Dedicated microphone and background noise

AHarvey · 1 Apr 2019 at 10:11

Hi,

I've been asked to set up a system for people to record a brief message for a work event. This will be done via a webcam onto a laptop with SSD and backed up to another external drive.

The issue is background noise. As nice as a soundproof booth might be it's well out of budget and the noise really is going to be an issue.

Would a dedicated microphone help eliminate most of/all the background noise and if so, any suggestions on ones to look at?

AndyCr15 · 9 Apr 2019 at 20:01

Almost certainly a mic would help. Probably pretty much any lapel mic would be better. Check some reviews

MrRockliffe · 10 Apr 2019 at 15:32

Mic will definitely help, but be careful which you go for. I used a Blue Snowball, and due to the aircon, got quite a bit of background noise. To remove it, I used Adobe Audition, which I found to have the best noise remover of any tool that doesn't cost stupid money, and then used space designer in FCP to open up the sound again so it didn't sound "squashed"

Sounds pretty close to the original recording, just without the background noise

Kei · 11 Apr 2019 at 08:00

You want a hypercardioid microphone as the pickup pattern is very narrow which avoids picking up extraneous noise from around the person speaking. A lapel mic (lavelier) won’t work well in a noisy environment as they almost always have an omni directional pickup. Likewise, many studio condenser mics have fairly broad pickup patterns.

A hypercardioid mic has such a tight pickup pattern, that the user has to speak directly into it to be picked up. Speaking in the general direction of the mic is not enough. We use a Beyerdynamic M58 in extremely noisy environments. If it’s not extremely noisy but too noisy to use a lavelier, we use either a sennheiser 416 or me66 which are shotgun mics with a supercardioid pickup pattern. Using a microphone isolation shield will help reduce unwanted noise and echo and a shock mount will reduce handling and vibration pickup.

I’m not suggesting those particular mics above as they are expensive as they are used professionally in outside broadcasting. Rhode and audio technicha make good mics for a broad range of scenarios. I’m on my phone so not able to look up models.