How to improve your recording quality

[minervx]

 

1. Speak at an appropriate distance (3"-8").
2. Keep your mic at least at least a few feet away from a wall or corner. 
3. The capsule of the mic should face your mouth directly
4. Use foam acoustic treatment panels to reduce wall reflections. (Pillow or blankets as an alternative)
5. Stay still while speaking ; don't move or sway too much.
6. Use a wind screen or pop filter to block plosives.
7. If mic vibrations are a problem, use a shock mount.

Processing the vocals with plugins like High-Pass Filter, Expander, Compressor and maybe a De-Esser can help.  REAPER is a free to evaluate DAW.  REAPER also has Reaplugs (free plugins that work with OBS).  And with VB-Audio Cable, vocals can be sent through the DAW, into the cable, and into your audio input.

 

Also, buying a dynamic mic instead of a condenser will NOT reduce background noise. 

 

And, in most cases, buying a new interface or pre-amp will NOT improve sound quality. Many people new into audio think the problem with their recordings is that they need to buy more expensive gear but the truth is that their recording technique needs a lot of work, and they're not properly setting up their recording environment. 

 

[Cypher-Jackson]

Quote

Also, buying a dynamic mic instead of a condenser will NOT reduce background noise. 

It adds that wonderful 60 Hz electrical buzz. It will reduce the background noise a little, but its usually just because its not sensitive enough

[ninbura]

22 hours ago, minervx said:

Also, buying a dynamic mic instead of a condenser will NOT reduce background noise. 

May I ask what leads you to assert this so strongly?

In my experience my dynamic mic clearly picks up less background noise than my condenser mic, if I move even a foot back from my dynamic mic it hardly picks me up while the same cannot be said about my condenser mic.

 

Is this not why dynamic microphones and not condenser microphones are used in live music performances?

[minervx]

May I ask what leads you to assert this so strongly?

 

Because mics don't have any parts inside of them that act as a Gate or Expander.  As convenient as it would be, microphones do not have the capacity to tell what noise we as human beings care and don't care about.

 

There is polar pattern, which rejects noise based on directionality.  But this is not related to whether a mic is Condenser or Dynamic.

 

There aren't any objective scientific measuring tools that confirm the background noise is removed by using a Dynamic instead of a Condenser.  It's purely based on human perception, which can be flawed (particularly by an error of omission).
 
In my experience my dynamic mic clearly picks up less background noise than my condenser mic

Yes, but only because the recordings on each are not at the same output volume.  Dynamics require a lot of additional gain to get the same output volume as a condenser.  Kind of like how AMD Vega video cards require more watts than NVidia's GTX cards.  For a fair comparison, more power would need to be supplied to the Dynamic than to the Condenser. 

* Dynamics pick up less dB background noise, but they also pick up less dB of the voice.
* Condensers pick up more dB of background noise, but they also pick up more dB of the voice.

Even if you can't hear as much noise in a Dynamic, it's still there.  It doesn't go away.  If the gain is turned up, that same noise will resurface. 

If you don't believe it, you can record both of those mics into a DAW.  The waveforms on the Condenser are going to appear larger.  And a volume meter is going to measure the Condenser as having a higher output volume.  If you raise the gain digitally on the Dynamic recording so that the waveforms are equal in size and the volume meter picks them up the same, you're going to hear that background noise.

It's actually kind of crazy that people believe buying a Dynamic mic is a panacea for background noise just because most people do not supply it with enough volume.  On this basis, it's not logical to say Condensers pick up more background noise, because all one would have to do is lower the gain knob on a Condenser to pick up less background noise.  People would respond, "But, it's also going to make my voice lower".  Yes, that's the same thing the Dynamic is doing by having a low sensitivity to gain. 

Is this not why dynamic microphones and not condenser microphones are used in live music performances?

 

They're used in live performances for their durability.  Dynamic mics can take a ton of abuse; survive be dropped and tossed around, humid weather and maybe even water damage.  This makes them good for traveling with.