what type microphone?

raygo · Post by **raygo** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:52 pm

I need to do some voice over and would like to know if any special type mic for pugging into audio card?

And, which is best... to recorde directly to the voice overlay in VS while video is running or, using a 3rd party software to record, then import audio bits back to the project?
thanks.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:23 pm

I simply use the microphone which came with the cheap headset I use for my Skype calls. It cost around US$10 and works just fine. I also sometimes use a more expensive Labtech desktop microphone, with similarly good effects, though I need to place it closer to my mouth at the sort of distance you would use with a boom mike on the headset. Otherwise, I have to put voiceovers from this mike through an audio editing program to boost them a little.

No doubt, though, there are also much more expensive and specialised microphones out there, but it depends on how much quality you want -- not to mention how much you are willing to pay!!!

As for how you do them, I haven't bothered with the recording facility built in to Video Studio since VS8. I acknowledge it can be useful, but it is very simple -- essentially, what you say is what you get, period. But if you want to apply filters to make it sound better, apply fade-ins or out and otherwise tweak your voice-overs, then you should consider using a third party audio editing program. I use Wave Editor which comes as part of the Nero suite. Others use the freeware Audacity program. But there is a huge number of other similar programs out there, some free, some retail. Take your pick.

blplhp · Post by **blplhp** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:54 pm

Hi Ken,

I thought I read somewhere that when using a mic for voice-over recordings, that the mic had to be of a certain type or maybe it had to have a certain connection or setting, like line level vs. ???, or something like that. Any knowledge about this? In the four months that I have been using VS10+, I have not yet delved into voice-overs yet, but may decide to use this feature in the near future and I want to have the right type of mic and/or proper Windows setting for it when I use it. Thanks.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:06 pm

Don't know about anything special. As an experiment, I just opened VS10+ and used its internal recording facility. I used the boom mike on my headset, which is plugged into the MIC plug of my sound card. I recorded a short statement which played back well. I then applied the voice levelling filter, and I was pleased at the boost this gave. I have not tried the other available filters. But overall, I would say you don't have to have any special mike to record with.

raygo · Post by **raygo** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:38 pm

Ken,
If you use other software like wave editor etc, then you are not in VS so your not seeing the clips, so my simple question is,
if your say, take out the original audio of a scene where 3 people are talking, and you want to record
each one saying something funny or different [using your own voice or canned audio etc],
how do you sync it or know how long to be the 1st person talking before the next ones lips start moving then the 3rd person etc..
I would think u need to watch each person and record at the same time or am I missing something here?

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 1:24 am

raygo · Post by **raygo** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 1:48 am

Actually,
lip synce was not the right term.

I have some wedding clips with some funny stuff and want to pull down the clips audio and add my own to people regardless if they are talking or not..
note:
ever watch Mystery science theater 3000?that sort of thing.

doesn't have to be exact sync but a specific voice -over for person talking.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:55 am

Raygo -- I know of no easy way to do what you want to do. If I am going to mute/delete the original audio and want to insert my own voiceovers to match pretty accurately the original voice times for different people, then I put the timeline view up to maximum (i.e. frame by frame), not where the original audio starts for one person and then where it ends. That way I can work out virtually to the frame how long my voiceover can be. Then I do it in the third party editor to the exact time or as near as I can get.

But yes, you can certainly also try it by using the in-built recorder, and as I indicated with my little experiment above, it seems to work just fine. Mind you, I can't think of a way of making an *exact* match of the time of a voiceover to that of the delted/muted original audio.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:18 pm

Mind you, I can't think of a way of making an *exact* match of the time of a voiceover to that of the delted/muted original audio.

If you are only off a second or two you could adjust the speed of the clip(s) so they match. You would have to experiment as to how much of an adjustment would cause it to look or sound funny.