I am shopping for a mic that will give me the best results for voice recordings that I will import into e-learning applications. Can anyone suggest something that seems to work well? My specs/preferences:
- top quality voice reproduction
- noise cancellation capability
- hands-free, so headset or lapel preferred
- reasonable battery life

The ones that are looking good from my research are:
- Andrea NC-7100 USB Headset - $50-$80 range
- Koss CS100 Headset - $20

I'm tired of looking and thought I would try an ASTD mindmeld to garner any of your expertise on this.

Hi Chris
Check out the microphones at Beyerdynamic.
http://www.beyerdynamic.com/cms/Microphones.43.0.html?&L=1

I needed a microphone for the same purpose that you mention. I got a good quality, small uni-directional condenser microphone for a reasonable price. Since the one I bought plugged right into my laptop, I also got a stand and a long cord to keep it away from any fan noises. They sell lapel mikes etc, and also have a list of 'special application' mikes.

I later needed an omni-directional mike for recording a focus group. Since I was in a hurry, I got one from Radio Shack, and it doesn't work nearly as well...

Lee

I have a GN Netcom headset that runs about $100 and it seems to be working out well. I've also used a $20 pair from the office supplies catalog and they were also fine. What software are you using to edit your audio? That should allow you to clean up the audio (remove background fan noise, normalize, etc).

You can't really use the same microphone for voice recording and to record a group. Those are very different conditions that require different technologies. For voice recording, it depends on how much quality you need. You can either go high end and get a "real" microphone that will run upward of $200, with an articulated boom and a pop screen that will run you another $200. This will give you a very natural, "sweet" sound but it is a waste of money if not coupled with recording equipment that is of the same high caliber, and used in the proper acoustic environment. Or you can go low end with a good quality headset/microphone combination that can bring the microphone close to the mouth without incurring pops and recording breathing noises. The acoustic environment is less important because you won't be picking up any of the "studio color". I've had good results with an inexpensive Radio Shack computer headset. I would not recommend a lapel mike, unless you understand exactly how to use one and you monitor the audio carefully to proactively correct cord and clothing noise. But of course in some situations the headset is not an option and there a good lapel mike will help. Again, very good ones run $200 and up, but you may be able to find one for around $30 that is "good enough". For group recordings, look into a PZM type of microphone. In all cases, just like you wouldn't take a picture without looking into a viewfinder, if you need good results you should not record sound without monitoring. In the field, that means using good quality, unforgiving, headphones designed to block extraneous sounds.

Chris,

I've looked into this last year and settled on the ANC-700 headset pre-USB model and had difficulties with the PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS notebook soundcard, but works fine with my PC soundcard, and I now mainly use it with voice recognition software. The batteries last about a month whether you turn off the mic or not.

Also, it's not hands-free, but I bought the MXL DRK (Desktop Recording Kit) by Marshall Electronics ($85 on ebay) for recording voice audio for bilingual e-learning demos and the sound quality is amazing. Here's an independent review: http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=33810
I also broke down and bought Soundforge 8.0, the program a lot of professional voice-over talent use and pretty much have a great setup in my basement office. I still need to find a pop-screen for the mic and maybe set up better acoustic environment, but I'm well on my way.

Marty Bartreau