Hi, i am using a Labtec microphone and it is quite bad quality, you can hear the air. I have used audio programs such as Audacity, however this only does so much; could you recommend a microphone and give the price?

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X3

I have a Samson CO1U microphone.



I picked it up at Best Buy for around 90 dollars or so. The best microphone I have ever owned, incredible quality to it.

I used to own a couple of these.



Pretty headset mics for 15 dollars.

A Logitech USB Desktop is a mic too. Around 30-40 dollars.

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Other things you can do to improve sound recording quality:-

Adjust the mic so it's not in line with your mouth (clicks and pops, from the pickup catching "t"s, "s"s and "p"s can be cut down this way.  You can also use a mic shield (a sock or nylon stocking over the pickup itself can be a cheap alternative if you can't afford/don't want to shell out on a shop bought version).

Record a , long length of speech (read a passage from a book or a chunk of script) and play it back; listen to it through headphones and check the noise level; adjusting your playback levels can help.

Your mic may not be optimally adjusted for your sound card and tweaking such things are recording level, etc, in your options can help enormously).

And yes; whilst a mic will help, if you're using an older sound card, that will cause issues with your recording, too.

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I use the Logitech Desktop mic.  It works quite nicely.  I got mine for $20.

Thx, for all your ideas and recommendations all.

BTW for sound card, i am running windows vista, i don't know weather i will need to buy one, but what one would you recommend, as i don't know much about sound cards?

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X3

For all my recordings and skype use, I use the Microsoft Lifechat LX-3000 headset.  It has a repositional boom mic, padded earcuffs and a volume control switch inline.  It is a usb device.It works real well.  I got mine at Best Buy.  Here is the link for the page with all the specs and a pic.

 

As far as sound cards, it all depends on what kind of sound set-up you already have (a card or a chip-set), what you are looking to do and what slots are available in your computer for expansions (PCI, PCI-Express, etc.). 

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Come see my work on TMU

http://www.tmunderground.com/Harb40

I bought a Zoom H4 for $300.

It's brilliant.

I do all my VO work on it and it's just as at recording my band playing live.

It's basically a pair of ears attached to a box.

Easy to use as well - if you've got the pocket money, it's well worth it.

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