In article ,
david nospam@nospam274503 wrote:
I'm trying to record my father talking about his youth but the recordings
come out with his and my voices very quiet and lots of hissing background
even though the room is quiet apart from our speech.

I have tried an old Tandy Realistic Omnidirectional Pressure Zone
Microphone bought about 1995, connected to a tape recorder bought about
1985, though good quality. I am about five feet away on one side of the
mike, my dad four feet on the other side, but the speech comes out faint
and you have to listen through hissing.

Have also tried an Olympus WS-200s digital voice recorder - this seems to
pick up more - the speech is louder, but less clear, and same hissing.
I was surprised that the Olympus was not far behind the Tandy in quality.

Best is Sony camcorder about four years old, almost no hissing, and
speech is loud and clear, though can hear the camcorder whirring.

Please could someone tell me why the camcorder is good - what's going
on in it that makes the speech loud and stops most background noise?
Is it amplifying the speech?

More importantly, does anyone have any suggestiosn as to what
microphone(s) I should buy to get a proper sounding recording? Is there
a mike which would work from several feet away? Or should I buy two
mikes, one for my dad to hold near his mouth and one for me, with some
sort oif mixer. I notice maplin sell some cheap mixers £25 but I've no
idea if they are any good. What should sort of device should I be
recording onto?

A microphone being seen by someone not used to one can be intimidating -
so I'd be inclined to use a personal type clipped to a lapel, etc. They
don't give the very best sound quality due to their position but can be
adequate - after all they're universal for TV newsreaders etc. Maplin,
etc, sell quite reasonably priced ones.

A decent 'gun' mike which *might* work well from a distance of a 5 feet
(depending on things like room acoustics, external noise and voice levels)
will cost a great deal of money. Best part of 1000 quid. It will also need
a pro mixer to power it.

As regards the recorder, mic amps in cheap recorders are invariably poor -
as are they in cheap computer sound cards. But with the high output from a
close personal mic most should be ok.

I'd concentrate on getting the voice of your father correct using just one
mic. You can then re-record your questions later and chop them in using
one of the many free computer editing progs. Otherwise you'll need two
mics and a mixer - or record to two tracks and mix later.

Other alternative would be to contact a local hire company that does
broadcast gear and hire what you need for the day - two mics, mixer and
suitable recorder. This may not prove more expensive than buying things
you may never use again - but should give very satisfactory results.

--
*We waste time, so you don't have to *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.