PC Microphones--Judgement Day for my microphones
Monday March 9, the area was hit with cold and snow, so I skipped the run, and instead spent time finishing up the testing of the three different microphones I have for recording on the PC.
Initially I under-rated the Kensinko CE microphone; as it turns out it is my tool of choice for recording with the mouth more than 1.5 feet away from the microphone.
The Kensinko CE looks unimpressive, like a long off-white-color pencil; it reminds me of some insect like a praying mantis or a grasshopper. It is cheap and looks like the microphones you get for free when you buy a computer. But it produces normal level volume even when pointed away from me when my mouth is four feet away from it.
The Kensinko CE produces normal level volume in the recording in a wide range of situations in terms of proximity of mouth to microphone or angle of mouth to microphone.
It seems to be my best microphone for picking up loud 'masculine', 'booming' type vocals. For situations in which my mouth is more than 1.5 feet away from the microphone, I prefer the unimpressive-looking Kensinko CE.
The Samson CO1U is my microphone of choice for picking up the more 'intimate', 'boyish', 'subtle' aspects of my voice, when my mouth is 1.5 feet away from the mic or closer. The Samson CO1U picks up close to normal volume at distances further than 1.5 feet, and at angles other than mouth directly in front of mic, but the quality does not seem as good in such situations, compared to the Kensinko CE.
As for the Samson R10S microphone, far as I can tell the Samson company does not even have a web page dedicated to it or any info available about it on its website. I decided to just put it away on a back shelf, and wait for some possible use for it.
The R10S microphone produces an unnaturally faint volume in the recording, when more than about five inches away from the mouth, and directly in front of the mouth.
However, by using tweaks such as graphic equalizer, amplifier simulator, parametric equalizer, and reverb in a recording software I have named Sonar LE, I was able to produce acceptable results with the R10S up to 20 inches away, and at about a 75 degree angle compared to the direction I faced as I talked.
The R10S mic appears to be designed for picking up noise from one source alone in a room filled with many loud sources of noise. This is I suppose why they label it a 'Karaoke' microphone. When people do the Karaoke thing, there is alot of noise in the room that the Karaoke singer wants to exclude; not only that, the Karaoke singers think having a mic in the hand held close to the mouth looks cool.
In its favor the R10S looks cool, has an on-off switch, and works at least 'OK' with the mic up close to the mouth. And it's cheap. Great for clowning around with clumsy visitors who have tendency to break things, when the real mic is hidden away.
Currently my game-plan audio-wise is: to have the Samson CO1U stationed about a foot from my computer keyboard to my left; to have the Kensinko CE stationed at the left side of my main non-computer desk; to use the Samson CO1U for recording into Sonar LE for recordings that last less than 9 minutes; to use the Kenskinko CE for recordings of 2 hours in length recorded into Windows Sound Recorder.
Fact is, that recordings that continue uninterrupted for two hours, will be recordings involving many different microphone to mouth distances and angles. For such situations the Kensinko CE is the best I have now. The Samson CO1U picks up at an acceptable volume in terms of what it records at longer distances and angles other than mic directly in front of mouth, but in such situations it seems to produce a sound that is thinner and more treble than the Kensinko CE.
I have not been able to figure out how to adjust the settings in Sonar LE software so as to prevent 'dropout' (the recording software stops recording though its user-interface makes it seem as if it is still recording). I have found I cannot trust the Sonar LE beyond 8 minutes; after 8 minutes there is a possibility it will simply stop recording while it 'pretends' that it is still recording.
I was able to tweak the Windows Sound Recorder, to record non-stop for 122 minutes. I simply repeatedly inserted blank recording into the wav file in Windows Sound Recorder until I produced and saved a blank file that is 122 minutes long; I open this blank file when I want to record for a long period of time, and simply record over it.
The Sonar LE appears to be able to work with long wav format files recorded in Windows Sound Recorder and then imported into Sonar LE.
I estimate that at this point in time, taking into account the limited nature of my financial resources, investing in personal computer based audio production makes more sense than investing in personal computer based photographic or video production.
I think you can now get high-quality audio results using a personal computer inexpensively, whereas high-quality video and consistently high quality photo production would require an expensive level of investment that would now be unreasonable.
So there you have it: I am all set up to produce both the adult-masculine (Kensinko CE mic) and the boyish-intimate-gentle (Samson CO1U) type of sound.
Compared to the TV announcers I would say I have them beat. My booming-macho vocals are better than their booming-macho vocals; and, as for the boyish-intimate-gentle side of their voice, they do not have one as far as I can tell--which leads to the point that they cannot win in the boyish-intimate-gentle category either.
@2009 David Virgil Hobbs
Initially I under-rated the Kensinko CE microphone; as it turns out it is my tool of choice for recording with the mouth more than 1.5 feet away from the microphone.
The Kensinko CE looks unimpressive, like a long off-white-color pencil; it reminds me of some insect like a praying mantis or a grasshopper. It is cheap and looks like the microphones you get for free when you buy a computer. But it produces normal level volume even when pointed away from me when my mouth is four feet away from it.
The Kensinko CE produces normal level volume in the recording in a wide range of situations in terms of proximity of mouth to microphone or angle of mouth to microphone.
It seems to be my best microphone for picking up loud 'masculine', 'booming' type vocals. For situations in which my mouth is more than 1.5 feet away from the microphone, I prefer the unimpressive-looking Kensinko CE.
The Samson CO1U is my microphone of choice for picking up the more 'intimate', 'boyish', 'subtle' aspects of my voice, when my mouth is 1.5 feet away from the mic or closer. The Samson CO1U picks up close to normal volume at distances further than 1.5 feet, and at angles other than mouth directly in front of mic, but the quality does not seem as good in such situations, compared to the Kensinko CE.
As for the Samson R10S microphone, far as I can tell the Samson company does not even have a web page dedicated to it or any info available about it on its website. I decided to just put it away on a back shelf, and wait for some possible use for it.
The R10S microphone produces an unnaturally faint volume in the recording, when more than about five inches away from the mouth, and directly in front of the mouth.
However, by using tweaks such as graphic equalizer, amplifier simulator, parametric equalizer, and reverb in a recording software I have named Sonar LE, I was able to produce acceptable results with the R10S up to 20 inches away, and at about a 75 degree angle compared to the direction I faced as I talked.
The R10S mic appears to be designed for picking up noise from one source alone in a room filled with many loud sources of noise. This is I suppose why they label it a 'Karaoke' microphone. When people do the Karaoke thing, there is alot of noise in the room that the Karaoke singer wants to exclude; not only that, the Karaoke singers think having a mic in the hand held close to the mouth looks cool.
In its favor the R10S looks cool, has an on-off switch, and works at least 'OK' with the mic up close to the mouth. And it's cheap. Great for clowning around with clumsy visitors who have tendency to break things, when the real mic is hidden away.
Currently my game-plan audio-wise is: to have the Samson CO1U stationed about a foot from my computer keyboard to my left; to have the Kensinko CE stationed at the left side of my main non-computer desk; to use the Samson CO1U for recording into Sonar LE for recordings that last less than 9 minutes; to use the Kenskinko CE for recordings of 2 hours in length recorded into Windows Sound Recorder.
Fact is, that recordings that continue uninterrupted for two hours, will be recordings involving many different microphone to mouth distances and angles. For such situations the Kensinko CE is the best I have now. The Samson CO1U picks up at an acceptable volume in terms of what it records at longer distances and angles other than mic directly in front of mouth, but in such situations it seems to produce a sound that is thinner and more treble than the Kensinko CE.
I have not been able to figure out how to adjust the settings in Sonar LE software so as to prevent 'dropout' (the recording software stops recording though its user-interface makes it seem as if it is still recording). I have found I cannot trust the Sonar LE beyond 8 minutes; after 8 minutes there is a possibility it will simply stop recording while it 'pretends' that it is still recording.
I was able to tweak the Windows Sound Recorder, to record non-stop for 122 minutes. I simply repeatedly inserted blank recording into the wav file in Windows Sound Recorder until I produced and saved a blank file that is 122 minutes long; I open this blank file when I want to record for a long period of time, and simply record over it.
The Sonar LE appears to be able to work with long wav format files recorded in Windows Sound Recorder and then imported into Sonar LE.
I estimate that at this point in time, taking into account the limited nature of my financial resources, investing in personal computer based audio production makes more sense than investing in personal computer based photographic or video production.
I think you can now get high-quality audio results using a personal computer inexpensively, whereas high-quality video and consistently high quality photo production would require an expensive level of investment that would now be unreasonable.
So there you have it: I am all set up to produce both the adult-masculine (Kensinko CE mic) and the boyish-intimate-gentle (Samson CO1U) type of sound.
Compared to the TV announcers I would say I have them beat. My booming-macho vocals are better than their booming-macho vocals; and, as for the boyish-intimate-gentle side of their voice, they do not have one as far as I can tell--which leads to the point that they cannot win in the boyish-intimate-gentle category either.
@2009 David Virgil Hobbs
Labels: ce, kensinko, kensinko ce, microphones, r10s, samson co1u
posted by David Virgil at 8:28 PM
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