iPhone Commentary

[Barry Beckham]

I am sure I am not the first to think of using an iPhone to record commentary.

There have been questions raised regarding microphones and commentary on the forum over the years and it's almost impossible to give advice given the variables in microphones, sound cards and PC's. Some seem to get great results with low cost mic's while others struggle.

I tried an iPhone and think the results are far better than I have heard some use on their slide shows, but where you record is obviously important. I chose a walk in wardrobe,  so the acoustics were be pretty good. I laid the iPhone down and spoke across it, rather than at the microphone and then just ran the mp3 through Audacity noise reduction.

For those who don't do much of this, but want to dip their toe in the voice-over water, perhaps here is a no cost chance to have a go.

Mp3 sample

[Ronniebootwest]

Excellent example of a perfect voice recording! A very good idea as well Barry but, I wonder how many of us have the luxury of a walk in wardrobe?

[JudyKay]

Quality audio is like a quality photograph.  iPhone photos are good enough for some people who can't see any difference between an iPhone Instagram picture and an image meticulously captured on a tripod with a FF sensor. Likewise, iPhone recordings are good enough for some people.  Whether it matters depends if you have an eye or an ear for the difference in quality.

[Lin Evans]

If one already has an iPhone I suppose it could be a usable solution. On the other hand if not, something like the Blue Snowball is a terrific value and sooo much less expensive..

Best regards,

Lin

[orizaba]

Hi Barry,

"... and then just ran the mp3 through Audacity noise reduction."

Did you find it necessary? That "metallic" voice is not nice. I use to do it and no need of Audacity.

Regards,

Jose

[Barry Beckham]

Jose

Yes I did find it necessary, but perhaps you're missing the point. I am not suggesting you or any AV enthusiast should use this method. Just that it's a possibility for someone new to AV to try commentary at no cost.

lin

Do you have personal experience of this mic? If so, can you give a paragraph on your experiences, what you have and your experiences with it. Also, do you need any noisenreduction or is it OK as is.

I find I need  some noise reduction using Camtasia and a mic + pre amp

 

[jevans]

I use a Zoom H2 hand held recorder (now about £100 in the UK). Provided you put it on its stand and record in a suitably quiet location (bedroom, with curtains drawn, and a rug or cloth on top of the chest of drawers), I do not need any noise reduction. I have tried various techniques with good quality mics, but you need a preamp or amplifier and still need some storage solution. Recording directly into the computer is definately a no-no. The Zoom has SD card storage so you can remove it and transfer directly to the computer.

Jeff

[Barry Beckham]

Recording directly into the computer is definately a no-no

If I am recording on screen content, it helps a lot to be in the same room as the computer I find  

 

[JudyKay]

Each to his own, but high-quality images and thin, tinny audio reduce the perceived quality of everything.  Off-computer recording is a big step up.    Minimizing or eliminating noise reduction greatly increases quality, retaining full, rich, warm sound.  If you must record with on-screen content, then use a cool laptop on battery power with SSD. 

1. As men get older their ability to distinguish nuance of tone.  That does not mean everyone else can't hear it loud and clear.

2. If you hear good quality and lesser quality side by side, and have good hearing, you will have little doubt about the worth of good recording techniques.

3. If you MUST go with something like Blue Snowball, you will find it much better than an iPhone. You can pick one up for less than $80.  If I recall correctly, last time I was in America, I saw them at Costco for around $40-50.  If you have a phone--that is free, and it does work.  Audacity cleans up the worst of the mess.  To me, editing such audio feels like the difference between editing a high-quality RAW image and a low-quality jpg from your phone.

 

[Barry Beckham]

Judy

I think you're missing the point of my post and I dare say that is my fault for not explaining things well enough, but it was just a simple suggestion for those who don't do much of this, but want to dip their toe in the voice-over water. It's a no cost chance to have a go and having done so they may then splash out on something better.

I wasn't suggesting for a moment that we all abandon our recording methods and replace them with a iPhone. 

[JudyKay]

Thanks, Barry.  An iPhone produces surprisingly good audio as you well demonstrated.

[Barry Beckham]

Two people mentioned the Blue Snowball and I am interested in what you have, what it cost and I would love to hear a short recording to show the quality. I think there is a big gap in the AV knowledge with regard to mic's and much confusion.

I took the route suggested to me by a Musician many years ago and have a more professional mic and pre-amp. At a cost some would not want to pay.  Because I gives me the results I want, I have had no need to try anything else, but I am interested in what is out there, what it costs, but personal experience is the thing I am most interested in. I can search the net, but I want to know and hear what results other AV enthusiasts are getting.

[jevans]

On 5/29/2017 at 11:59 AM, Barry Beckham said:

Recording directly into the computer is definately a no-no

If I am recording on screen content, it helps a lot to be in the same room as the computer I find  

 

Hi Barry,

All you need is two mirrors and really long arms!

But seriously, I am amazed how good your commentary is in your tutorials if you record directly into the computer or at least record in the same room.  My computer is much too noisy and the room environment is not very suitable : too many hard surfaces.

However it was an interesting idea to use a mobile phone and I gave it a try with surprisingly good results.  I attach two mp3 files. Voice 002.mp3 was recorded from a Samsung Mobile Phone and STE-026.mp3 was recorded from my Zoom H2 portable recorder which I have used for all my recent recordings.  The interesting thing is that the Zoom H2, being much more sensitive, has a much higher background noise than the phone and I normally have to remove this.  The phone has little background noise, but has a slightly tinny or echo tone which is a little metallic. The phone produces .m4a files, (whatever these are) and I had to convert them to mp3 or wav files before I could use them.

Re your query about microphones, I usedd to use  a Sony  ECM-MS907 microphone (which was quite expensive), with A Sony disc recorder, but found this rather cumbersome. So I changed to using the mic with a pre-amp and feeding the output directly into the computer.  This did not give marvelous results so I bought the Zoom H2.

One thing I should state is that I have hearing aids which I wear all the time now.  This drastically reduces your ability to detect the difference between high quality audio and lower quality sounds.  So I cannot tell the difference between high quality and reduced quality sound these days, although  I know my audience might well do so.

Jeff

STE-026.mp3

Voice 002.mp3

[Barry Beckham]

Jeff.

I do sit right on top of my PC while making recordings and always have, but modern PC's are not as noisy as they used to be and I always stipulate I want quiet fans when I have a PC built. Even so, I still need to use noise reduction and have always done that too.

A decent microphone and a pre-amp is a good way to go if you are going to do a fair amount of recording, but not everyone will want to spend a £200 (or more) for the privilege. I chose a headphones and mic setup, so that as I am speaking and moving my head, as you will do if your making a tutorial video, the mic is always in the same place. I also use the tone controls on the pre-amp to get a sound I am happy with and I have added extra foam to the business end.

Your recordings are very much like mine. The Zoom has the edge, but those made with a phone are not a disaster. I have heard a lot worse used in slide shows. I am sure that if we spent some time trying out the various effects in Audacity, we could get the phone recording to have more depth.

It just struck me that here is an AV forum, but the one bit of information an enthusiast may want is not available with very much conviction. Many people have plenty to say on the subject, but maybe a lot is anecdotal. I am a sceptic and all I want is to hear the results from those who tell me mic A is the best option. A little evidence will allow us to suggest a way forward with a degree of confidence.

I am not that happy with the wet finger in the air approach.  

 

[Barry Beckham]

So, do I deduce from the deafening silence that there are no actual users of the Blue Snowball 

[Lin Evans]

Probably, if you did a search for Blue Snowball on the forum you would quickly realize that your deduction is incorrect. It's the only microphone I use any more, but I have no real interest in discussions on the quality of audio or serviceability or fitness for AV presentations. It works for me as I've said in numerous posts. I bought it in 2014 and the cost was somewhere around $56 USD,,,

http://www.bluemic.com/products/snowball/

Best regards,

Lin

[Barry Beckham]

Thanks, but I am also not interested in being directed to a site that sells them. I was hoping that another AV enthusiast who uses one in a practical sense would share some of their experiences with the mic, but never mind. 

The info I felt might be useful was not for me as I have a system that works. So end of discussion 

 

[tc_leeds]

a Hi Barry,

Try this link to Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Microphones-Snowball-Omnidirectional-Microphone/dp/B000EOPQ7E

Not used one but have colleague who uses a similar USB microphone from the Samson range and gets good results. https://www.amazon.co.uk/samson-usb-microphone/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Asamson usb microphone

TC

[Barry Beckham]

TC

Thank you for your interest, but a reference to a website selling the kit doesn't really help. I am a sceptic, which means that I need just a little evidence in support of a claim that something is wonderful.

I don't personally have an issue with recording, I can record to a standard I am happy with and have done for the past 15+ years, but the equipment I bought to achieve that may be a little expensive for the casual AV enthusiast.

What microphone to use is a subject that does come up in AV circles and its not an easy one to give advice. My mate has one and says it's good isn't enough for me.

A little demo from a practical user who does the same things we all do or want to do carries much more weight and that is what I was interested in. I am sure there are demos on the site that sell the mic's, but its not hard to make a demo in ideal surroundings, which the average user will struggle to achieve. A practical demo by an experienced PTE user with some of their experiences would have been great, but no worries.

Lets leave it there

[denisb]

Hi,

 

Tonton Bruno make a record with 4 microphones: http://www.diapositif.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=40399

It's in French but the text is not important.

And some test with audacity to improve the results. http://www.diapositif.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=40469

 

Denis

[Lin Evans]

Hi Denis,

Thanks for posting this link.

The way Tonton did the test is the only way it has any real meaning for users. What Barry proposed, in my opinion, has little relevance because there are way too many variables to sort. When a recording is done using a single microphone in one environment, and this is compared to another made under totally different conditions, comparing the results are relatively meaningless. 

To me, each of the four results from Tonton's test are quite satisfactory. There are very slight differences, but all were well within the excellent range and to me, demonstrates that any of the four choices would be just fine for AV creation. 

Best regards,

Lin

[Tonton Bruno]

You're right, Lin.

I discovered recently that a new USB microphone is very popular on Youtube: the Bird M1.

https://www.amazon.fr/Bird-UM1-Microphone-USB-Noir/dp/B00EQ077RE

[Barry Beckham]

Tonton

That was an interesting test, but no different to what I was asking for above, just a little sample and an idea how it was done. Before I played your test recordings I looked on the forum for what microphones they were, but didn't find anything. I settled on number 3 as the one that I liked best and was surprised when I clicked a button and the list appeared to tell me the makes. Not being a French speaker I might have missed something and wasn't even sure what I was clicking on , but the recordings were all good

That is what I was hoping to hear from the Blue Snowball with a little info such as you posted  "The 4 microphones were located at the same distance. 
I was with friends in the drawing-room, and the recordings were made without any special precautions. Under Audacity I normalized the 4 recordings to -6 db and I did not touch anything else."

When it comes to relevance, your recordings were great, but they are exactly what I wanted to hear from the Blue Snowball. So, I am not sure sure where relevance comes in. I wasn't asking for a test of multiple microphones for comparison (as good as yours is) because there are so many out there, but yours helps.