What’s a good entry level USB mic for video tours

[pensacolabeach4sale]

I’m just starting to do my own video tours and not sure what is a good mic for voice overs during the tour. I’m using video studio 10 for my editing and need just an entry level mic for the voice over that won’t break the bank. Thanks for the help.

[Rob]

Why do you want a USB mic? Are you going to record the voice over into your computer? I’d recommend doing it to tape. So i’d get an XLR mic and adapters if you need them so you can connect the mic to your camcorder.

If you are going to be on tour and expect to be limited in finding quite areas, a shotgun mic may be what you’re looking for since it is directional. Check bhphotovideo.com to look for ones that are in within your budget.

[pensacolabeach4sale]

Why do you want a USB mic? Are you going to record the voice over into your computer?

Yes, I had planned on just shooting as much video as possible without worrying about sound to save time. I was thinking this would be easier to edit the footage and then do the voice over through the computer to compliment the edited footage.

[D0n]

http://www.bluemic.com/index.php

[Anonymous]

I got the Rode podcasterusb mic for Christmas last year and have zero problems with it within Avid Liquid. I also use the boom arm.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/503926-REG/Rode__Podcaster_Studio_B_H_Kit.html

[Rob]

i’ve heard that recording straight to your computers hard drive may not give the best results. you may experience drop out due to the hard drive not being fast enough. But hey, I’ve never done it that way. I’m just letting you know what I heard…

[jeff92k7]

Rob,

Had to join to debunk that theory. Computer hard drives are plenty fast enough for basic audio tracking. Audio bit rates are far lower than video bit rates and computers nowadays don’t have any trouble transferring DV footage in real time.

To explain… Most USB mics have built in A/D converters running at 16 bit 44.1KHz audio. This calculates as 16*44100= 705600 bits per second or 689.0625 Kbps per channel. (1024 bits per Kilobit)

I have no trouble tracking multi channel audio into my two year old laptop to record our Sunday services with each channel at 24 bit 48KHz. At that rate, I can comfortably track 10-12 channels (haven’t actually needed to try more than that yet). That is approximately 1.1 Mbps per channel.

BTW, you may want to note that these figures are all Mbps and not MBps. To get the MegaByte per second rate, divide each Megabit rate by 8. (eight bits make one Byte )

Hope this helps clear up some confusion about digital audio.

Thanks,

Jeff Foster

Technical Director

Northside Baptist Church

Carrollton, Texas

http://www.nsbcc.org

[jeff92k7]

As to the original question, I would check out the AT2020USB mic from Audio-Technica. http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/c75c5918ed57a8d0/index.html

We use the regular AT2020 occaisionally and find it very versatile and phenomenal for the price. (It sounds AMAZING on acoustic guitar and vocals are pretty good too).

Thanks,

Jeff Foster

Technical Director

Northside Baptist Church

Carrollton, Texas

http://www.nsbcc.org

[Author]

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