[Stephen Muir]

You may be able to de-emphasize the crowd in favour of the guitar through some judicious EQ.

Broadband noise reduction filters could be used to reduce background chatter, but not before thoroughly trashing the guitar. This sort of situation really comes down to mic placement and technique.

[Stephen Muir]

You’ll need: an audio interface with built-in mic preamplifiers, a mic, cables, headphones, accoustic treatment, and a quiet room.

Sound Blaster products are great gaming cards, but you’ll really need a good pro interface. There are numerous products on the market that’ll get the job done, and some are definitely better than others. Essentially, you’ll want a stereo audio interface (USB or Firewire) with High-quality mic preamps and a decent A-D converter. If you’re handy with Protools, you may want to look at on of their M-powered products or an Mbox2. I’ve had an Mbox (first generation) for years, and the newer models are definitely an improvement.

Scour the forums, and you’ll find plenty of mic recomendations for voiceover and narration. Just be certain that if your mic requires +48V phantom power, your audio interface can supply it.

The quiet room can be a bit of a challenge, since your computer will probably be kicking out a fair bit of fan noise. If possible, run long cables (keyboard, mouse, monitor, audio interface) and hide the PC in a closet (take care it doesn’t overheat) or another room. A few pieces of judiciously placed accoustic foam (or even heavy quilts), and you can keep room reflections under control.

[Stephen Muir]

Good advice, thanks for the tips.

My PSC M4 mkII generates 600 Hz tone, and I’ve certainly found it to be easier on the ears.

[Stephen Muir]

Copy protection’s a bit of a contentious issue, when it comes to audio CD’s. Witness the debacle surrounding the software Sony started putting on its CDs to prevent copying, which caused a flood of Mac users unable to get the darned things to play or even eject.

If your client wants to built DRM software into copies of their music, they’ll need to release on a format other than traditional CD audio (eg. CDROMs containing DRM-equipped MP3s or Windows Media files).

Of course, I’m no expert on the matter. Since you have a history with Macrovision, you should probably give them a call and see if they have any products that would suit your purpose.

[Stephen Muir]

K6 is a power supply. ME-66 and ME-67 are the microphone capsules that screw onto the K6 Power supply.

My $0.02: save up a few more dollars and invest in an MKH416.

[Stephen Muir]

If its a constant hum over a narrow frequency range, you may be able to notch it out with an EQ. Profile-based noise removal software (eg. DiNR) may be able to reduce the level of noise, but doing so requires a pretty light touch. Apply too-much noise removal, and you can pretty much trash your audio quality.

Of course, always monitor your recorder using headphones.

[Stephen Muir]

Of the mics you listed, I’ve only used the SM-58. Its a great mic for live music and can take an obscene amount of punishment, but its not really a VO mic. If you really want that big, full, warm sound generally sought after in VO, you’re going to have to spend more money.

If you dig through this forum a bit, you’ll find many great entry-level VO mic reccomendations. If you can’t afford to buy the mic you need, then rent it.

[Stephen Muir]

Dialogue is generally kept centre-panned in a stereo mix. This “phantom centre” is created by playing the sound in-phase at equal levels on both speakers.

You can accomplish the same effect by duplicating a track and panning one track hard-right and the other hard-left. However, you’re just doubling the number of tracks you have to work with, needlessly increasing the amount of work you have to do. Moreover, if the two tracks aren’t identical (perhaps one gets moved slightly), you could experience all sorts of phase-related problems.

Keep the Dialogue mono, and use effects and music to build a nice stereo image.

[Stephen Muir]

The ME62 is an omni-direction capsule, while the ME64 is cardioid.

Most foley and vocal work benefits from the rear-rejection of cardioid mics, although hyper-cardioid or shotgun mics will give you more control over the apparent accoustics of the recording. For that reason, you should probably opt for the cardiod capsule rather than the omni.

However, if you are currently dissatisfied with the performance of the ME66 in foley and vocal situations, I doubt that a different cap will dramatically improve your results. Basically, you’re looking at the same mic without all the off-axis rejection.

If you want to save money by using cheap mics, you probably should be out-sourcing your foley. The cost of the microphones are usually small compared to the cost of building a suitable foley studio, or renovating an existing studio space. Moreover, if you aren’t recording enough foley to justify the expense of building and equipping a foley studio, you should probably be out-sourcing your foley. Good foley artists are hard to come by, and foley recording is a very demanding task (in terms of gear, studio space and labour).

[Stephen Muir]

To be honest, none of the mics you listed are suitable for foley recording (although the SM 57 is handy to have as a support mic for high-SPL effects). Foley tends to be rather quiet, which is why extremely sensitive mics are preferred (paired with high-end preamplifiers and A-D converters).

With the mics you listed, you would be obliged to record with the mic extremely close to the action in question, giving an unnaturally exaggerated perspective.

Here are the mics I use for foley recording (by no means the final word, but they get the job done):

Sennheiser MKH416 (short-shotgun condensor)
Exceptionally sensitive, but rugged enough for use in the dirt pits. The off-axis rejection gives it a nice, tight sound for exteriors while still giving tremendous flexibility in mic placement. Works great at a distance of 2′ to 4′, depending on the desired accoustics, though its sensitive enough to give clear and detailed results at much longer perspectives. This is the workhorse, and its the primary up-close mic for almost everything I record. Additionally, it is a very popular mic for production recording, making it that much easier to match the sound and perspective of the dialogue track.

Neumann TLM 103 (large-diaphragm cardiod condensor)
Paired with the MKH416, this makes an excellent perspective mic. On interior scenes, I place this high up, near a corner of the studio, facing towards the centre of the room. Mixing a bit of this distant sound with the close-up MKH416 gives us plenty of flexibility in terms of perspectives (ie. for a more distant perspective, I simply mix in more of the TLM 103). The low self-noise of the mic, paired with its sensitivity and transparency, give the resulting recordings a very “open” and natural sound.

Neumann TLM 170 (large-daiphragm variable-pattern condensor)
I only recently started working with this mic, so I’m still getting a feel for its use. Occasionally, effects with a great deal of transient energy (smashing glass, etc.) will cause a bit of distortion on the MKH416. In those cases, I’ll often use the TLM 170 (with the pattern set to hyper-cardiod). I’ve tried using it as a perspecitve mic, but I find that it lacks the mellowness of the TLM 103. This mic has an extended high-frequency response, so it can be usefull if you plan on pitching-down effects recorded at 96kHz.

Other special-use mics
Once or twice a month I may turn to a more specialized tool to reinforce or support the MKH416. A few of these include: DPA 8011 hydrophone (for underwater recording), Shure SM-57 (for high-SPL effects where the mic may be damaged), AKG D112 kick-drum mic (for high-SPL effects that need extended bass response), C-ducer contact transducer (for really unusual mechanical effects).

The first 3 mics will would work quite well in a voiceover or ADR session. The MKH416, in particular, is well suited to ADR given its production sound reputation. The Neumann mics are great VO and narration mics, although some voices will benefit from warmer or more coloured mics.

You should go over mic selection with your foley artist. An experienced foley artist will be able to play to the strengths of particular mics.