What is a good mic that won't die or cost a million dollars?

[annise]

Adding to Tricia's comments, if it's going to take people 30 minutes to set up a temporary studio or make too many other changes to their everyday enviroment, I'd sooner they spent the time and effort recording so I had more to listen to. Way back someone said our recordings were like a friend dropping in to visit and reading you a story and I'm happy to listen to them like that. The only thing that worries me at night are the odd thump , when I have to stop and check it's the recording , not an unwelcome visitor

Anne

[lurcherlover]

To revive an old thread - sorry if I come across like an old nagging sound engineer! I'm certainly not a sound engineer and it's a learning curve for me as well.

I'm lucky enough in that a very small old bedroom has been used by me for film processing for years and is now a junk room that no one in their right mind would venture into. I have however set it up as a permanent recording room with duvets and blankets to deaden the sound. So it's all there ready. The only thing I take in and out apart from typed scripts and notes is the small recorder I use - as I have to plug it into the computer downstairs to transfer files. I'm using a relatively cheap large diaphragm mic (Rode NT1-A) which is very low noise and suits my voice (I think). This costs about £159 or $200 approx. I know that this is relatively still a "not cheap" mic, and some much cheaper mic's can do a pretty good job. I certainly don't use very expensive mic's for narration and voice overs. (I only use them to record live music which I do very little of these days).

With close miking and a pop filter (which came with the NT1-A) you can get pretty well professional results with a minimum of dampening of room acoustics. But of course it's a real bind if one has to take down and put up all this stuff each time it's used. I think in any case, Librivox recordings have got pretty good and new readers can soon get really good results with the minimum of equipment. It just takes a bit of experimentation and trial and error for the first few recordings.