Voice recording for animation

[Krazyklaws]

Hello folks,

I am hoping that someone out there might have some helpful suggestions about this. I am currently working on an independent project and have come to that point where we are ready to record the voices. I'm looking for the most effecient, best quality and well, cheapest solutions for doing this. Are there any decent ways to record lines and sounds other than in a studio, or by renting equpiment yourself? Does anyone happen to know the average costs of doing any one of those things?

I appreciate any help you can give me,
Audrey

[Daniel Poeira]

I can't give you any prices because we live in different countries, but if you're willing to spend a little money, you could buy your own equipment and record it yourself.

I have an 8 track mixer and a Shure microphone who do a decent job at a low price. But it would be nice to have a good sound board on the computer (not my case).

Anyway, with a software like Cool Edit Pro or Sound Forge you can do so many magic that almost any decent mike will the job for you. Take a look at some used equipment stores and see how it fits your budget. It can be cheaper than renting a studio.

[Krazyklaws]

Thanks. Well, it depends on how much a 'little money' is. I doubt my sound board is that great, since it's intergrated and I really want nice high quality. But I'll shop around a bit.

[grega]

I started with a second hand mic and a battered casio keyboard.

[abvox]

Daniel has it exactly right. Although a good mic processor can make a *world* of difference, it all starts with a good microphone. I use an ElectroVoice RE-20, and couldn't be happier with it. I also have a Sennheiser MD 421 II that has an awesome low-end response.

And while I have a mic processor for my home studio, it's generating too much noise (grounding problem somewhere I haven't had time to trace) so I run my mic into a Radio Shack mixer (yeah, cheap but effective) and from there straight into the sound card. Add in Adobe Audition (Cool Edit Pro) and its on board noise-reduction and eq features, and bada-bing, decent reasonably low cost sound recording.

Good luck with your project!

ab

[DreamFollower]

this may be too cheap, but why not just rent (or you may already have) a digital camcorder and record the sound on that, transfer over to the computer and then edit the file in FinalCut Pro or something like that. Cheap...and it works!

[abvox]

Krazyklaws--

There's one more thing to consider about good voice recording: Sound dampening. This means that the room you're recording in must be as "flat" as possible. Imagine your house right now. You can speak into any room and not hear too much in the way of 'echo.' This is because the furniture in the room absorbs much of the sound and keeps it from bouncing off the walls. Remember what it sounded like before all the furniture went in? Echoey. Unfortunately, what the naked ear won't pick up, a microphone will. Thus the need for a good sound dampening strategy.

If you can't afford sound dampening foam, or can't find a local grocery store that still gets eggs in "egg crate" foam (I actually got my foam from a local sign company who regularly takes shipments of neon tubes,) there are some other good solutions that work very well:

Record in a small area and make sure you have plenty of blankets, quilts, comforters, or whatever else that's soft and puffy lining the area that's immediately around your microphone and the person speaking into it. You can create a make-shift "mic booth" this way. A good friend of mine who does videography for a living has a setup in his house that works very well: he put up a book case about four feet from the corner of his mixing room with the *back* facing the wall (naturally.) He then hung some blankets over the back of the book case and along the walls to create a "softer" area for the recording to take place. He set up a microphone and a copy stand (an old high-school music stand with a bit of ordinary carpet cut to fit over the surface to keep the sound from bouncing off it,) and that works fine.

Remember, *some* echo/reverb can be fine. But it's best to have as little of that as possible. With most good software packages you can add in whatever effects you want later, but it's hard to remove elements that were created by the original recording.

Good luck!

ab

[Krazyklaws]

Thanks everyone. That has helped alot. I feel much better about doing this myself now. So basically, a good mic, a little mixer and lots of big puffy blankets and I should be okay huh?

[abvox]

LOL.

That's about right...after that, it's all trial and error.

Keep us posted on the process.

ab

[Krazyklaws]

Will do.