DEREK [not his real name]: Hi Steven! Got some time to answer a few questions about my new booth?
ME: Hey man, new booth?
DEREK: Yeah, used the Covid stimulus money to get one used off Craigslist. Gina [not her real name] helped me move it to my place.
ME: What kind of booth is it?
DEREK: A Whisperroom, don’t know the model.
ME: When you put it together, did it have a second layer of walls that snap onto the basic frame?
DEREK: No.
ME: That’s a single-walled booth… You live in The Bronx.
DEREK: ???
ME: Let’s put that aside for the moment. What’s your question?
DEREK: I’m trying to decide on the best mic. Should I get a Neumann U87ai or a Neumann M147?
ME: Are you serious?
DEREK: ???
ME: Let’s start at the beginning. Why did you buy a booth?
DEREK: Covid19! With everything shut down, I can’t record in-Studio for anyone. And, I need to keep working.
So, since I could afford the booth on Craigslist, and I’ve got the space (since my roommate left the city to take care of his grandparents), I bought it.
My parents said that they’d chip in to help me get the right gear to make this all work. And, I know that I’ve recorded on those mics for [publisher name redacted].
ME: You’ve been recording auditions from home, right? What have you been using for that?
DEREK: Promise you won’t laugh?
ME: Promise.
DEREK: I have some moving blankets hung on a circular shower curtain rod. And, I use a USB mic, one you recommended.
ME: The RØDE NT-USB? The one with the headphone jack and the pop filter?
DEREK: Yes, exactly. Did I make a mistake in buying the booth?
ME: Not a mistake, no. Give me a minute to figure out how to explain.
To start with, a single walled Whisperroom is probably way better than the moving blanket solution. With everything else being the same, you’d get much cleaner audio. When you set up your gear in the booth, remember to keep everything that makes noise outside the booth, that includes your computer (it’s got a fan that makes noise).
The single walled booth won’t keep all of the city noise at bay. So, you’re going to need to stay conscious of good times of day, when your building/neighborhood is quieter.
Put simply, your booth is not massive enough. Mass, thickness, density, etc stops soundwaves. The booth you bought is great for a location that is mostly quiet where you need to control the sound within the room.
Your next step is to set up the NT-USB to be used inside the booth.
DEREK: But an engineer from [publisher name redacted] said that I need a better mic to record from home.
ME: I agree. But, first thing’s first. We need a controlled experiment. So, let’s change only 1 variable at a time. If you do a sample recording using the same gear, with the same settings, inside the booth, then we learn exactly what effect the booth has on your recording environment.
After that, we can figure out 3 or 4 mics that would be a good fit for your voice and for your space.
DEREK: I liked how I sounded on the Neumanns.
ME: You liked how you sounded on those Neumann mics when you were in a professional studio built to handle them.
Let’s compare a key specification from your current mic to that u87ai. Capsule size.
DEREK: Size matters?
ME: Yep, but not in the way you may be thinking 😉
The capsule in an LDC mic (Large Diaphragm Condenser) is like an eardrum. It’s the part that vibrates when you talk. Those vibrations get translated back into sound (then the sound gets translated into Ones and Zeros and those get saved to your computer).
The larger the diaphragm of the capsule, the more detail it can capture in your sonic environment.
DEREK: And my sonic environment is The Bronx.
ME: Exactly — elevators, air conditioners, sirens, street noise, all of it.
Let’s get back to the comparison. The NT-USB has a capsule size of 0.5″ or 12.7mm. The u87ai is about 1.34″ or 34mm, more than double the size.
DEREK: So it hears twice as much?
ME: Much more than twice as much actually. You’re thinking arithmetically, but the relationship in this case is geometric.
DEREK: ???
ME: If your neighbor owned a flea circus, and one of the fleas farted, you’d probably hear it.
DEREK: Even in the booth?
ME: Yep.
DEREK: So, I can’t use a flea-fart mic in my booth. But, I need a better mic than I have now.
ME: That engineer wants you to have a mic with more detail (likely a larger diaphragm than the NT-USB). But, if we go too large, we’ll wind up bringing The Bronx into the booth.
Other things aside from capsule size affect the mic quality. But, for now, it serves as a good proxy for this conversation.
You’ll probably spend between $150 and $900 on a mic for your booth, more likely $150-$500. Even a $800-900 mic may be too sensitive for your setup.
DEREK: Much more doable than one of the Neumanns and the related gear.
ME: Exactly.
DEREK: So which mics should I check out?
ME: That’s what we need the in-booth test with the NT-USB to figure out.
You see, expensive mics in expensive studios basically sound good on everyone. That’s part of the reason that studios have them. That’s also why, in part, studios are so exacting about the acoustics and sound treatment and attenuation in their space.
A high-end mic in a bad space sounds worse than a low-end mic in a good space. At the end of the day, the space affects your sound as much or more than the microphone.
As mics get less expensive, they tend to hear less of the room around them. But, they also get more quirky and particular. Two mics at the same price point might sound completely different on your voice/in your booth.
DEREK: So, I don’t need the most expensive mic. I just need one that fits both me and my booth. How do I choose?
ME: RØDE, Lauten, AudioTechnica, Mojave, AKG, and all the others, each favor different types of voices. You’re going to need to try a few (preferably in your actual booth) to figure it out. Anyone who tells you that a particular low/mid-range mic is magical or amazing on everyone is trying to sell you something.
DEREK: What mics do you like, in general?
ME: Honestly, I like AudioTechnica microphones, good/consistent build quality, high reliability. On the low end, the AT2035 works for (but is not amazing on) a lot of voice types. And, on the high end, the AT4047/SV has wonderful off-axis rejection of unwanted noise.
DEREK: Off-axis rejection meaning that it hears less farting fleas?
ME: Yep. Less farts, definitely.
DEREK: 👍
A ridiculous amount of caffeine was consumed while researching.
Add some fuel if you would like to help keep me going!