What's the best way to have some good quality sound of just me talking

[RaymondCasgrain]

Listen guys, I want to start making some videos. I want to make all kinds of different videos.

I have some very very newbie kinds of questions to ask. I'm pretty sure that if I did searches for the kind of help I need, I wouldn't be able to find the answers because the stuff I need to know is so simple that anyone who makes videos just automatically knows.

My main question at the moment would be, let's say I'm doing some video editing in my computer. I want to record me talking over the video. What's the best way to have some good quality sound of just me talking. How good of a mic do I actually need? How can I have clean sound without background noise. Like, right now if I just record off my headset that I chat to people on, the sound has a kind of static / background noise. Do I need to be in a room with some stuff on the walls to reduce the echo? Do I need to use a high quality computer program or can I just get a cheap / free one? Do I need anything other than a mic and a computer?

Any help would be appreciated

[newpball]

My main question at the moment would be, let's say I'm doing some video editing in my computer. I want to record me talking over the video. What's the best way to have some good quality sound of just me talking. How good of a mic do I actually need?

For good quality sound the simplest way would be to use a quality (24bit) audio interface with phantom power and a good condenser microphone. AD interfaces start around $100 and so do decent microphones. Add to that a good microphone stand and some good headphones and you are ready to record.

For instance (and this is just an example, I am no endorsing anything) look at this entry level package:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SparkScarletBun

or this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-2i4-USB-Interface-Headphones/dp/B00BW90Z8A/ref=sr_1_3?...ywords=mxl+550

[RaymondCasgrain]

My main question at the moment would be, let's say I'm doing some video editing in my computer. I want to record me talking over the video. What's the best way to have some good quality sound of just me talking. How good of a mic do I actually need?

For good quality sound the simplest way would be to use a quality (24bit) audio interface with phantom power and a good condenser microphone. AD interfaces start around $100 and so do decent microphones. Add to that a good microphone stand and some good headphones and you are ready to record.

Okay, the first bit of that sounded a bit confusing to me.

Can you please explain to me what an audio interface is? And also what a condenser microphone is? This is like a type of microphone that I need?

I'm guessing the one thing is something that goes in between my computer and the mic?

I appreciate the response. I know pretty much nothing though, sorry.


Edit: That package looks really nice. But if I can get something cheap used from the pawn shop, that will be more my road

[RaymondCasgrain]

Also, another really newb question: If I'm going to be editing videos, how good of a computer do I really need? Do you need an extremely powerful computer to do any decent video editing? With a mediocre computer, how good of videos am I going to be able to make? Why? Can someone explain this a bit to me?

[newpball]

Also, another really newb question: If I'm going to be editing videos, how good of a computer that I need? Do you need an extremely powerful computers to do any decent video editing? With a mediocre computer, how good of videos am I going to be able to make? Why? Can someone explain this a bit to me?

There are a couple of factors. The main one is time, a slow computer can pretty much generate the same quality video as a fast computer it just takes longer. The biggest constraint is memory, depending on what resolution of video you are using you may need anywhere between 4GB and 32GB and up. Personally I think that 8GB is the minimum but with patience I suppose you can make it work with 4GB.

[RaymondCasgrain]

Also, another really newb question: If I'm going to be editing videos, how good of a computer that I need? Do you need an extremely powerful computers to do any decent video editing? With a mediocre computer, how good of videos am I going to be able to make? Why? Can someone explain this a bit to me?

There are a couple of factors. The main one is time, a slow computer can pretty much generate the same quality video as a fast computer it just takes longer. The biggest constraint is memory, depending on what resolution of video you are using you may need anywhere between 4GB and 32GB and up. Personally I think that 8GB is the minimum but with patience I suppose you can make it work with 4GB.

Great, man, I really appreciate the response. Listen, I'm going to be making videos for a long time I figure so I'll probably end up coming back here a lot to get help. Thanks for breaking that down to me in newb terms, new.

I'm actually using a laptop right now, but it's a gaming laptop, so, high end. It's one of those Asus Republic of Gamers. Thing's got 8Gbs of RAM so I'm good there. It's also got good graphics and a good chip. I'm kinda worried though it won't be able to perform like a desktop.

Anyway, I'm going to get making some videos for sure in the next few weeks so I hope I can find help on here cause I'm sure it's not going to be so easy

[RaymondCasgrain]

Listen, is it possible for any of your guys to actually explain how this works?

Say I get this "audio interface with phantom power" (I don't even know what that means), this is a little box right? I'm going to plug my microphone into it I presume? This will be connected to my cpu? Through what port? What kind of wires to I need? Would someone mind explaining how to set this up?

[RaymondCasgrain]

I just found out what phantom power is

What's a microphone pre-amp?

[RaymondCasgrain]

Okay, I think I've just figured this out.

If I want to record good sound, I need a thing called an audio interface. That's it. Pretty simple. It's not hard to do? Alright, appreciate the help guys.

[newpball]

Listen, is it possible for any of your guys to actually explain how this works?

Say I get this "audio interface with phantom power" (I don't even know what that means), this is a little box right? I'm going to plug my microphone into it I presume? This will be connected to my cpu? Through what port? What kind of wires to I need? Would someone mind explaining how to set this up?

An audio interface is basically an analog to digital converter (and digital to analog converter), it takes the analog input from for instance a microphone and samples this into a digital stream. Most modern interfaces use USB 2.0 or firewire.

[RaymondCasgrain]

Listen, is it possible for any of your guys to actually explain how this works?

Say I get this "audio interface with phantom power" (I don't even know what that means), this is a little box right? I'm going to plug my microphone into it I presume? This will be connected to my cpu? Through what port? What kind of wires to I need? Would someone mind explaining how to set this up?

An audio interface is basically an analog to digital converter (and digital to analog converter), it takes the analog input from for instance a microphone and samples this into a digital stream. Most modern interfaces use USB 2.0 or firewire.

K I got it. Thanks a lot.

[newpball]

Okay, I think I've just figured this out.

If I want to record good sound, I need a thing called an audio interface. That's it. Pretty simple. It's not hard to do? Alright, appreciate the help guys.

Well there is more of course, once sampled you might want to process the sound. Perhaps you want that good old dark radio voice, or one with a bit of room ambiance, or perhaps you want to change the frequency of your voice. All that you can do in an (audio) editor. There are several free tools and of course a lot of pay tools from basic to very advanced.

But remember the GIGO principle, a bad quality source won't improve much with even 10 millions of effects, record a good quality source good quality then the effects (applied mildly) polish it.

But when you start my first advice would be to start and not struggle over technology. You can have the best technology but without material, creativity and hard editing work you won't get an end result. So practice with simple things first.

[jagabo]

More important that what equipment you use is to have the mic close to your mouth. Even the best mic three feet away from your mouth will sound bad compared to a mediocre mic just a few inches away.