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kamikaziechameleon
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Good cost effective voice recording

Fri Jan 03, 2014 3:01 pm

Hey guys. I'm looking for a good cost effective voice recording solution. I currently have a web cam and a cell phone that are not cutting it, lol. I just want to record messages that will play as alarms for me in the morning. Right now the quality I record in is so grating its more static that anything.

I'm not looking for commercial quality just cost effective solution. 10-200 dollars. I currently have integrated audio on my mobo
 
just brew it!
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Fri Jan 03, 2014 3:17 pm

Just get an inexpensive name-brand headset (e.g. Logitech), and if your system is really loud (cooling fans) either temporarily dial the fans back, or use a laptop in a quiet location to record the audio.

If the audio quality is still really crappy you probably need to mess with the recording levels and/or mic gain boost settings. You need to have the gain set high enough to be comfortably above the noise floor of your onboard audio's ADCs, but not so high that the audio clips. Unless your onboard audio is *really* bad, it should be possible to do this.

Edit: Oh, and download a copy of Audacity if you haven't already.

Edit 2: And use the rear mic jack. Front audio jacks often have noise issues.
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morphine
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:05 pm

Borrow a proper microphone from a friend/acquaintance that has a studio, does karaoke, etc? Or just buy an affordable USB microphone, of which there are several - but it seems like an overkill solution for me.
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Milo Burke
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:13 pm

You just mean spoken word messages? Like your own voice as your alarm clock or something?

If your needs are this simple, get a gaming headset with the little arm that stretches the microphone in front of your mouth. No need to spend a lot. Read reviews for which ones are good. Amazon and Newegg are great places to start. Having the little microphone in front of your mouth (or just above your mouth to avoid breath noise) makes such a huge difference over a mic built into a laptop, webcam, speakerphone on a cell phone, etc.

If I'm not understanding the project and you need more fidelity, maybe a USB mic would fit the bill. Higher quality still would be a large diaphragm condenser with a recording interface. There are cheap brands for these that can sound quite good, but probably outside your budget and very likely overkill if I understand your project.

Let us know what you get and how you like it!
 
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:58 pm

Milo Burke wrote:
You just mean spoken word messages? Like your own voice as your alarm clock or something?

That's what it sounds like he's asking for to me.

Milo Burke wrote:
If your needs are this simple, get a gaming headset with the little arm that stretches the microphone in front of your mouth. No need to spend a lot.

Pretty much what I recommended in my reply. If it's good enough for in-game voice chat and Skype it should be good enough to record a "Wake up you lazy-ass, you've got a meeting this morning!" voice memo.
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morphine
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Fri Jan 03, 2014 9:47 pm

I still find that the best sound for waking one up is an air-raid siren.
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kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:27 pm

Milo Burke wrote:
You just mean spoken word messages? Like your own voice as your alarm clock or something?


Pretty much, I can dictate notes to myself for a morning alarm clock, "Today I'm ...." I have been doing it with my phone mic but its horrible sounding. I find these types of audio notes or whatever you would call them to be very useful. I manage many things outside of work and dictation has become a powerful tool.
 
PenGun
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:02 pm

Just talking to my phone using PCM Recorder:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rder&hl=en

Nice clear CD quality sound. My big ol Sony has a nice sound anyway so my mike might be somewhat responsible.
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kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Thu Jan 23, 2014 5:04 pm

PenGun wrote:
Just talking to my phone using PCM Recorder:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rder&hl=en

Nice clear CD quality sound. My big ol Sony has a nice sound anyway so my mike might be somewhat responsible.



Just dropped this on my phone. Also on a newer phone the nexus 5. So I'll let you know how it works out.

I need to look into the other options too.
 
kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Thu Jan 23, 2014 5:08 pm

morphine wrote:
I still find that the best sound for waking one up is an air-raid siren.


Doing that just makes me angry, lol. A near heart attack wake up was a thing I did when I was young. Now it just makes me want to murder things for the first 6 hrs.

I read a book by a fairly successful individual called "born to be rich" some time ago. He said that for him, maintaining the right state of mind was the most important part of finding not only success but true happiness. He started off by not using jarring alarms to wake himself up anymore, but instead having a visible clock and falling asleep meditating to the time he would wake up and how he'd start his day.

I haven't developed that, well I had it down pat for a while but lost it. At any rate if I'm going to use an alarm I'd like to have it be an affirmation statement, memo or other useful sound bites.

I'm not so much into waking up to news radio, classical music is more my thing.
 
morphine
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Thu Jan 23, 2014 5:12 pm

I said it was effective for waking up. Nowhere did I mention it was in any way pleasant. :wink:
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kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:40 pm

Alarm clock HD apparently has added the feature I need so dearly. I'm pretty pumped. I also have a new Headset coming so I can record memo's and stuff without using my cruddy webcam.

Guys thanks dearly for trying to help me in this endeavor.
 
Hz so good
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Wed Jun 18, 2014 1:08 pm

just brew it! wrote:
Just get an inexpensive name-brand headset (e.g. Logitech), and if your system is really loud (cooling fans) either temporarily dial the fans back, or use a laptop in a quiet location to record the audio.

If the audio quality is still really crappy you probably need to mess with the recording levels and/or mic gain boost settings. You need to have the gain set high enough to be comfortably above the noise floor of your onboard audio's ADCs, but not so high that the audio clips. Unless your onboard audio is *really* bad, it should be possible to do this.

Edit: Oh, and download a copy of Audacity if you haven't already.

Edit 2: And use the rear mic jack. Front audio jacks often have noise issues.



One other thing, drape heavy quilts on the windows (and walls and doors, if you have enough quilts) while recording. That'll act like a poor-man's sound proofing.
 
kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Thu Jun 19, 2014 12:39 pm

Hz so good wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Just get an inexpensive name-brand headset (e.g. Logitech), and if your system is really loud (cooling fans) either temporarily dial the fans back, or use a laptop in a quiet location to record the audio.

If the audio quality is still really crappy you probably need to mess with the recording levels and/or mic gain boost settings. You need to have the gain set high enough to be comfortably above the noise floor of your onboard audio's ADCs, but not so high that the audio clips. Unless your onboard audio is *really* bad, it should be possible to do this.

Edit: Oh, and download a copy of Audacity if you haven't already.

Edit 2: And use the rear mic jack. Front audio jacks often have noise issues.



One other thing, drape heavy quilts on the windows (and walls and doors, if you have enough quilts) while recording. That'll act like a poor-man's sound proofing.


Good thinking. :)
 
morphine
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Thu Jun 19, 2014 2:06 pm

IIRC, Dan Swanö often goes just goes into a closet to record vocals, as the "echo suppression" works well.

Please spare me the "out of the closet" jokes :P
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Hz so good
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Re: Good cost effective voice recording

Thu Jun 19, 2014 2:35 pm

morphine wrote:
IIRC, Dan Swanö often goes just goes into a closet to record vocals, as the "echo suppression" works well.

Please spare me the "out of the closet" jokes :P



I think they do almost the same recording the VOs for Archer and Robot Chicken. Tiny little room with a small window, mic, and patches of acoustic panel on walls. The videos were extras on the DVDs, so they're bound to be on youtube somewhere.

*EDIT*

They use a much bigger room, and record at the same time, but you can watch Trey Parker and Matt Stone do the VOs for South Park on 6 Days to Air.

Adventures in Voice Acting (9 parts) is worth a watch, too.

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