Making a Recording For Eventual Transcription - How Essential Are Microphones?

So, are microphones essential when recording? The simple answer is 'yes' but that would make for a very short article! To ensure that you capture a clearly audible recording, particularly for events such as interviews or conferences, it's essential to use a microphone. If you need your recording to be transcribed, the only way to ensure a clearly audible recording is to use equipment that's fit for purpose. Why waste time, effort and money arranging an event, only to blow it at the recording stage? Microphones cost peanuts in comparison with what you'll spend organising an event, so why ruin the recording for the sake of a few extra pounds?

So which microphone should you use? It may be tempting to think that the recorder's internal microphone will be up to the task of recording any situation, particularly in the new digital recorders, which give a superior quality of recording. But if you use an internal microphone for anything other than dictation, you'll run the risk of producing a poor recording. This will lead to a transcript with queries and increased transcription costs - the cost of which could have paid for a decent external microphone.

Built-in microphones in most portable recorders are of poor quality with limited control over volume levels. They're designed to be used for one voice, typically in a dictation situation where the recorder is held close to the mouth. They'll pick up sound from the nearest source, which can be the recorder itself. If, for example, you use a Dictaphone with an internal microphone to record an interview and put the recorder down on the table several feet from your interviewee, you may not pick up their voice clearly, especially if they speak softly. It's worth remembering that for every foot of distance the microphone is from the source of the sound, the recorded volume level decreases by half and the background noise doubles. If you have to use an internal microphone for an interview, ensure that the recorder is placed as close as possible to the interviewee and that the recording is done in a quiet environment. However, if you try to use an internal microphone to record focus groups or meetings, you're asking the microphone to function in an environment for which it was never designed - it simply won't work.

Using a good quality external microphone will greatly enhance the clarity of the recording, leading to a subsequent reduction in transcription time and costs. Let's look at some of the recording situations for which microphones can be used and the different types of microphone available.

Interviews: there are a variety of what can be termed individual microphones which are suitable for interview situations. Lapel (also known as lavalier microphones) or tie clip microphones can be fastened to the interviewee's clothing, but can also pick up any rustling noises from it. If you have a stereo recorder with two microphone sockets, you can use two microphones to capture both the interviewer's and interviewee's comments. Or use a microphone splitter to enable two microphones to be plugged into one microphone socket. Another option is to use a noise cancelling microphone which will cut down on a certain amount of ambient background noise. Omni-directional microphones can be used in interview situations but they do need a quiet environment. A directional microphone will pick up sound from the direction in which it's pointed which is, hopefully, at the interviewee! Handheld directional microphones are ideal for street interview recording situations, such as vox pops, where you can hold the mic right up to your interviewee's mouth.

For indoor interviews, it may be tempting for the interviewer to sit close to the recorder to check it's working, but if the interviewee is too far from any table top microphone, then the clarity of the recording will suffer. All too often, transcribers receive recordings where the interviewer's is the clearest voice and the interviewee's virtually inaudible. Since the answers are almost always more important than the questions, the microphone needs to be as close as possible to the interviewee,or at least centrally placed between the two.

Focus groups, conferences or meetings: as these events are likely to involve many participants, you need to ensure that there is a sufficient number of microphones around the room to pick up ALL the participants clearly. We recommend using omni-directional microphones or a conference mixer system which links several microphones to one central unit. The only disadvantage with omni-directional microphones is that they pick up every sound - so be careful to minimise background noise and brief your participants thoroughly. Another option is to use a noise cancelling microphone which cuts down on a certain amount of background noise.

For any type of group recording, don't try and cope with one microphone in the middle of a large table and push it towards each person as they speak. You'll only record the scraping noise as you do so! We recommend using a minimum of one microphone for every two people placed evenly between the speakers. For multiple microphones, you'll need a mixer to connect all the microphones to the recorder.

Another option would be to choose table top boundary microphones that use the table to resonate sound. These produce a good quality sound but also pick up every sound made ON the table, such as tapping pens, clattering of cups, people banging the table to make a point, etc. This is when briefing the participants beforehand coupled with effective and firm moderation during the recording comes into its own. Ask participants not to speak all at once, not to interrupt each other and to minimise extraneous noise; otherwise, their valuable contributions to your meeting or focus group will be lost.

For conferences, we recommend that all speakers and members of any panels have individual microphones, either a lectern microphone or an individual lapel or tie-clip mic. While the speaker is giving their presentation, make sure all the other panel members' microphones are turned off so you don't capture all those off the cuff comments!If you're in the audience of a lecture or conference and need to record the presentation, balancing a Dictaphone on your knee will not pick up the voices from the platform. All that will be recorded is the noise nearest the recorder. You may be able to hear a speaker clearly from the middle of an audience, but your recorder will pick up other noises - you scribbling down notes, your neighbour coughing, or the person three rows back having a sneezing fit. None of that will produce a recording that's possible to transcribe. It may be best to contact the organisers for a transcript afterwards, but if time doesn't allow for that option, the only way you'll have a chance of recording anything is to put a microphone on or near the podium. Even then, there will be issues over feedback from the sound system and distance from the speakers, even with digital equipment. Be prepared for a less than clear recording and therefore an incomplete transcript.

It may be useful to run through a few general tips which are common to the use of all microphones in most recording situations. Microphones are not as selective as the human ear. We can filter out extraneous background 'babble' such as traffic, other voices or equipment noise. A microphone will hear the lot, from all directions and give equal 'weight' to every sound on the recording. Whichever microphone you use, don't place it near the recorder itself while recording. Particularly when using analogue recorders, the microphone will pick up noise from the machine itself. This is less of an issue with digital equipment, but you should still ensure that the microphone and recorder are placed as far apart as the lead will allow.

Try and minimise background noise, which includes not having crockery near the microphones. It's tempting to have refreshments to relax your interviewee or focus group participants but if you have this on the table where the recorder also sits, the clattering of the crockery will be the loudest sound on the recording, and you'll deafen the transcriber! Similarly, ask people not to shuffle papers near the microphone. This may seem an insignificant noise to our ears but as it may be the sound nearest to the recorder, that's what the microphone will hear and it will drown out whatever is being said. Try and avoid writing near the microphone. We've often heard recordings where the scribbling of a pen is the loudest sound heard throughout the recording.

Before you purchase any microphone, check that it's compatible with your recorder and, indeed, that your recorder has a microphone socket (advice on the features to look for in a recorder are covered in another article). It's worth remembering that buying a cheap microphone for your expensive recorder is like putting a Reliant Robin's engine in a Jag! Good quality microphones are not that expensive. Most of the microphones mentioned above can be obtained from suppliers such as Ndeva, Voice Power, SpeakIt and DictateIT. You can also buy them from electronic retailers like Maplins and Cybermarket.

A final thought - you can invest in very expensive recording equipment but still scupper your chances of making a good recording by not using a microphone. Simply using a good quality recorder on its own is not enough. A microphone will make the biggest difference to whether your recording is clearly audible and swiftly transcribed, or barely audible and impossible to decipher.

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Microphone and Vocal Techniques For Recording Like a Pro!

Having good "Mic Technique" means two things: 1.) Understanding that a microphone's diaphragm reacts with varying sensitivity to your vocal performance. 2.) Knowing how to adjust your body according to the dynamics of the delivery. If you're going to deliver a quiet, intimate vocal from start to finish, you can afford to position your mouth just a few inches (or even less) from the microphone. If the vocal is to be sung full volume throughout the song, you may stand a couple feet away. Quite often, though, a song is dynamic enough to require different amounts of air to be pushed at different times. Singers with good mic technique will move their body closer to or further away from the mic as the song unfolds. Ideally, your mouth is as close to the mic as possible before overloading it with level (which will cause it to distort or, with super-sensitive mic's, to temporarily shut down -this will always be blamed on the engineer, even if it's the singer's fault.) Tip: don't be afraid to move your head back a couple inches for just a phrase or even a syllable - you can also aim your mouth slightly above or to the side of the diaphragm for particularly loud moments.

Room Microphones

Room mics are used to give a recording a more ambient and live sound. Room mics can be used in stereo or mono, but one must always be aware that they do have an effect on the phase relationships of all the other instruments being recorded simultaneously in the same room. Engineers often use stereo room mics placed about six feet high, and about ten feet from the drum kit to enhance the drum sound. Other engineers will use a single mic in omni placed near the floor, and pointed at the kick drum. There are endless combinations of placements, and ultimately, each has to be the decision of the engineer and producer. There is no pat prescription for placing room mics.

Dynamic and Condenser Microphones

In the simplest of terms, a dynamic microphone is basically an iron core surrounded by a coil of copper wire much like an electromagnet. When sound waves hit the core and move it, it causes the core to move within the coil, which generates electrical impulses that become translated into sound when they go through a mic preamp. A condenser mic (or electret condenser) is essentially two extremely thin, metal (typically gold) partialcoated Mylar membranes, which are separated by a very thin insulating layer of air. One side is positively charged, the other is negatively charged. When sound waves, or sound pressure hits the "diaphragm," it creates electrical impulses that become translated into sound when they go through a mic preamp. Generally speaking, dynamic mics are less expensive, are less delicate, handle extreme sound pressure levels better than condenser mics, but don't sound as good as condenser mics. There are many situations in which a dynamic mic is the better choice though. Many engineers use them on drums of all types. They are very well suited for applications where high sound pressure levels are anticipated. Condenser mics are generally thought to be richer sounding, with more "detail." But while they may sound better, they are also more sensitive to high sound pressure levels, and somewhat prone to distortion if exposed to too much level. Condenser mics often have variable pattern switches on them, allowing engineers to choose a cardioid pattern, hyper-cardioid, figure eight, or omni.

Getting Rid of Mouth Pops and Lip Noise

Obviously, most engineers use pop filters to eliminate pops, but there are more than one kind of pop filter. Many stage mics already have them built in, hence the large ball-shaped screen over the mic's capsule. But most studio mics use a foam pop filter or windscreen that slides over the end of the mic. Those work well, but some people think they eliminate some of the microphone's ability to capture high-end sounds. It's an arguable point. A more popular type of windscreen that has emerged in the last decade is the nylon stocking variety. In its simplest, home-brewed version, it is just a piece of nylon stocking stretched over an "o" shaped piece of sturdy wire like a section of coat hanger. The filter is placed between the singer's mouth and the microphone to eliminate any blasts of breath that would cause a pop. There are several companies that now manufacture the nylon stocking type of pop filter. Maybe the most effective way of all to eliminate pops is to just place the microphone so that the singer's mouth doesn't blow directly in to it. Placing the mic slightly off to one side, but angled at the singer's mouth will almost always cure a popping problem. Just make sure that you haven't placed the mic so far off-axis that you affect the sound of the mic by going outside the mic's pick-up pattern. The best prescription in the world for getting rid of mouth noise is to simply have the singer drink water, and lots of it.

Unique Vocal Techniques & Reverb

The opportunities to make a vocal sound unique are endless, bound only by your imagination. Sometimes the more obvious effects - 'telephone'-like filters, heavy-pumping compression, ethereal reverb - are exactly what works for the song. But you can also have the vocal sung into a megaphone, or come off tape into a guitar pedal, an amplifier, even the Leslie speaker that was built for Hammond organs (if you're lucky enough to own one.) A lot of digital effects boxes will simulate these sounds, but they don't always come out as good as the real thing. Wah-wah and distortion pedals are extremely useful in giving your vocal a different sound. And you can get great kinds of distortion by deliberately overloading a circuit. Try patching your vocal, from tape, into a mic-pre with its gain turned all the way up. Every model of mic-pre out there produces its own type of distortion when overloaded, so if you don't like the sound of one, try again with another. This trick also works with compressors - just turn the input all the way up. (Note: if you try this idea, start with the fader down on the channel where the signal is returning.) And remember that too much effect can come off as gimmicky. Blending just a little bit into the main (dry) signal allows you to create a sound that's fresh without drawing attention to it. (Of course, sometimes that's the point.) Tip: Are you looking for a unique vocal reverb? Before you send the vocal to the reverb unit, patch it into a flanger first. If you dial in just the right amount, the listener may not even pick up on your little trick. But the overall vocal sound will be unique and more interesting. Most of the time people think of reverb in terms of extremes: either they like a lot of reverb or none at all. But there's a middle ground that's very useful when you want a natural sounding vocal that's neither too wet nor too dry. Like when you want to process it so it sounds unprocessed.

Final Thought on Vocal Tips & The Use of Reverb

Listen to your vocal (with reverb) in solo and dial-in a cool, vibe reverb that has a relatively short decay and 0-2 reflections (feedback). In solo, the reverb should be plenty audible. Then take those faders out of solo and while listening to the whole mix, adjust the amount of vocal reverb to the point just below where you can detect it. By setting it to where you can't hear it but it's definitely there, you're using the reverb more as glue between the singer and the band than as an obvious effect. This is great for when you want the whole band to sound like they're in the same room without settling for a totally dry, unexciting ambience. Most of the time people think of reverb in terms of extremes: either they like a lot of reverb or none at all. But there's a middle ground that's very useful when you want a natural sounding vocal that's neither too wet nor too dry. Like when you want to process it so it sounds unprocessed.

Final Tip: Listen to your vocal (with reverb) in solo and dial-in a cool, vibe reverb that has a relatively short decay and 0-2 reflections (feedback). In solo, the reverb should be plenty audible. Then take those faders out of solo and while listening to the whole mix, adjust the amount of vocal reverb to the point just below where you can detect it. By setting it to where you can't hear it but it's definitely there, you're using the reverb more as glue between the singer and the band than as an obvious effect. This is great for when you want the whole band to sound like they're in the same room without settling for a totally dry, unexciting ambience.

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