Camtasia Studio 4: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library)

So you’ve followed all the suggestions for great-sounding audio laid out in Chapter 10, yet you still end up with sound quality reminiscent of a tin can and string telephone? It may be time for an equipment upgrade. Audio and video equipment can be quite expensive and, as with most things, you really do get what you pay for. But there are ways of getting great quality without breaking the bank, and in this section, I’ll show you how. We’ll begin by talking about all the links that make up the audio production chain, and for those PIP fanatics, we’ll conclude with some general guidelines regarding camera video.

Buying the Right Mic

Let’s start with microphones. At its simplest, a microphone is a piece of equipment that converts sound waves into an electrical signal. Sound waves (coming from your voice or a musical instrument) strike a flexible diaphragm at the microphone’s head, which vibrates back and forth, modulating an electrical current as it does so. These electrical waves can then be recorded.

There are many different sorts of microphones for equally many purposes, but microphones tend to vary along two individual spectra: type and directionality.

Microphone Type

The microphone type is defined by the exact kind of diaphragm used for capturing sound waves. There are a number of kinds, such as piezo microphones (which use pressure to convert sound to electricity), the antiquated carbon mics, and ribbon microphones (where the diaphragm is a thin metal ribbon). For our purposes, we’ll be looking at the three most common types for the recording of narration: dynamic, condenser, and lavaliere.

The diaphragm of a dynamic microphone is actually attached to a small metal coil. The coil moves within a magnetic field whenever the diaphragm vibrates, thus producing an electric current in the coil’s wire. Sturdy and relatively cheap, dynamic mics are ideal for a simple home studio environment, especially considering that they require no batteries or other external power source (since the magnet moving within that coil of wire produces enough electricity to power it). They are also better equipped to handle high volume levels, though this is more of an issue when miking certain musical instruments as opposed to your own voice. While not as robust as condenser mics, they simplify things by not requiring a power source such as a preamp (more on that in a minute), and the higher-end ones actually produce very acceptable quality.

Condenser mics, on the other hand, require a power source in order to function. In the head of the microphone are two plates, one of which is thinner (often made of gold foil) and acts as the diaphragm. When sound waves hit this thin plate, it moves back and forth, changing the distance between the two plates, and thus modulating the electric current being applied to it. Condenser mics get their power from batteries or from a “phantom power” source such as an external power supply or (most likely in our case) a preamp or sound mixer. Condenser mics aren’t anywhere near as rugged as dynamic mics, but they make up for it by being more responsive and accurate than dynamic mics, and thus able to reproduce the subtle nuances of the human voice much more accurately.

Finally, lavaliere microphones are small mics that clip to the speaker’s lapel. You often see them during televised interviews and talk shows. Technically, lav mics are also dynamic mics (usually), but they’re so specialized, I decided to break them off into a third “type.” There are essentially two situations in which it makes sense for you as a Camtasia Studio user to employ a lav mic:

• You’re giving a live presentation (PowerPoint or otherwise) that you also happen to be recording.

• You’re recording camera video in addition to screen video, and you don’t want to fidget with a handheld mic or have a studio boom obstructing your face.

Lav mics come in two flavors: wired and wireless. The latter is excellent for presentations. Both have pickup patterns designed to filter out ambient noise and capture the voice of the wearer and nobody else.

Directionality

And speaking of which: Every microphone (not just the lavaliere mic) is engineered to support a particular pickup pattern,or directionality.A microphone’s pickup pattern determines how sensitive the mic is to a particular sound depending on the location of the sound source relative to the mic.

Standard microphone pickup patterns: 1) omnidirectional, 2) cardioid, 3) hypercardioid, 4) bidirectional, 5) shotgun.

An omnidirectional microphone is equally sensitive to all sounds, regardless from which direction the sound is coming. This is typically a poor choice for recording your narration, since it will pick up all ambient sound: the squeak of your chair, hum of your computer fan, or kids playing on the street outside. I think it goes without saying that none of these will add to the professionalism of your video.

You’ll most likely be using a cardioid microphone (thus named because the pickup pattern looks like an upside-down heart), which is typically only sensitive in the front. Make sure you’re speaking into the correct side! People who want an even tighter pickup pattern should go with a hypercardioid mic, which offers even narrower directionality in the front, yet also often has a tiny sliver of sensitivity in the back (never have been able to figure out why).

Bidirectional mics are equally sensitive in the front and back, but not the sides. You’ll find this pickup pattern mostly on ribbon mics. Finally, a shotgun pattern is like hypercardioid on steroids. With its super-narrow pickup pattern, a shotgun mic can pick one person’s voice out of a crowded room. This microphone type is used predominately for television, film, and (as you can imagine) surveillance. Keep in mind that some microphones offer a special switch that will let you actually select from several different pickup patterns - it’s something to consider if you have multiple uses in mind, but don’t want to buy multiple microphones.

Buying Tips

Okay, so it looks like we’ve got some choices to make regarding the right microphone. I know that up to now, some of you have been using the microphone that came with your computer. You know which one I’m talking about: It looks like a little beige or black plastic cockroach that’s attached to a long thin cable and ends with a stereo mini-plug, perfect for jacking into the mic port of your equally crappy factory-installed sound card. It’s not worth the drawer space in which it usually resides - throw it away this instant! Some of you might be using the built-in mic of your webcam or a headset-style microphone/headphone combo. These things have their place, such as for Internet telephony or gaming, just not for recording your dulcet tones for a screen video. Please don’t use them with Camtasia Studio (or if you do, don’t tell me about it - I’ll have nightmares).

If one of the above describes your situation, never fear: There is hope for you. We just need to do a little shopping, that’s all. For our purposes, we’re likely looking for a dynamic or condenser mic with a cardioid or hypercardioid pickup pattern. Some good dynamic mic choices include:

• Shure SM57 or SM58. Both of these are good beginner mics that can be had for under $100^[*]. I’ve heard that the SM57 is better suited to the male voice and the SM58 a more appropriate choice for the ladies, but only testing with your own voice will tell you for sure if that theory holds water.

• A somewhat pricier dynamic mic is the Sennheiser MD 421 II. At around $350, if you’re looking for a rugged, high-quality alternative to a nice condenser mic, this is the way to go.

• Another dynamic mic choice in the $350 to $400 range is the Electro-Voice RE20, which is used mainly in broadcasting. It offers a flat response over a wide frequency range and, as with all dynamic mics, no external power is required.

So what about the condenser side of things? Your choices here are much broader, particularly on the higher end, but here are a few of my faves:

• On the lower end, the Marshall MXL 2003 can be had for about $150. It features bass roll-off and a –10db switch.

• Similarly, the NT1-A by Australian manufacturer RØDE is an excellent choice at around $200. I owned its predecessor, the NT-1, and it was a mainstay of my studio for about two years.

• For a little more money, the Shure KSM27 and RØDE NT 1000 are both great buys in the $300 range.

• AKG and Audio Technica are also solid brands that offer great mics at a variety of price ranges.

Though I consider the upper range of condenser mics to be a tad superfluous for most screen video related applications (especially since you’ll probably end up compressing the audio, anyway), if you can get your hands on one of these for a reasonable price, go for it:

• The Neumann TLM 103 is a popular choice for professional voice actors, and can be had for about an even grand.

• Neumann makes even higher quality mics for studio recording: The U87 and U89 are considered by many sound engineers as the choice for studio recording, but at a price (usually around a couple thousand, though some vintage versions can fetch an even higher price).

Some online retailers such as ZZSounds (www.zzsounds.com) and Dolphin Music in the UK (www.dolphinmusic.co.uk) let you check out user reviews of their various mics, but there’s really no substitute for heading out to a well-stocked music store and auditioning a few microphones using a prepared script. Certain mics are better suited to a particular voice type. Women should be particularly selective, as some mics are just too bright for their voices and can end up making you sound shrill.

Microphone Accessories

Now that we’ve picked out the right microphone, there are a few other items we’ll need prior to shopping for a preamp. Specifically, you will need a quality XLR cable to attach the mic to whatever preamp or audio interface you’re buying, you’ll need some sort of microphone stand, you’ll need a pop filter, and finally, you’re going to require some quality monitors.

Microphone Cable

First off, we need some cable. Select a high-quality XLR cable. Here’s a bit of useless trivia for you: XLR stands for Xternal, Live, and Return, which correspond to the three pins at each end of the cable (which in turn are connected to the ground wire, hot wire, and cold wire, respectively). Here are the various factors to consider when buying an XLR cable:

• Length. These grounded cables come in a variety of lengths. Pick the shortest available length that will still be sufficient for running from the mic to your preamp. It’s not a huge deal, but the longer a signal has to travel, the more it can degrade, so keep the mic cable as short as you can.

• Balanced vs. Unbalanced. Make sure that the mic cable you select is balanced. Balanced cables have two conductors; half the signal travels on one and half on the other. Balanced cables are quieter because the two conductors tend to cancel out extraneous signals. Even better are quad cables, which feature four conductors. The tight winding required when two pairs of conductors are twisted together results in even better rejection of noise interference.

• Contact materials. The contacts are those points at the end of each cable that come into actual contact with the mic on one end and the mixer/preamp/audio interface on the other. Typically these are made of tin, silver, or gold, in ascending order of cost and desirability. Buy a cable with gold contacts if you can afford it.

• Shielding. Next, you need to concern yourself with the cable’s shielding. Shielding covers the actual wires in the cable and has two purposes: It acts as a return conductor for the signal current, and it shields your center cable from different kinds of interference, such as that given off by radio waves, power conductors, and those pesky fluorescent lights hanging above you, to name but a few. Shielding also comes in three flavors: foil, spiral, and braided.

  Typically, the more copper in the shielding, the better. The foil shields are mostly aluminum, which is not as good a conductor as copper. Braided shielding has the most copper content, and therefore rejects the most interference. It’s a bit more fragile than spiral shielding (which can be bent and kinked all over the place with no breakage), but since we’re apt to be working in a studio environment rather than out touring with The Stones, I think it’s safe to say that braided is best.

• Connector quality. Most cabling companies get their XLR connectors from other manufacturers. As with any industry, there are high-quality manufacturers and there are those who specialize in producing cheap, low-quality knock-offs. You’re in good hands if your connectors came from Neutrik or Amphenol.

Bottom line: Cabling is an important link in your chain of audio quality, and it’s no place to skimp. Shielding is particularly important due to the potential havoc wreaked by the electromagnetic interference from all your other equipment.

Expect to pay anywhere from $20 to $40 for a high-quality cable of shorter length. Three reputable manufacturers are Pro Co (www.procosound.com), Monster Cables (www.monstercables.com), and C.B.I. (www.cbicables.com). Pro Co Sound’s AmeriQuad and Merlin lines are particularly good.

Microphone Stand

One vital aspect of ensuring a high-quality recording is to provide the microphone with a certain amount of stability. Do not hold the microphone in your hand while recording! Every tremor, every movement, will show up as noise in your recording. To keep the mic in a stable position, you’re going to need two things. The first is a shock mount. This device keeps the mic suspended inside a large ring through the strategic placement of elastic bands.

This is a Neumann TLM 127 inside a shock mount.

Even if the mic stand gets slightly jostled, the shock mount should absorb any impact and allow the microphone to continue doing what it does best. Most high-quality mics will throw in the shock mount for free, or at least have it available as an optional accessory. You might want to make sure that the manufacturer will send you replacement bands upon request, as these do have a tendency to snap occasionally.

The other thing you’re going to need, obviously, is a good microphone stand. There are three main types of mic stands, at least for our purposes, and the right one for you will depend on how you have your studio set up.

• Straight mic stand. This is the kind of stand you typically saw at your old high school assemblies. A telescoping pole is attached to a weighted circular base. The other end of the pole holds a clip for the mic. These stands come in two sizes: a standard one for delivering a standing performance, and a miniature desktop model for recording while firmly planted in your favorite office chair.

• Tripod/boom stand. These stands consist of a tripod that you place to the side or in front of the desk where you’re recording, and the tripod attaches to a boom arm that swings over to where you are. The height can be adjusted based on your preference to sit or stand. When giving one a test drive, make sure that the tripod is sturdy, that the screw knobs to adjust the stand are made of metal (not plastic), and most importantly, that the joint connecting the boom arm is both counterweighted and uses some sort of interlocking mechanism in the joint. This helps ensure that the boom doesn’t slip, even when you’ve got it fully extended and attached to a heavier microphone. While marvelously versatile, if you’re working in a small space, you might find your average boom stand to be a tad unwieldy.

• Microphone arms. These handy devices can be attached to your desk or another piece of furniture (either screwed in or held in place with a C-clamp). The extendable arm can be easily positioned when you need the mic and quickly tucked away when you don’t. It uses heavy springs to counterbalance the weight of the microphone, cable, and pop filter. While expensive ($80 to $160), I find them to be the most convenient if you’re doing a lot of recording and don’t want to have to endure a lot of setup/breakdown time. This is the kind of mic holder I currently use. The only downside is that it doesn’t work well with sound booths or other sound enclosures, so if you use one, you’re going to have to worry about soundproofing the entire room - more on that later. O.C. White makes excellent microphone arms (www.ocwhite.com).

Pop Filter

One final microphone accessory you’ll need is a pop filter. Also called a windscreen, this handy tool places a large circle of stretched fabric (usually nylon) between your mouth and the mic. Its job is to dissipate air pressure, and it greatly reduces a phenomenon called plosives (those annoying popping “P” noises that can otherwise mar a good recording).

A pop filter usually comes attached to a flexible gooseneck for easy positioning.

Pop filters also serve a secondary function. Microphones (especially condenser mics) are very sensitive to the elements, and don’t like moisture. A nice pop filter is an inexpensive way of keeping you from spitting all over your shiny new mic during a recording session. Expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 to $30. Of course, if you don’t want to spend the cash, you can quickly and cheaply rig up your own pop filter with a wire clothes hanger and a piece of nylon hosiery. While it doesn’t precisely lend a professional look to your studio, it works like a dream.

Monitors

No, I’m not talking about your computer screen. A monitor is sound engineering lingo for any speaker device that lets you monitor your output. You can, of course, use the garden-variety speakers you picked up at Best Buy last year, and this may in fact be preferable if you’re only creating videos for the web. In that case, you would want to hear what the output sounds like on a set of Average Joe computer speakers. But when doing more sensitive work (for example, outputting to DVD), you may need something a bit more heavy duty.

Monitors may look like standard speakers, but they’re much more accurate. They can run anywhere from $50 all the way up to $1,200, and come in two flavors: passive or active. Passive monitors require a separate amplifier, whereas active (or powered) monitors have the amplifier built in. A nice pair of these hooked into your audio interface can provide a much better reflection of what you’re actually recording.

Headphones are also an absolute necessity, for two reasons. First, they’re a great means of hearing what’s being recorded during your session in real time. If you’re breathing too loudly into the mic, why wait until the end of your recording to find out? Also, headphones are great for picking up on subtle background noise (like traffic outside) that you might have missed when listening through speakers. The ability to hear exactly what the mic is picking up will cut your audio editing time in half, believe me. Just plug ’em into the headphone port of your sound card or audio interface, and you should be good to go. Be sure to opt for a set of closed-ear headphones to filter out external noise (and eliminate possible microphone feedback - ouch!). A decent pair should run you $50 to $200.

^[*]To help give you a sense of the real-world cost of upgrading your recording system, this and the other listed prices in this appendix reflect “street value,” and not the (usually) inflated MSRP. As always, try to shop around for the best price.