Voiceover Mic Choice

[kags]

When I use Gefell mics for VO, I always get compliments from the post prod team on the vocal sound. I can’t say that about any other mic. The UM70/71 is excellent and often my choice over an 87.

 

[k brown]

When I use Gefell mics for VO, I always get compliments from the post prod team on the vocal sound. I can’t say that about any other mic. The UM70/71 is excellent and often my choice over an 87.

OP: "Not a large budget".

 

[MicMaven]

micmaven - You keep emphasizing the “BUDGET” aspect and talking down people’s responses, but the original post also said “industry standard”.

Gee, George ... that is kinda harsh.

And yet, you raise a good point, which I take seriously.

I definitely do NOT intend to "talk down" any response. I merely felt we were not being responsive to the original question. Perhaps we should have clearly defined and delineated the scope of the terms, "budget" and "industry standard." Monikers like these, and others like "professional," and "good" are truly subjective, relative terms, the scope of which can turn on one's tolerance for economic pain and actual need for technical competence. What suits my budget and performs well for my purposes may not suffice for another's purposes. Perhaps we should have inquired as to the OP's friend's actual budget constraints and resources before offering any advice.

Your take makes me wonder whether any microphone can have both attributes, i.e., budget and industry standard, at once, unless one has a very substantial budget. I understood the OP was asking on behalf of a novice just entering the field, and I believe that calls for a decent, lower cost model that will facilitate his entry into the business, to get started, practice, and develop good microphone technique, while building a resume, repertoire, and book of business/client base as he progresses. Therefore, I continue to believe a Neumann U87i is more mic at substantially greater cost than he needs to get started.

I appreciate your comment as you contribute a good point for discussion. James

 

[ubxf]

Thank you for your reply. I do not agree. James

I also agree to disagree . Somehow I missed " And then in the future he also wants a mic to record fx " I think a good mic that can cover well VO, ADR, Foley and FX recording is a Schoeps CMC6 XT with a MK41 capsule

 

[GeorgeToledo]

Thinking about this more, KSM32 and KSM27 would be very good choices for off the shelf mics at low price, for the described applications, which I think are well regarded professionally. The AT 4033 is another pragmatic choice.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Your take makes me wonder whether any microphone can have both attributes, i.e., budget and industry standard, at once, unless one has a very substantial budget.

or an industry standard "budget" mic, like Shure SM 58(?), albeit live sound, not recording.

JR

 

[Paul W]

Or if you're lucky, you find a P420 and do the mod for $50.

In the US, you can get a P420 new for $200 USD, regular price.

$50 used would be a great deal, but I just got a used one for $85 in a pawn shop, with the case & shock mount and an XLR cable and a weird little reflection shield.

Learning how your local pawn shops work can be worthwhile, especially if you're not in a hurry. Some have a regular schedule of discounting things every few months, so if you drop in every few months, you may find the item you want is considerably cheaper. (In my area, some even print the discount schedule on the price sticker in small print, with the dates at which the item will be discounted to particular prices.) They will also entertain offers.

The P420 I just bought was marked $100, and not scheduled to be discounted to $80 for months, but I asked if they'd take $80 anyway, and they countered with $85, and I took it. (That seemed cool, because a couple of times before, P420s have disappeared from local pawn shops when the price got about that low, before I came around again and could grab them.)

I also got them to knock $10 off a 4th gen (all black) NT1 with the shock mount w/pop screen, and got it for $70. (After I'd offered $60.)

That's in addition to the several Perception 200s (which would be fine for VO w/the kingkorg mod) and Behringer B2 Pros I've collected for $30 to $50 each, the more expensive ones with matching shock mounts. (Yes, I'm a devoted follower of kingkorg mods.)

My best deals have been in pawn shops that don't do a lot of business in music gear, where they don't necessarily know what they've got. (I never find the great deals in the pawn shops that have a big selection of music gear.)

I got a pair of Shure SM81s for $100. (Normally $800 new.) I think the people at the pawn shop thought they did not work at all, because they didn't understand that they need phantom power. They were on the clearance table, marked "as is," but I brought in a mixer and tried them out, and they're fine.

I am fortunate to live in a major metropolitan area with dozens of pawn shops I can visit now and then. Or maybe unfortunate...

My name is Paul, and I am an addict.

 

[allergies.for.all]

The Blue Kiwi is an extremely underrated LDC! If your budget is higher, a Mojave MA-1000 tube condenser is a very modern (not in the gross way) sounding mic, also great for VO.

 

[JF]

VO is a very narrow frequency range and far less demanding of microphones than singing.

Don't confuse voice over with podcasts ... we are VERY sensitive if voice sounds natural. But we don't need/want a natural voice at a podcast, more the "radio voice" sound.

Of course you could also use some cheaper condenser, in fact every mic will SOMEHOW work. But with some your live will be easier and when customers visit your studio the Neumann logo silences questions. A used TLM193 is in the 800,- range (damn, I bought mine for 1100 new and 900 B-stock (with tax) - mics get expensive. M201 is nearly double the price now) and you can use it for all the mentioned recording types.

With even lower budget - search for a seriously low noise microphone. You need to record whispering without any noise cause you need to bring it up later - that's demanding. Also Foley.
I would NOT use a dynamic mic! Podcast - yes. VO - no.
A omni mic would be a very nice solution but needs a good treated environment. It could be enough to build absorbers around the speaking position, you need to be creative when on a budget. Rode NT5 omni has very low noise (lower as cardioid, I measured mine with 17-18mV/Pa and about 12dB(A) equivalent noise, 3dB better as the cardioid ones). You can try to angle the mic to get less top end boost which often ocours with not linearised omnis.
An AKG C4000 could also be a good option - dirt cheap used cause nobody knows them. But very capable microphones.
An interesting handheld mic would be the Audix VX-5. More neutral as most dynamic mics and still very low feedback.

But to be honest - that's fooling around for amateur and beginners use. When you want to work in the voice over business get the tools and get work done instead of wasting time to go through cheaper stuff and search for hours to save 400 bucks.


How is the rest of the chain? Do you have a preamp with a LOT of noiseless gain for a dynamic mic?
I would start with the room first btw ... build a nice absorber "chamber" (no hard walls but a lot of absorption around your speaker), you need your voice DRY. You can EQ your mic, you can not remove the "boxy" early reflections of a small, untreated room.

 

[Michael Tibes]

I recently tried the Rode nt1 5th generation because it offers a 32bit floating point usb out as well as analog out. So far I am quite impressed with the analog performance recording music (trough a 1073), I haven’t even tried the digital out yet. It is really low noise.
It might be worth a shot. It brings it‘s own micpre and interface, a good shock mount, pop shield and 2 cables, that is hard to beat for around 200 € here in Germany.
All the other suggestions (U87, Sennheisers) are absolutely valid, but cost way more. And I guess there won’t be a suggestion which combines ‚industry standard‘ and ‚low cost‘.

One thing to consider would be cable length for the digital output. It uses usb-c, I don’t know the maximum possible length. The computer might have to be relatively close to the mic then.

Michael