As my next project is about to kick off I am doing some research into the best microphones I need in order to get a great sound out of my first interview. The Project is a podcast based around females and queer people in the music industry. I am using this as a chance to do a project about something I am passionate about and have wanted to do for a long time. This project has a bigger plan than just some little interviews and recordings but I thought this would be a great place to start planning for a project that is due to launch at the beginning of next year.
Here is my production plan for the current project outlining my pitch and all the nesscasary things I'll need for the project to run smoothly. Please leave any feed back you have about the project or if you have any suggestions or questions I should ask my interviewees send them through!
The project is called Background Noise, by the way, which was a bit of a play on the music thing and the fact I am interviewing diverse people in a male dominated industry. My first group I have coming to play and do an interview are 'Bad Sext'. They are a 4 piece band two ladies and two men. I thought they would be a great interviewing point as they are friends of mine and obviously love being in a band with dudes!
So in order to get some really good sound of the interview I thought I better do some research on just how to record and edit podcast voices and see if there was anything specifically about female voices. I found that there were a lot of microphones good for podcasting. It is common to use both condenser and dynamic microphones as a technique for podcasting, so the sound you are after is determined by this initial choice a lot of the time (Murphy, 2018). Dynamic microphones need to be directly spoken into as they are directional. They are good at not picking up back ground noise and are not so sensitive when it comes to picking up the direct sound (Hoffman, 2018). They record at a relative stable input level if there is little variation in the movement around the microphone. For instance, keeping the same distance from the microphone is really important or the tone and volume will change through out. Condenser microphones are way more sensitive and are going to pick up a lot more mouth noises. However they do provide a really nice warm tone that is super popular. I personally prefer how a dynamic microphone sounds on my speaking voice and I think that it is more of a standard when it comes to podcasting to use a dynamic mic. The only down side is that the interviewee's need to keep their distance from the mics in order to keep a consistent level of sound. This sounds quiet restricting but I think that it will be fine as they are both experienced musicians and are used too talking into microphones.
I found this podcast on youtube with an all female crew. They are using Nt1a's in this video and I think that I like the sound but it is really bright. I want a warmer tone and less sibilance. I think these gals make it work with their really concealed pop filters. I know the pop filters I have access to are big and clunky and could get in the way while recording. However I can appreciate the sound and tone they are going for!
After listening to podcasts and interviews with KEXP for years now I re-watched a few video's with their female host. She uses an RE20 in most video clips and the tone was a lot more natural than the girls in the previous video. I really want to aim for this easy listening tone with no harsh high frequencies. Here is an interview and performance with POND one of my favourite Aussie bands. You can hear the clarity but also neatness of the interviewers voice in this clip.
Okay, so now I've decided to use dynamic mics over condensers for the interview side of the podcast I need to decide which ones to use exactly. There is a lot of great examples of the RE20 and SM7B. I was tossing up between these and the HEIL PR40. I decided that considering there is three female voices all sounding relatively the same it might be hard to hear the difference between Meg and Ella especially. I am going to use two different types of mics. I am thinking at this stage the RE20 for myself as I really like the sound and the lack of sibilance that is produces. It is also demonstrated really well in the KEXP video from an interviewers perspective. I will use the HEIL PR40 for the girls voices. I am going to place their mics slightly difference distances apart though so that there is a little more depth one once voice. This is a technique I read about on the Waves audio website and is a great production tool for helping the listener decipher between voices of the same tone and frequency (Hoffman, 2018). The trick with this technique is then to not make this distances so apart that one voice is really clear and the other one washed out. I think that from seeing how people use these mics for podcasting the ideal distance is around 6 inches (Hoffman, 2018 [see below for quote]).
Another important point that seems to be an issue is plosives. I am hoping that by using this 45 degrees of axis technique with the dynamic mics it should be fine. This will give us more freedom to be expressive in our voices while recording with out worrying about any pops or clicks.
This video outlines some of the most common problems people have when recording podcasts and some of the main noise issues. As we are using a studio a lot of background noise isn't something I will need to consider. However making sure that one mic isn't too far away and that there is a good level going into the desk for all the mics is important.
So how I planned my session was really just hearing the sound of podcasts I liked and the ones I didn't and working out what gear they used and how they used it. I unfortunately couldn't find any information about what mics ABC use which was my main inspiration. I could only see from a few video's with Linda Mariano that she is using an Sm7B. It was hard to find information about the best way to record a young female Aussie accent too. Im hoping to be creating a nice clean podcast with the choice's I have made so I can share with you all how I did it and why these mic techniques work best!
How to create different tone when it comes to podcasting to decipher between peoples voice -
1. choose the mics that are best suited to the type of voice you are wanting to record in my case a soprano an Aussie accent with not too many plosive and sibilance sounds.
2. you need to change the distance and degrees in which the person is going to speak at the mic in order to make this technique work. Decide who is going to change their distance and take note of this.
3. The person who has the distance microphone should be no more than 6 inches from the microphone . You can also play with speaking off axis around the mic about 20-40 degrees (Platt, 2013).
4. This will change the tone of the voice by distance and by moving off axis.
5. You now just need to check that the levels are going in to the desk that same amount and now you have a different tone and distance.
Thank you so much for reading this post if you have any pointers to the techniques and mics I have picked please let me know!
References:
072: Mike’s Top 10 Dynamic Microphones For Podcasting. (2019). Retrieved from https://medium.com/@mikemurphyco/072-mikes-top-10-dynamic-microphones-for-podcasting-9502526e1cde
10 Top Tips for Recording & Mixing Better-Sounding Podcasts | Waves. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.waves.com/top-tips-for-recording-mixing-better-sounding-podcasts
The Difference In Sound: Podcasting Vs. Audiobooks. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.theshanman.com/blog/the-difference-between-an-podcast-and-audiobook-recording
Voice Over in the Studio: The Proper Distance from the Mic. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.voiceovervoiceactor.com/raise-your-voice/2013/04/08/vo-in-the-studio-the-proper-distance-from-the-mic
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