this is the process that i went through for choosing
the right microphone for my youtube videos
by the time i started doing youtube videos more seriously i already had experience in
setting up this room in my house as my recording studio for when i did my album some years ago
so i already had a little bit of experience with audio equipment and setup
i knew to have dampening foam to reduce big flat areas and reduce the echo effect and think about
the floor and in this case it has a wood floor so it was kind of good for live sound for what i was
doing with the music but you can also use things like carpet to dampen out any kind of echo off the
floor and i also already had several microphones i'd invested in each with their own specific use
at a very high level there are two basic types of microphones there's the condenser type and
the dynamic type the dynamic type is usually considered better for a live sound or recording
the condenser type is much more sensitive with a wider range so it's usually preferred for a
studio environment like this where you have a lot less ambient sound the two can actually be
used together as well for example when i did the guitar track for the album what i did is use the
dynamic microphone up very close to the guitar amp to capture that sound coming right out of the amp
but then in addition i use the condenser mic back about six feet away from the amp just to
capture all the peripheral sound as well and then mix the two tracks together for the final track
for the album you also have a pencil mic like this pencil mics are a type of condenser mic
but they're very focused instead of this one which kind of captures everything
a pencil mic directs the focus where it's picking up the sound so it's really good for things like
picking up details in fingering and i'm talking about the guitar not your local hooters waitress
but directing it where the fingers are hitting the strings adds a little bit more detail that
can be mixed with the bigger track or the primary track later for a fuller sound
for example here in the studio if i'm recording my voice with the condenser mic the studio mic it
sounds like this is me talking into the studio or condenser mic this is me talking into the dynamic
mic this is me talking into a pencil mic but because it's so focused you can see how it changes
especially if i turn my head or anything like that this is the electric through the condenser mic
this is the electric through the dynamic mic
this is the 12 string through the condenser all right this is the pencil mic with the acoustic
the right audio and video solution has become very important think about the power that we have in
our hand with just a phone these days it's better audio and video quality capabilities than what the
professionals had years ago so never underestimate how picky the audience is going to be
when they're watching your youtubes they're going to want to see professional video they're going
to see professional level lighting and they're going to want to hear professional level audio
if you don't have those things all as well as your budget allows you to make it your expertise
then you're going to be cutting yourself short in your true potential the expectation is just
here that everybody has to have studio level production quality in their content
the studio mic is the best microphone that i have at my disposal for voicing over a video now
that's easy enough to do when i'm recording it mixing it in at the editing stages because i
have my editing station set up over here to the side on the computer so i can have the studio
mic have it right there recording my voice over i'm getting a nice clean sound it's in a
good studio environment and that's what gives me the best quality sound for recording
in this studio this is all fine and good in a studio environment however most of my videos
involve working on a car or a motorcycle so they're not here in the studio where i have
my mic in my setup they're out in the garage and they involve me crawling around the machine
so it's not practical to think that i'm going to keep this microphone within the few inches
from my face like it is sitting here at the desk i also have to be able to narrate it as i go because
there's such detailed tasks happening that to go back and watch it later and try to figure out from
these hours of footage what i was doing at what point just isn't practical i need to be narrating
it as it's happening so that when i edit it i can look for the sound bites to know that i was
speaking at this point it's a critical task and then i can skip ahead to the next speaking point
so it just made more sense to find some kind of a solution that i could use in the garage there's
also the element of personal connection with the viewer if you think about watching a video
where you see the guy doing the task and you hear this voice narrating what he's doing you have a
blank face and a blank voice to this body however if the person doing the work is speaking to you
as they're doing it and instructing you it feels more like a person and it feels more like you're
immersed in their environment you're sitting there in the garage with them watching them do this work
and learning from them firsthand so that's also the other benefit
of being able to narrate it as you go out there now my old sony handycam had an onboard mic
as do my gopros so one option i started with was to use the camera's microphone out in the garage
and just have them capture both the video and the audio the audio wasn't the best to say the least
however depending on the location you could get a really imbalance in your left to right
depending on where you were moving around it would fluctuate in amplitude and it just wasn't the most
practical for the kind of work that i was doing i could add a voice over to it later in editing
but then that wouldn't necessarily match the sound of the voice while i was doing the task
it just didn't come out very clean with my new 4k sony handycam that i'm filming this video with
the video quality is stepped up tremendously from the hd that i had before it's a better quality
camera the sound of it is better but i still have the left right balance and being affected by where
i'm moving it did come with an external microphone so i tried using that as well but it had a battery
so i was always worried about is the battery going to go dead or not and it was a little bit
more than i wanted to worry about because i may do a video that lasts quite a bit of time while i'm
doing a task on a bike now that i had the 4k video capability i knew i needed to step up the audio
so i went with a sure usb microphone it's a really good product it's great for say podcast it has a
near and far setting and with the usb i could actually plug it into my laptop when i went out
into the garage versus dragging a big computer out there with this mic so it made a lot more sense
from a practicality standpoint and i could put it in the far setting instead of the near i didn't
like it being in my face for the near setting because then it looked like i was on a podcast
and even if i was sitting in front of one of the vehicles just doing a storytelling let's say
it just felt like it was too formal to have that microphone right in my face so i used it in the
far setting and i was able to place it just above the screen view so that the viewer couldn't see
the microphone but it was still picking it up and i thought that was a great solution i did a series
of videos and the first one i posted on youtube all the comments came back as what's with the echo
chamber dude and so my bad i actually seem to have forgotten everything i learned about setting up a
studio when i did those videos i knew you needed sound deadening i knew you needed to minimize big
flat surfaces and big flat surfaces on the ground and not have echo it's like i forgot everything i
knew and i was just happy to have my cool usb mic picking up sound so the first thing i did
is added some canvas prints around the walls to not only dress up the walls a little bit but also
to deaden that echo i know that i can lay a rug down and i can deaden the echo a little bit more
by not having that large concrete surface anymore the most important thing i did is to figure out a
better mic solution one solution could have been to move the mic into near position settings and
have it right in my face like a podcast which like i said i wasn't really a fan of but it doesn't
work when i'm working on a bike either it only would work for the stationary ones where i'm just
sitting there telling stories i started looking into shotgun mics a shotgun mic is basically a
big version of the pencil mic it's longer and it aims very specifically at a location to pick up
that sound which means it won't pick up a lot of the ambient noise like the air conditioning unit
running on the other side of the garage wall so it would have been probably an improvement
but when i talked to the folks at sweetwater asking for recommendations what the guy told me is
it's only good if you're going to sit really still if you start moving around you're going to find
that when you turn your head or you look the other way or you move around the bike to the other side
the amplitude is going to change so much the quality of sound is going to change
it still isn't going to work so we both kind of at the same time agreed that the lapel mic
was probably going to be the best solution so i picked up a sennheiser model because i already
have a sennheiser pencil mic and a sennheiser dynamic mic and they've been great products so
i got in the lapel mic and it took a little bit of adjustment to figure out the right way to put it
the ideal way that i've found is to have it pointed completely horizontal try to minimize
how much it wrinkles your collar right there tuck the wire in behind you come back to the
battery pack for the remote transmitter down here and then i mount the other side to the camera
instead of going into the computer for an audio file if i do them as two separates then you
have to go sync them together but by plugging the receiver into the 4k cam i can get one output file
that has video and audio and save me the syncing tasks the only issue i've had so far with it once
i got the positioning set i had it kind of up to the side a couple times and it it got a lot of
static and it was felt a little muffled and stuff so just having it again perfectly straight across
right in the center is where i found to be the sweet spot for it and yeah you can see i
have a lapel mic on but it's not the end of the world i don't have the big podcast one in front
of me and the nice thing is i can move over here i can turn around and do something here
i can play with this and i can turn this way and your quality of sound doesn't change by doing that
this means i can crawl around on the motorcycle i can do anything i need to be as mobile as i want
and i can still get good quality consistent sound the only issue i've had so far with it is that
in the event that i'm kind of leaning over and it's jostling against the shirt
it'll get a little bit of static on it so ideally you want to sit as upright as you can
if you do lean a little bit try to keep your back straight it's when you start doing things like
this that might move it around and make some noise so this is what i found for the best solution for
me doing my youtube videos where i'm working in the garage where i'm working on equipment
i'm having to move around it's been a lot of trial and error to get here but i feel like i've finally
got to a good position to be able to get good quality audio during filming and then to finish
up any voice over i need with a condenser mic on my computer station during the editing process
so if you have any other tips or you found something that works better
please include them in the comments below or if you have any questions otherwise happy recording
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