Buying mic for inputting sound into G5 FCP5 reasonable price good quality.

The G5 audio input is stereo and it requires a powered mic. What's the cheapest and best quality mic one can buy to be able to record some simple stuff into Soundtrack Pro, for example narration, a song, a piece of music. I'm interested in using a Nagra also for directly inputting sound into the FCP5 for editing dialogue. I tried a professional Sony Walkman recorder but the sound was too low. I'd appreciate some expert advice. Thanks!

I bought a no-name one recently to record some narration text that's going to be re-recorded anyway, just needed to get the timing right for my cut. If that's what you're looking for, you pick one up at your local electronics shop for about $25. It's got an AA battery, an on-off switch, and a mono-stereo switch. Surpisingly good quality too, not like in the recording studio, but fine for a rough.

You can also use the audio input on the G5 to record straight into the QTPro Player. You just need to remeber to turn up the input volume under system prefs>sound>input.

Yeah, the sound inputs on MAC''s are line level and no normal microphone does line level. You need a converter from low level mic to line and there are several that us a USB input for a more stellar vocal quality.

There are some of these in the Apple Store and other music stores. M-Audio and Edirol come to mind

I agree with Clay. I've used a cheap (I think it was $30) lapel mic from Radio Shack that has one of those small batteries you find in your wristwatch. I used it for interviews on camera and the sound from the dialogue was clear and audible. Worked fine.

[www.radioshack.com]

Griffin I-mic! google it.

what exactly do you consider "reasonable price"?????

to some folk $700 for a mic is reasonable, others $2000 and others $50...

ive heard a LOT of complaints about the griffin i-mic.

some people just speak into the camera mic and capture that either from tape or simply by using capture now on FCP.

what kind of room will you be recording in? that has as much to do with it as does the quality of the mic...

i personally use a digidesign digi002 rack with a rode NT2 - together the whole thing with a good stand was about $1800

My two cents on the Griffin iMic: avoid it. The blurb on the website sounds great - but in reality, it's hit-or-miss. At times, it works fine; but sometimes it produces an unacceptable amount of noise that will drive you nuts.

I've been using a PreSonus FIREBOX for the past month and it's been working great. Here's some info:

[www.bhphotovideo.com]

Hi Vic,

The Walkmans I've used in the past all had "Line-Level" outputs, which should work well with your G5 - I have some recollection of a setting somewhere which changed the output to "mic" level, which would be too low for your line=level input. The mics on the "pro" walkman machines are pretty good.

Nagra (I presume you're talking about the old tape machine with the pilot-signal head) had, excellent (for their day) mic preamps, and plenty of line output signal available - shouldn't be a problem after you work out how to set the input level on your Mac and output level on the Nagra. You can also use the Nagra as a preamp to feed an external mic. You may need to consider the fact that the Nagras had balanced (as well as unbalanced) outputs, and consider which one to use and how to feed them properly into your computer.

One of the better places to buy relatively inexpensive mics is Guitar Center -($15.00-up) though they won't let you try and return them.



Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

You could buy a 2 channel mixer from guitar center for about $29.00 and plug in a mic maybe a Shure or Audio Technica from Guitar center as well you can pick those up for as little as $39.00. connect the mixer to the audio in port on the Mac using RCA to 1/8" mini.

I bought a Griffin iMic awhile back, and it is horrible. It's not even a hit-or-miss. Definitely avoid it.

If you get a $50 mixer you can put in
various mics.

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Her are some good audio mixers:

[www.behringer.com]
[www.behringer.com]
[www.behringer.com]

[www.musiciansfriend.com] $50

JOHN LONGENECKER
[JLMoviesUSA.com]

Looks like another advertisement post to me. What do you think, O mighty moderators?

Wayne:

You mentioned in your post that the room means as much as the mic. From experience I agree with you.

How is your editing area set-up for good voice over. I've been fighting a low humm on my just completed project. I know about crossing lines, coiled lines, Ac ventilation....I've done my homework.

I noticed you use the digidesign digi002; I'm using the M-Box to interface through to FCP.


How are you set-up to voice-over into FCP cleanly????


with great anticipation..................Sailho............Neil

Wow, everyones stompin on the I-mic, works fine for me but I'm just doing temp stuff, not the real thing, but haven't had any quirks with it.

iMic is fine for skype or another VOIP and maybe for a really rough VO but I had one and would never suggest you use it for even a semi-pro recording...

Get one of the marvellous range of Roland USB Devices (Edirol) and a decent set of mics one for voice and one with a greater response for recording live music such as guitar, piano, etc.

[www.roland.com]

I would also recommend getting a spit guard (aka pop filter) for the voice mic - or make your own from a wire coat-hanger and a pair of high denier nylon stockings!


Ben





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

good question neil. and the answer varies.

i have my digi002 rack in a flight case and do the recording/editing work in protoolsLE on a powerbook g4 17 - so the whole setup is mobile. but for recording, ill generally run very long headphone and mic cables to a room a good distance from the computer (or any other obvious source of noise).

that room will be attenuated as needed with blankets, auralex, mattress egg-crating, heavy fely blankets, upholstered office dividers or whatever is available for reflection dampening.

at my control table the talent mic cable goes into a channel of the digi002 and my talkback mic goes into another one. i assign the talent to track 1 and my talkback to track 2 (so i dont have to worry about punching a talkback button). i'll also often play the background music softly into one of the other remaining channels so that the talent can pace their tone and tempo to the background music.

then i have a 6 channel headphone distribution amp coming out of the 002 to give me, the talent and any observers their own independent headphone volume.

i'll edit the takes into the prime cuts and export those parts as individual AIF files for import into FCP.

...or as I have had to make do with on a bizzarre occasion - put the voice artist under a heavy blanket!

Works surprisingly well but the talent generally gets hot and sweaty hehe





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

"Wow, everyones stompin on the I-mic, works fine for me but I'm just doing temp stuff, not the real thing, but haven't had any quirks with it."


You are right that if you are NOT using it for pro purposes, then the iMic may serve well like dictating spoken words or something

I don't mean to bash it so much, but filmman did ask:


"What's the cheapest and best quality mic one can buy to be able to record some simple stuff into Soundtrack Pro, for example narration, a song, a piece of music."

hahahaha - i HAVE DONE THAT AS WELL! kinda looks like a homeless ghost standing in your studio

<<<everyones stompin on the I-mic>>>

Can I stomp, too? I borrowed one and it's pretty awful.

It's so cheap (how cheap is it) it's so cheap that they didn't filter the power coming down the USB cable. In English, that means you can hear every time the hard drive spins up or any electrical change inside the machine.

Constant buzzes and whistles and clicks on top of the sound. You will always find someone with the right moons and stars who is using one of these things for audio work, but it won't be me.

I am printing this thread. More audio stuff in one place than I've seen in a long time.

Koz

totally - I really wish I'd recorded the vision to the camera as well now!

THE ALL NEW AUDIO RECORDING BOOTH FOR PROS IS HERE!

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For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Thanks Wayne........you confirm I'm on the right track.......just gotta get there. If it's not the dang Video.....it's the audio!!!!

Thanks again.........Neil

While we are talking mics, has anyone used the Snowball from Blue Microphones. Or any of their other models?

Hi Darren

Several people on Voice-Over forums have reported that they were quite happy with it (Not enough to give up their Neumanns in the studio, but great for travelling.) I'll probably know more in about a month (I'm getting one for my trip to NAB.)



Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

Okay, let us know....

<<<Several people on Voice-Over forums>>>

Such as.........?

Koz

just a quick FYI. i loaned my rode NT2 to an engineer friend of mine a few years back and they A/B tested it in studio with that classic neumann (i think its a U87???) anyway, at that time the rode was selling for about $699 and the neumann was well over $2500. and in listener preference tests the rode consistently beat it.

Hi Koz.


[finance.groups.yahoo.com]
[www.vo-bb.com]

Search for "Blue Mic". Keep in mind that voiceover folks have somewhat different requirements for Mics than video people, but if you intend to use the mic for V.O. recording, their comments should give you some idea.



Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

If this is for professional paying work - do not skimp on a microphone - I did for a long time with a RE-50 -- the kind you can hammer nails with and you see reporters in field using all the time - fine mike but no "umph" to it - yes you can add "umph" in post - but you are far better off doing it in mike. If you really are making a living with this - the quality and convenience of a real profesionall mike will pay for itself in a job or two.

Saved my sheckles and purchased a Neumann TL103 - one of their least expensive - but still nearly 1000.00 mikes -- good stand with vibration cancelling shock mount and a phantom power supply. It is OUTSTANDING -- RODE and Blue make a wonderful line of very good mikes as well.

yeah, that neumann tlm 103 is a fantastic mic! and at $999 it damned well better be!

in my opinion, its pretty much all the mic you'll ever need for VO work.

its been my experience that after a certain dollar amount you will kind of reach a "quality threshold" where more money wont be so much buying you more quality as much as it will buy you more "flavor". and in my opinion with mics - that threshold is about $750. after that it just becomes an issue of what kind of sound do you prefer? every mic has a different sound. after say $2000 or so, youre just buying different flavors (that 95% of the public out there couldnt even discern) and of course the cache' of saying i have an "XYZ" mic - and in some circles that buys validity...

and as andy says, any good mic needs an equally solid mic stand and shock mount