[Closed] Sound recording (spoken word)

dunno, but this might be helpful:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00010q1

Guy Garvey on recording his Dad, encouraging you to do the same, inc tips towards the end

The portables by Zoom, Edirol, Roland, Tascam etc. are very good. I have an old style Zoom H1 and saw quite a few in use at Birmingham Conservatoire some years ago for recording lectures and concerts with pretty decent results (even for music).

I'd probably pay more attention to the mic than to the recorder, especially if there is going to be background noise. No useful things to recommend but when I've made such recording that has always been the hard part. Can you choose the environment? Avoid busy pubs and places with wind.

I've also got an older Zoom H1 and the sound quality is excellent. It does pick up handling noise if you hand hold it (it has a tripod mount, so you can stick it on a Gorilla pod, or similar) and you need to use a dead cat if you're using it outdoors in windy conditions, but quality / price / convenience is superb. Assuming that the current model hasn't gone backwards, I'd give it serious consideration.

Zooms are fine but no matter how good the kit is you will also have to think about the space you are in and where you place the mic. Common sense type stuff but basically no background noise, not somewhere really reverby like a bathroom and put the mic in front of your mouth and not too away or too close. Trust your ears, they'll let you know when you get it right

For your budget you could get a decent lavalier mic that you can plug into your laptop but you'd also need some kind of software. Buying a zoom would be less faff and more versatile if you wanted to make any field recordings

Most important thing is headphones - listen to what is being recorded, it's amazing what your brain will filter out when you are sat in the room doing the recording. With headphones you hear and pick up on everything. We use the Tascam DR-40 for all our conference recording and they are very good. Record levels are not as high as the Marantz units we used to have but about a quarter of the price.

Of course the microphone is important, for recording one person a wired lapel mic will be ideal. You basically want something with a cardioid or hypercardioid pick up pattern but the narrower the field the more the speaker needs to be aware that moving their head around can effect the recording. Watch an experienced presenter with a radio mic on and you'll see they turn their whole body not just their head. We tend to use headset mics now on conferences as they cope far better with presenters who are less than proficient 🙂   .

I've used a Zoom and Shure SM58 through a mixing deck. Both are excellent in a room that is suitably cluttered. Avoid rooms with big flat surfaces. If you have a solid floor throw down matts/blankets or whatever you have to hand.

I did some recordings in a studio with a professional sound engineer. He was quite insistant about the distance from the mic and position to avoid direct air pressure on the membrane. This is less of an issue with the Zoom that produces pretty good results however you (mis)use it.

He was quite insistant about the distance from the mic and position to avoid direct air pressure on the membrane

Plosives and sibilance are the enemy of recording voices.

For a budget setup I get very good results with a Shure MV88 plugged into an iPad or iPhone

Check out some reviews on youtube and play them through the speaker setup?

I sold my Zoom earlier this year. Brilliant bits of kit. I bought mine to record sound for a couple of product videos I was shooting with a GoPro and it did the job a treat.
Also recorded the ex's band and a few other folk festivals.