How to Improve your Mic Quality -- Without Buying a New One!

[Elfee]

Wishing i read this last night - could have helped save the clumps of hair i was pulling out with the puffs last night. now looking into popscreens to see if it helps.

thanks

[caffine]

Pops and puffs are those loud 'PUH!' sounds that might happen when you say words with 'p' and 'h', where air is 'puffing' out of your mouth. You can make your own pop screen if this is a problem for your mic, but what I did to just about eliminate them from mine was to angle the mic about 30-45 degrees to the side when recording. Your voice goes in all directions but the air puffs go only in front of you, so that way the sound reaches the mic and your breathing doesn't. =D

Some EQ can also help with P's, B's and Q's (and others) being to loud. You can also set a compressor on the track that will reduce the volume of the syllables while leaving the normal sections untouched. I usually put a compressor on main vocal sections anyway to level everything out. While it is best to eliminate them I would suggest simply pulling away from the mic slightly when saying words that have hard sounds in them. If you do have them though, compressors and EQ's are your friend.

Clipping (also known as peaking) is when your sound is too loud for your mic, for example when you shout. It distorts the sound so you hear this dull 'scree' sound across your recording. There is no good way to remedy this with sound editing, so if it happens you just have to record again. =x

Actually, it is possible to fix clipping in audio. Obviously if it's peaking all the time you need to adjust your mic trim but if you have a section where it briefly peaks you can fix it. Bomb Factory Essentials Clip Remover actually works pretty decently.

If you're working next to your computer, a side note, your mic will pick up the sound of the computer running, and the closer it is, the more obvious it is. D= A trick to this is, get your mic farther away from your computer's buzzing -- but vertically. Putting it farther away horizontally actually isn't quite as effective; if you put it even like an inch or two above your computer's noise factory, it will cut down on it significantly, and the rest you can get rid of by the other methods listed here.

Also, turning your microphone so that your computer is not within the pickup pattern of your microphone will help a lot. You just have to know the pickup pattern (More info here)

[Tomoyo Ichijouji]

Some EQ can also help with P's, B's and Q's (and others) being to loud. You can also set a compressor on the track that will reduce the volume of the syllables while leaving the normal sections untouched. I usually put a compressor on main vocal sections anyway to level everything out. While it is best to eliminate them I would suggest simply pulling away from the mic slightly when saying words that have hard sounds in them. If you do have them though, compressors and EQ's are your friend.

I've actually used a High Pass Filter if it's just this briefest incident in a recording; yes you can hear a difference if you listened reaaaally carefully, but I'm sure people wouldn't know if they weren't listening for it =P Pulling away directly doesn't do all that much good actually; it's going at an angle that gets rid of it more cause the air flow from your mouth is directed away (moving away from it will still leave it in the path of your breath)

Actually, it is possible to fix clipping in audio. Obviously if it's peaking all the time you need to adjust your mic trim but if you have a section where it briefly peaks you can fix it. Bomb Factory Essentials Clip Remover actually works pretty decently.

Huh, I haven't heard of that one before...I'm doing most of my audio work in Audacity (I'm trying to find something else to mix with but I'm avoiding the really pricey programs), so there's nothing that comes with it that does a decent job. I did a quick search and that plugin appears to only be for Pro Tools, so even though the plugin's free the program that can use it isn't =|a

Also, turning your microphone so that your computer is not within the pickup pattern of your microphone will help a lot. You just have to know the pickup pattern (More info here)

My old microphone doesn't even specify its pickup pattern, being a cheap Logitech Desktop USB one that is meant more for chat than actual voice work (though I've managed until now with the techniques I mentioned); I'm guessing that I must have done what you said unknowingly since perhaps along the Y axis it had a smaller area of pickup and I just didn't know it till I tried? =|a It seems I don't have to worry about that anymore with the CAD U37 I got which says it's cardioid and like you said my laptop appears to be out of its recording pattern being on the far side of it; however, I think many of the cheaper mics don't specify this so the question would be what the pickup pattern is in the first place. 6_6

[caffine]

I think many of the cheaper mics don't specify this so the question would be what the pickup pattern is in the first place.

The standard and most common pickup pattern in cardioid so it's safe to assume that it's cardioid. It will either be that or omnidirectional.

[Tomoyo Ichijouji]

The standard and most common pickup pattern in cardioid so it's safe to assume that it's cardioid. It will either be that or omnidirectional.

I'm guessing it probably was in cardioid, because it was even built to pick up in one direction (the tip curves to one direction with the mic inside the tip). But, even though my laptop was 90 degrees away from the Logitech, it still picked up if I didn't use a Porta-Booth or some kind of soft-lined container (like a full laundry basket, lol), it would still be a noticeable hum in the recording; evidently its cardioid pick-up still isn't strong enough to eliminate my laptop noise at the distance it was at without me lifting the mic a little.

I'm liking the fact that the CAD seems to really not care whether it has laptop noise at all, so long as it's at the side; this is particularly good for me now because my laptop's fan is starting to get pretty rickety and so is infuriatingly noisy, but the cardioid pick-up on it makes it a moot point, unlike my ole Logitech which I'm sure I couldn't get away with. (I'm still keeping the Logitech as my travel mic though; it still works great, and I'm less concerned about breaking it in the luggage, that thing's held up for a few years now)

[Linamanu]

Hey there, thank you for this information resume writing!