How should I record narration?
July 21, 2005 in location sound, post audio by Josh
Our recommendation is narrate into your camcorder onto a DV tape, using a studio quality balanced condensor mic.
The advantages of recording onto a DV tape are:
1. After your project is finished, your narration is still on a tape and if you re-edit the project in the future, you won’t have to record and edit the voice-over again.
2. You can narrate away from your computer and its fan.
3. you can log the “footage” and only capture the “keeper” takes.
If you know you’ll never re-edit, and you want to save a few minutes and a few cents, you can use the voice-over tool- but you will lose the ability to re-edit (unless you back the narration up onto CD-R or other media!)
Narration is also known as “voice-over” or “VO”.
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Can you recommend a good studio quality balanced condensor mic to record narration to tape? Thanks.
Hi Dan, I’ll take a stab at this one after having to work with VO talent for many productions and recording them in my home studio for television broadcast. Obviously I needed the best quality and no loss or hissing and you’re right, a good quality balanced condenser microphone is the only way to go. You probably, like myself, don’t want to spend $1000 and up for a microphone so there is one alternative I have found.
The LUMA M-AUDIO Microphone.
?Ä¢ Inexpensive large capsule cardioid condenser
?Ä¢ 1.1?Äù evaporated gold diaphragm
?Ä¢ Solid brass capsule
?Ä¢ Class A solid state electronics
?Ä¢ Perfect for recording high quality piano, guitar AND vocal tracks.
It’s $249.99 from M-AUDIO and well worth it. You could also purchase the ARIES which is $100 cheaper and still is a professional microphone but with a smaller condenser capsule.
http://www.m-audio.com
Have fun testing them out…
Sebastien Gomez
As a pro FOH and Recording Engineer I have a personal collection of mics that range in price from $150. to $3,500.
Here’s a fact that a lot of people who own expensive equipment don’t want to hear. Price often does not have any bearing on quality. Sure more bucks generally means better quality but, it’s a diminishiiing rate of return. In the case of microphones the rule really applies!
What makes a microphone expensive is their notoriety. Some mics just get a reputation for delivering a certain quality to a certain instrument. Also, every mic will impart qualities to an instrument that have no bearing on price or desirebility. ie: a $150. SM57 blows away a $3,000. U87 on Marshall guitar cabinets.
My advice, Audia Technica and Rode make excellent products you will be happy with, at a fraction of the price. That said, I don’t own many of them…my application is quite different.
If you are looking at a low end mic, check out the Rode NTA-1. It delivers great results for the price of around $200 dollars new. Some good mid-range mics that are pretty versatile with many types of female and male VOs are the Groove Tube GT55 which you can get used for around $200 used, or the extremely versatile AT4050 for around $600 new or $500 used. At the slightly higher end I’ve really enjoyed using a Sound Deluxe U195, though I believe they were bought out by Bock Audio. With a little post and good placement, you should be able to get appropriate tone for most any voice over, especially if recording in a controlled environment.