The Shure SM58 is a great microphone and at $100 it is easily worth every penny. You'll find at least one in every decent studio. I know a few musicians that will only perform or record with a 58.

You're audio interface is probably going to be the weak link for quality. The audio controllers that are built in to motherboards are horrible. You can get a decent quality external audio interface with built in preamp for $125 - $150 (I can't name a specific model off the top of my head, but I can find a link if you want one). Any less and the quality probably isn't worth it.

You should expect to pay as much as $20 - $25 for a shielded mic cable. By using a good shielded cable and an external audio interface, you should be able to move far enough away to avoid the interference hum from your computer, and with some careful setup a lot of the fan noise as well.

$250 - $275 may seem like a lot, but for audio equipment it is about the lowest you can expect for a decent quality basic recording setup; and for as long as you do audio work you'll have a good use for all of the equipment.


If you're willing to go a bit higher to $300, you may want to consider getting a portable recorder like the Zoom H4n instead. I use one of these for person recording, and I've worked on commercial games that recorded voice overs using an H4n. The quality of the better portable recorders is amazing these days.

The main benefit of a portable recorder is the ability to take it to a small room with good acoustics and no sources of background noise for a very clean recording.


As for free audio software, you are going to want Audacity.

Thank you, I will consider my choices carefully before making an informed decision.

Two things;
Is there a lot of people with the tech and skills to do a variety of voice overs well?
If I got myself interested in creating Voice Overs is there a demand for it in any capacity?

Thanks again, Ian.

Also note, that all this would be a one-time expense. After that you could record all you want, experiment and evolve, whereas if you have someone else do it, you have to pay per recording piece and you don't have that much freedom. So you have to think in the long run if it's worth it or not.

Quote:Original post by Punk Designer
Two things;
Is there a lot of people with the tech and skills to do a variety of voice overs well?

Yes, there are many great VO actors that can do a wide range of characters, accents and voices. If you're wanting to hire someone, or just explore what type of talent is out there then I suggest you browse www.voices123.com.

Quote:Original post by Punk Designer
If I got myself interested in creating Voice Overs is there a demand for it in any capacity?

Sure is! I've worked with folks that make their entire living (and a decent one at that) doing VO acting for various games, shows and other media.

Whilst recording a podcast, a collegue of mine used Audacity to take a sample of the background noise, then used that sample to remove the background noise in the original recording. It wasn't 100% noiseless ( is that a word? ), but it did make the voices sound clearer.

Perhaps the two microphone recording is set up to record the person's voice + noise, and the other to record just the background noise. When the first recording has the exact noise patterns from the second recording removed, maybe it will sound great!

( cheap solution )

Thanks for your advice, I will be back later on in my project's development to ask for more help no doubt but for now, thanks.

Follow my blog to see how I'm getting along ;) (Shameless promoting)

Ian