Besides the use of low-end equipment and the quality loss that comes with it
I don’t agree. What usually happens is someone uses low-end equipment and then screws everything else up, too and blames it on the equipment. I once recorded a temporary voice track for a television commercial… on my laptop microphone. I picked a quiet room and I carefully spaced the voice talent and the computer on a table with a blanket on it. The producer thanked me and went off to produce the commercial.
You have to pay attention.
I’ll get to the list in the minute. Are you expecting to be able to carefully edit each voice and correct for clarity, volume, presence, etc? Then you can’t jam everybody together on a sofa. Regard Charlie Rose and his famous table. The only reason those two are that far apart is to make the sound lady happy. Talent spacing needs to be at least three times the spacing between the microphone and the face. More if you can do it.
I will also need live headset monitoring for each of the three people. Would it be better to plug into the PC or the mixer and just use a splitter cord to get to the three headsets? Is there volume loss that comes with that? latency? I’ve seen some sort of headphone amplifier when more than one is being used… didn’t really get too deep into that yet.
You can’t plug into the computer. Many computers produce a delay/echo when you do that. You can force three headphones into one socket, but each time someone connects or disconnects, the other two will get louder and chances are nobody is going to be happy with the volume. You want all three people to fight for the mixer volume control?
Item 2. Avoid desk stands for microphones. This is a fine point, but it allows microphones to pick up odd sounds from the desk — and you pretty much can’t stop it. Again, this is being compulsive, but look at the table and microphones in this pix.
That’s actually two different voice shoots. It’s a little rough to see what we did. I had to take the picture on a dead run. Note the padding on the table to avoid noises. The two microphones are very, very different, but they’re mounted the same way. They both have blast filters, and they’re both high and pointing slightly downward to the performer. That wasn’t an accident and two
different sound people set those up.
Item 5. You only need the foam balls if you’re planning on recording outside when it’s windy. Not used inside.
Item 2. That’s scary. How were you going to plug into your computer to record the show? You can’t use Mic-In.
Ok. I’m done throwing mud. This is a good list and I’m pleased you went through the trouble to compile it. It gives us a firm, clear starting point and also gives us a good idea of your goals.
The equipment usually kills people when they try to do impossibly complicated shows right out of the gate.
“…and then Skype to the guest in Miami to talk to the phone conference in Luxembourg …”
What kills people with normal goals is the environment.
“What’s that buzz that keeps coming and going in the background?”
“Oh, thats the refrigerator, isn’t it?”
“Can you remove a dog barking from a podcast?” Hint: no.
That conference room with the microphones in it? It’s the only soundproofed room in the building. I bribed the conference room manager to let me use it. You have no idea how much chocolate…
The first family that lived in my house had a son that played drums. My third bedroom is soundproofed. I got insanely lucky.
Koz
