Changing Microphones

I got a new microphone - Blue Ball thing.

I have been recording on generic this:
USB Microphone,Fifine Plug &Play Home Studio USB Condenser Microphone for Skype, Recordings for YouTube, Google Voice Search, Games(Windows/Mac)-K668

I was told that even by making a small upgrade I could get a much better sound. So the new microphone has been doing ok in GarageBand I thought, but a previous book needed an issue addressed and I was reading straight into Audacity like I did before and was getting horrible sound. So I plugged the other mic in and wala… So I have a clip of them together. – Should I send the Blue back? why does it sound so hideous I literally stopped recording and plugged in the other mic and started again and this is the change in sound…

Blue Ball thing.

Much as I would love to do a take-off on having blue balls, you probably mean the Blue company Snowball microphone. Write back if you don’t.

a previous book needed an issue addressed

So you reconstructed as much as possible the original recording environment and hoped to goodness it was close enough so nobody would notice the insert? If you did anything other than that, the chance of success is zero even with higher quality microphones.

I was told that even by making a small upgrade I could get a much better sound.

As a fuzzy rule, you upgrade from a USB microphone to an analog microphone and small sound mixer or sound USB interface. The Blue Snowball is a beginner microphone and may be different, but questionable whether it’s better or not.

Which microphone is which in the clip? They both have honky, compression distortion, but the second one is much worse. The second clip sounds like it was recorded with a bad cellphone on full speakerphone in a bad room. That robust wine glass sound.

I had access to a Snowball and when set up for directional and no attenuator (position 1?) in a good room, it sounded like a generic vocal microphone. You must be doing something wrong. Do you apply noise reduction to your work? It sounds like you may be applying too much.

I need to go back and look up your original microphone.

There are a number of other ways to get permanent honky compression distortion. Making a production decision to use MP3 for everything is one way.

As we go.

Koz

Distinctive Omni pick-up pattern-- Noise cancellation and isolates the main sound source, Good for home studio, Chatting, Skype,Discord, Yahoo Recording, YouTube Recording, Google Voice Search and Steam.

OK, so the microphone right out of the tin claims sound processing in its feature list. One result of that is you will never find another microphone to match.

My Personal Opinion is when you find something that works, stick with it. There’s no shortage of posters on the forum who upgraded themselves into trouble.

Audacity doesn’t apply corrections or filters during recording. Try this. Plug in the Snowball. Start or restart Audacity. Select it in the Audacity device toolbar.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/device_toolbar.html

…and make a test recording.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/TestClip/Record_A_Clip.html

Use WAV as the sound format and Do Not apply any corrections. Export a WAV (Microsoft) and post it. The forum has firm size restrictions. Ten seconds stereo or twenty seconds mono.

Koz

The second sample sounds as if there is some sort of aggressive noise reduction applied to it.
That could be a Windows sound “Enhancement” effect. See here for more info: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements

That could be a Windows sound “Enhancement” effect.

That’s why I want to hear a “clean” test clip. The original microphone is clear about providing processing, so we have no idea at all where we are.

Koz