantyhose and a coat hanger – keeps you from blowing out your Ps and Ts when you’re recording. In this sound clip, I read through a list of words WITHOUT a pop filter, then the same list WITH a pop filter. [listen to the popping]

Audio Software Audacity, which is free, cross-platform, and open source. After going through an exhaustive series of trials with expensive audio software this summer, I’ve come to the conclusion that Audacity has every commercial software feature I need for my recording purposes. [learn more about Audacity]

Studio A closet, with clothes in front of me and behind me. What you want here is a quiet, small place (though you’ll see below that Paul has proved you can record in a giant room if necessary) with lots of fabric around to deaden echoes. [view photo]

Position I originally recorded sitting down, and found that getting enough breath to go through a paragraph was really difficult. After trying standing up once, I realised that not only was I able to breathe, I was able to use a lot of body language while talking – which comes through in the recordings.

Script Reader iPod Touch. I originally read off of paper on a clipboard hanging from a wall, but the amount of paper I was going through was staggering. Then I read off of a laptop screen, but there was too much white noise from the laptop. These days I read off of my iPod Touch, which is completely silent.

I’ve asked a few of the QN voice actors what they use to record.

Emily
listen to Emily’s audio quality

Recorder Blue Microphones Mikey, iPod Classic (6th generation)

Mixer none

Pop Filter Part of a pair of pantyhose around a ring of garden wire.

Audio Software Audacity

Studio Bedroom, about 155 square feet. Blanket over the window to shut out traffic sounds.

Position sitting

Script Reader paper

Kymm
listen to Kymm’s audio quality

Recorder iPhone

Mixer none

Microphone none

Pop Filter You don’t need one on the iPhone! Because the iPhone is the awesome! Also, because it is a PHONE!

Audio Software Audacity

Studio Wherever I happen to be at the moment. Usually it’s my bedroom because that’s mostly where I hang out at my house.

Position Lying down, generally. It’s a bedroom, I’m on the bed!

Script Reader laptop

Paul
listen to Paul’s audio quality

Recorder Intel iMac (I used to record on a G5 iMac and it sounded like a jet turbine…)

Mixer none

Microphone Blue Snowball

Pop Filter pantyhose, embroidery hoop

Audio Software Audacity

Studio I record in a giant room, the “great room” I guess the real estate folks call it. The iMac is on the kitchen counter. I have to wait until all are asleep and turn off fans and refrigerator before starting.

Position Sitting on a stool.

Script Reader Intel iMac.

Kim
listen to Kim’s audio quality

Recorder desktop PC

Mixer none

Microphone Sennheiser PC151 headset mic

Pop Filter A foamy cover for the mic that came with the headset.

Audio Software Audacity

Studio A small-ish room with LOTS of furniture in it. [view photo]

Position I generally sit when I’m recording, unless I’m recording something that requires me to be very active, like a fight scene.

Script Reader I usually read the scripts straight from the computer. I just got an iPod Touch, so I might be inclined to use that in the future to read lines if for some reason I need to be away from the monitor (my mic has a long cord).

Shelly
listen to Shelly’s audio quality

Recorder I record from the mixer into a Marantz PND-660. Super overkill, but that’s what I had before I discovered the Zoom.

Mixer Yamaha MG124CX

Microphone Heil PR-40

Pop Filter I have a foam windscreen on the mic, but no pop filter.

Audio Software I edit my WAV files in a Mac app called Amadeus Pro.

Studio Ex-air-conditioning closet with sheets hung on the wall to dampen sound. [view photo]

Position I sit. The room is so small that I would have to move the chair out of it to stand up if I wanted to.

Script Reader I’ve experimented a lot. As I think I mentioned some time ago, my vision is such that I need to be extremely close to text to read it; so close in fact that the mic can’t easily come between my head and the screen or page I’m reading. That makes long readings tough, so I tend to break them up and memorize manageable chunks. All that is to say that I’ve made printouts, tried reading off a computer screen (magnifying text and using a clip-on mic). These days, I have scripts on my iPhone, which I can hold in one hand, eyeball the zoomed in text, and still point my mouth at the mic effectively. I still memorize a lot more than I read.

Valerie
listen to Valerie’s audio quality

Recorder Zoom H2

Mixer Not exactly. The mic is connected to a Behringer Tube Ultragain Mic200, which is then connected to the Zoom H2. The mixer isn’t required, but the external mic jack is a little one – the same size as for a regular set of earbuds – so whatever mic you use needs to end up with that size plug, though converter cables are fairly common. I use my Griffin lapel mic with the H2 in the wild all the time. The H2 even has a setting you can turn on for power to be delivered to your mic should you need it.

However, my EV RE20 mic in the enclosure is dynamic cardioid and needs a lot of boost – the power the H2 provides doesn’t seem to be enough. I could really crank the gain and input on it, but I haven’t found a combo of levels and sound quality I’m happy with, so I just run it through the pre-amp I already had. I don’t think other types of mics have that problem. Plenty of other podcasters have way more experience with the H2 than me, but that’s all I know.

Microphone Electro-Voice RE-20

Pop Filter I don’t use one. The trick is pointing the end of the mic at a corner of the mouth.

Audio Software Audacity

Studio I’m recording in the pictured mic enclosure in a medium-sized bachelor apartment with hardwood floors, and large windows and a door to a balcony on my left. I put my mic floor stand in back of me as I sit on a stool, then drape a large blanket (which feels sort of like two-sided velour) over me, looking like a cross between a kid’s homemade tent and an old-timey photographer’s setup. [view photo]

Position I sit on a stool.

Script Reader I put my scripts in .txt form on my iPod video.

Katherine
listen to Katherine’s audio quality

Recorder Normally our recording is done from the mixer into a desktop Windows PC: the stereo line-level signal from the tape-out jacks on the mixer is fed into the line-in input jack of the on-board audio interface of the PC.

Mixer Behringer Eurorack UB802

Microphone Behringer C-1 Condenser

Pop Filter Commercial, it clips on to the mic stand. We’ve modified it by adding additional material to augment the thin layer of fabric in the frame — we used some spare air-duct filter pad for this (kind of like thin quilt batting, but it’s actually the stuff you put in the floor registers and cold air return grilles of a forced air heating/cooling system to trap dust).

Audio Software Audacity

Studio The basement “family room”. Lots of hard surfaces (walls, floor) but plenty of irregular objects and some soft materials to absorb/break up some of the reflected sound. Biggest source of noise is from the PC cooling fans; also have to remember to adjust the house thermostat sometimes to keep the furnace or central a/c from coming on, as the furnace room is just off the recording area and the fan noise gets picked up quite clearly by the mic.

Position We record sitting down usually, but would like to find a way to arrange our gear to allow recording while standing.

Script Reader Usually from a printed copy, although occasionally by displaying it on the monitor, if it’s only a few lines (like the Dr Watson sample, for instance).

Brian
listen to Brian’s audio quality

Recorder A big old Intel Quad core PC. I also used my Macbook for the longest time.

Mixer Behringer Xenyx 802 Mixer with a Behringer FCA202 Audio controller which is an external sound card.

Microphone Senneheiser MD421-II dynamic microphone

Pop Filter With a dynamic mic you really don’t need to use a pop screen, which is AWESOME, but again the price for my microphone .. .HUGE! I do have a windsock on it but that is really for spit catching!

Audio Software Audacity (Mac), Adobe Audition (PC)

Studio I record in a room. I also usually turn off the AC and fans nearby just because. I really try and keep the noise floor to the minimum. So yeah, I sweat BUCKETS for your AUDIO PLEASURE FOLKS! [view Mac studio photo] [view PC studio photo]

Position Well I sit in my chair in my VERY messy office. I record at my desk. I have a boom for my mic and such. Glass of water nearby and of course, lip balm of some sort.

Script Reader I will have my lines usually up on the screen, sometimes I work off of hardcopy depending on my mood, how my voice is.. etc., etc. I did that with the Sysadmin piece because I was using my older mic and it’s best when it was off to the side of things.

Bruce
listen to Bruce’s audio quality

Recorder I record directly into GarageBand ’09 on my 2006 MacBook Pro. No mixer, but I tweak the levels and filter as appropriate with the stuff built-in to GarageBand.

Mixer none

Microphone I use a Blue Snowball, clamped to an adjustable-height stand with some wood working spring clamps. I’ve made several attempts to acquire Blue’s Ringer shock mount, but can’t find it here in Vancouver.

Pop Filter Coathanger ring and pantyhose. Tried to buy a Pop filter that goes with the mic, but can’t find a stockist in town.

Audio Software GarageBand ’09

Studio I decided that it made sense to build a light-weight, hinged frame that didn’t look like the “recording studio” in Hustle and Flow (I love the look of golden age tenement, but only in the movies!), I designed something that would make optimal use of the cheapest wood I could find; a bundle of 1 by 2s, eight feet long, cut so that the height is 5 feet and the width of each panel is 3 feet. I had all the tools, so that helped. Materials involved 57 feet of 1 by 2, 12-4″ right angle straps, 6-4″ T-straps, and 6-2″ door hinges. The cloth was stretched over the frames before hinging them together, and staple-gunned into place. [view photo] [download Google SketchUp] [download Bruce's SketchUp studio design]

Position Sitting.

Script Reader Sometimes I read directly off the e-mail, sometimes I copy it to the Notepad app on my iPhone, and sometimes I print it out, if there’s lots going on, or I need to annotate.