A couple months ago I was working with Erik Sheppard on a voice over project. When Erik was doing the post-production, he heard some line noise in my original voice track that I didn’t immediately detect in the unprocessed dry recording. I traced it back to what I believed was a battery backup that got zapped during a bad thunderstorm a couple weeks earlier.

I changed out the battery. The line noise was still there, though slightly less noticeable. Since I use an oversized laptop for processing (my 19″ Alienware Aurora mALX), I only get an hour of battery life, but I was able to disconnect all the electric cables for at least a while and lift the ground on the entire signal chain. There was still some line noise, and now I was a woman on a mission.

Erik and Ed Gambill (president of SaVoa) separately suggested I switch to Mogami for all my mic cabling. What a simple and effective improvement! Immediately, my signal was cleaner and truer. I bought a 6′ Mogami Gold Neglex Quad Microphone Cable for Studio Neutrik XLR to start.

I can now also detect defects in my room treatment and plan on adding a better recording space, possibly an isolation booth. That will require longer cables and cable management. Since the Mogami cables are well constructed and amazingly flexible, cabling won’t be an issue.

Switching to Mogami cables is easily the most cost-effective thing I’ve done to improve my signal chain.

I’ve been researching methods for providing real-time voice over streams to clients who want to record at their end. Not only are there a bunch of choices with respect to ISDN equipment, but there may be a benefit to bypassing what may be outdated technology and going straight to audio-over-IP options like Telos System’s new Zephyr Z/IP or AudioTX. Going over IP is more future-friendly and would allow me to avoid the monthly expense of maintaining an ISDN line with a third ISP (I already have cable internet with Comcast and a DSL backup through AT&T).

Well, more on my new research project will follow in upcoming blogs if I pursue this, but in the process I found this nice video blog of Joe Cipriano’s ISDN session for West Wing promos. It’s great to see a pro at work — and how nice of Joe to show us his equipment.

There are a lot of microphones out on the market suitable for all types of recordings, and a whole lot more that are unsuitable. Before evaluating a microphone for voice over, it helps to understand what the microphone is supposed to do and all the things that can affect (enhance or weaken) performance. Rick Waller, Tim Vear and John Boudreau, three engineers with Shure Incorporated, have put together what I think is a pretty comprehensive 39 page guide on these issues: Mic Techniques for Live Sound Reinforcement.

The title really doesn’t tell the whole story. In addition to mic technique, the ebook discusses microphone characteristics, mic placement, acoustics, sound waves, and the four characteristics that affect sound propagation: reflection, absorption, diffraction and refraction. It also provides a useful glossary of terms.

Since this free publication is provided by Shure, only Shure microphones are featured in the Selection Guide on page 34. Well, it’s their book and Shure has sure earned bragging rights, though they don’t make a big fuss about it in this ebook. Still, it’s interesting to see how many different microphones just one company makes for all the different instruments listed, including the human voice. If you jump to the Voice-Over section of the guide, you’ll see the SM7b listed . . . that’s my microphone.