kozikowski wrote:And I don't totally agree that electret microphones automatically accentuate high frequencies. The built-in microphone on Mac laptops is an electret and the microphone on both Radio Shack sound analyzers and the 3013 microphone are all electrets, with no obvious damage.
Ah, my earlier comment .... ""small diaphragm electret" microphone capsules, which can be prone to over emphasizing sibilants."
"...can be prone to..."
not
"they do".
I have a Zoom H2, which I believe also has these kind of microphones, but I've not had any problem at all with over emphasizing sibilants from it. However, compared to my trusty SM58, the sound is a lot brighter. What I was meaning to say was that certain microphone suit certain kinds of voices. Having heard this recording, I would not choose to go for an SM58, but would prefer something with a cleaner crisper response, but preferably still retaining some warmth. An AKG C3000 would do very nicely, but at over $400 a throw, perhaps not.
I think it should be possible to get some very nice recordings with the Edirol, but first we need to get to the root of the matter.
Mags wrote:Musician suggested putting a soft toy between me and microphone,
I'm sure that would be very comforting, but perhaps positioned a little to the side as it's not likely to improve the sound, just make it dull.
The problem here is not what you need that you've not got, but what you've got that you certainly don't need.
kozikowski wrote:I'm still going with something broken.
Absolutely - there's something wrong here - listen to the gaps between the talking - there's one clear gap just over 6 second into the clip, but in all the other gaps, that strange swirling metallic kind of sound.
Mags wrote:Oh I've only just noticed steve's comments. I recorded it as a 320 bitrate MP3 file ... !!
No problem, that was just so that we could eliminate the mp3 compression artifacts from the picture. At 320 kbps I bet it sounds identical to the original wav file.
So if it's not the mp3, where is all that swirling coming from?
My guess is that it's a combination of things, but the underlying problem here is noise!
It sounds to me like a combination of mp3 artifacts and noise removal artifacts.
Record in a quiet room, and get a good level on the recording. The quieter the recorded signal, the more prominent any noise will be. Use high quality for the original recording, preferably WAV format. Also avoid re-encoding mp3's whenever possible - use wav files throughout, and just convert to mp3 at the very end if you need to (for the internet or e-mail)
Had this been a completely clean recording, I suspect that there would have been little more than a hint of over emphasis in the high frequencies, that could easily be tamed with just a touch of Eq. but what we have ended up with is a mixture of "ss's" and "efs" electronically blended with hiss and weird acoustic artifacts.
With a bit of effort the recording can be cleaned up a bit, but it will be a poor mans trade off.
Get the recording levels up higher, get the background noise down, record at high quality and most of the problem will just disappear. Careful microphone placement (experiment as much as possible, try resting the mic on a pillow, hanging from a lampshade right in front of your nose, everything you can think of), and a nice cup of tea (or whatever your tipple) to keep the mouth fresh, and you are almost there. Then finally, for the subtle finishing polish, just a hint of tweaking in Audacity.
Anyway, I notice that I'm rambling, and koz has made about 6 posts while I've been typing, so good luck, I'm going to have a read of kozikowski's pearls of wisdom now.
