Desperate need for new Microphone help and questions.

[Deleted]

It was suggested that I get the Samson C01U USB Mic. I'm very frustrated to say that my Creative fatality headset's mic that costs £20 is almost better than this mic. I'm hoping that I might be doing something wrong, but I doubt I'll be that lucky. Unless I can hear an improvement, I've just wasted £200 on a mic that won't help my voice acting at all because it's so restricting and terrible.

- It sounds very low like it has too much bass, it clips easily and my voice can sometimes sound robotic. It sounds very open, like I'm talking in a tin can, even though my room is very small. The amount of background noise it picks up is insane, to the point where it picks up my computer even when the mic is closed in a closet and it doesn't seem like a good mic at all for general uses, outside of voice acting. It picks up every single noise you make. If I was playing a game over skype with a friend, he'd be able to hear every click and keyboard tap I made.

If you're any good with microphones, I have some questions:

1. What sound level should the mic be at control panel properties? 100 makes things clip and there is so much noise, but lower seems distant, and probably isn't capturing my voice as it could be doing at 100.

2. What should the quality be set to in control panel sound properties? The default is 1 channel, 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality). I've tried putting it to the highest in hopes of seeing an improvement, but that makes the playback of the mic only play in one ear.

3. I gather the samson logo should be facing me when I'm recording, but should it be tilted up to my face or should I be talking over it?

4. What does the shockmount actually do? Why does it look so intricate when really all it appears to be doing is keeping the mic in place with a screw at the bottom. What's with all the elastic rope?

5. Does a soundcard affect recording, or is it only playback?


It might be generally lower quality, but my little plastic creative fatality headset mic has almost none of the problems this so called 'proffesional' mic is having.

Here is a recording for you to listen to.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1grIKbfHoID

Please help me out here.

[Incognito Noctix]

I'm not really an expert on mics, but I'll make a few points. Sorry if it's not very helpful.

The shock mount is meant to absorb vibrations, so that you wont get irregularities in your recording from those.
Are you using a pop filter? Using one should help reduce white-noise and some background noise. (From what I understand, condenser mics suffer from background noise?)
I hear the USB cables they ship with them have been drastically reduced in quality. Getting a higher quality cable might give you a bit better performance.

Where did you pay 200 quid for this? The mic itself costs around 70 on amazon, and the shock mount around 30.

[Deleted]

I'm not really an expert on mics, but I'll make a few points. Sorry if it's not very helpful.

The shock mount is meant to absorb vibrations, so that you wont get irregularities in your recording from those.
Are you using a pop filter? Using one should help reduce white-noise and some background noise. (From what I understand, condenser mics suffer from background noise?)
I hear the USB cables they ship with them have been drastically reduced in quality. Getting a higher quality cable might give you a bit better performance.

Where did you pay 200 quid for this? The mic itself costs around 70 on amazon, and the shock mount around 30.

Sorry, yes, that's a bit misleading. They offer a podcast package that includes a deskstand, shock mount, audio editing software which cost £140 or so and the pop filter brings it up to £180. (Ordered separately so it's still to come.)

Thanks for your help though. I hope the fault is the USB cable, because that's relatively easy to fix.

[sherman9800]

Here's a good video with a good quality mic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfjIshMiFY

The Blue Yeti Pro is a good mic but can cost a pretty penny.

Also a sound card very much affects the quality of recorded audio. So if you are using 3.5mm jacks and want to record higher quality audio it would be wise to invest in a sound card.

[Incognito Noctix]

Having a soundcard doesn't really affect much though with a USB mic, seeing as you wont be using any of it's interfaces.
But yeah, that's actually a pretty great video. Gives a lot of nice tips.