[thechat] PC microphone

Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns [laptop] skaiser1 at skdesigns.com
Sun Jun 26 00:29:49 CDT 2005


At 05:25 PM 6/4/2005, joel canfield typed:
>Looking for recommendations for a microphone for my PC, and inexpensive
>or free recording software. This will be for voice only, so I'm mostly
>interested in getting clear voice recordings without breath and pops
>etc.

Hi, Joel,

Well, you wrote this note a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I'd go ahead 
and put in my 2 cents.

I use and absolutely love the PC microphone that I purchased to use with my 
speech recognition software (Dragon NaturallySpeaking). It's a Sennheiser 
e835s. It's top-notch and works beautifully. You can put a windscreen/cover 
on it if breath is an issue, but I haven't needed to do so. It also has 
great noise cancellation, if that matters to you.

I also have my microphone on a boom arm by Heil that's attached to my desk 
and swings around, adjusts quite easily while also staying where you want 
it to use the microphone... kind of like radio disc jockeys. ;-) (This all 
reminds me that I still haven't taken a photo of my setup, which I've been 
meaning to do, as a bunch of people have been curious about it.)

Part of a clean voice recording is the quality of your sound card, too, and 
making sure there's also no PC noise picked up that you don't even realize 
is there. The combination of a good microphone and good sound card make a 
big difference in the end result. One without the other might not give you 
the quality you're hoping for. The sound card I use is an Audigy 2 ZS, by 
Creative.

You might take a look at emicrophones.com, and they're quite helpful with 
answering questions about what microphone might be suitable for your 
specific needs.

I'm not at all an expert on microphones or sound cards. I just know what's 
recommended for use with speech recognition software, which is all voice. A 
better quality mic and sound card drastically improve the accuracy of the 
speech recognition software. When I've made some voice recordings with this 
equipment, it's been quite good, and the recording quality is lightyears 
beyond the basic microphone that came with my computer.

Not sure if that's the idea that you're looking for or not, but I thought 
I'd pass along the info just in case. HTH!

Warmly,
Shirley

-- 
Shirley E. Kaiser, M.A.,  SKDesigns  mailto:skaiser1 at skdesigns.com
Website Design, Development      http://skdesigns.com/
WebsiteTips: Design Resources  http://websitetips.com/
Brainstorms and Raves  http://brainstormsandraves.com/
WaSP Steering Committee       http://webstandards.org/



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