[PodcastMN] Whaddya think?

[Mike O'Connor]

At 09:20 AM 8/17/2007, Steve Borsch wrote:
>A new idea for my bride's business meant that I need actual 
>broadcast quality audio.

you think *you've* been quiet on this list for a long time?  i gotta 
tell ya, i'm even worse.

but i thought i'd chime in on this one.

see that quote up there?  "broadcast quality" audio is actually a 
pretty low standard, easily met by your noisy preamp, and certainly 
wildly exceeded by the mic you've bought.  i'm dredging pretty old 
knowledge here, but my recollection is that the FCC noise floor for 
an FM station is something on the order of 35db.  maybe 40.  anyway, 
pretty low.

so, depending on what you're trying to do, here's another 
approach.  try switching from phantom-powered mics to dynamics.  the 
iron-clad standard for remote broadcast use is the EV 
635A.  completely indestructible, sounds great, pretty cheap (a quick 
Google finds a new one at $105).   nice n'quiet 'cause you don't have 
all thum electronics to fuss with.

phantom powered mics are usually recording *studio* mics -- and maybe 
that's what you're gunning for.  but for podcast-style voice work, 
that's overkill.  the place you see those kinda mics is when you're 
doing a music session, and then you're looking at a much spiffier 
mixing board and pre-amps and etc. etc.  down that path lies much 
money and all kinds of audio geek stuff that you may not want to 
tangle with.  if your noise floor gets much below 50db, you're gonna 
have to rebuild your house.  turn off the furnace, get rid of the 
fridge, build a concrete room, springs under the floors, foam stuff 
on the walls -- it's *hard* to get recording-studio sound.  and 
electronics are just the start.

after all, it a system.  and the noise floor is determined by your 
noisiest component.  'soon as you get that mic squared away, you'll 
find something else.

funny note -- i just did a podcast using the phone-recording 
capability of GrandCentral (www.grandcentral.com).  it worked great, 
but in order to make it sound "good" i had to *inject* noise into the 
audio to cover up some odd compression that Grandcentral was 
doing.  laid in a white-noise track at about -25db and it sounds just 
like an NPR phone interview.

my 2 cents,

m





voice: 651-647-6109
fax: 866-280-2356

web: www.haven.com
ham radio: KZ0C -- www.kz0c.com -- Grid Square EN44dk

IM -- MSN: mike at haven.com
IM -- ICQ: 235943241
IM -- Yahoo/AIM/Skype: OConnorStP
IM -- Jabber: OConnorStP at gmail.com
IM -- Gtalk: OConnorStP at gmail.com