Time for a New Voice Over Microphone

My husband has a favorite shirt.  I bought it for him on our honeymoon and years later, it’s worn around the collar and has holes in the sleeves.  Will we ever get rid of it?  Absolutely not.  When he puts it on, he feels loved and comfortable.  Microphones for voice over artists are kind of like that. You feel awesome when you’re working with your microphone and it becomes a part of how you express yourself.  

So, when I discovered some noise in my booth and isolated it down to my microphone, it was time to go shopping.  But which ones should I try?  I hopped on the interwebs and started looking for lists.  Top 10 voice over microphones and all that.  After comparing 3-4 different lists, I found that some microphones were continually recommended:

Less Expensive  (under $300)
$229    Rode NT1-A Vocal Condenser Mic  
$299    SE Electronics SE2200a II
$299    Harlan Hogan VO 1-A
$299    Blue Microphones Bluebird Cardioid Condenser
           
Mid-Range  ($300-$500)
$349    AKG C214
$399    Shure 7B
$499    CAD E100S
$529    Rode NTK Tube Condenser

Top-Shelf
$999    Sennheisser MKH416
$1100  Neumann TLM103
$1100  AKG 414
$3600  Neumann U87

 

Now, it’s all about how the microphone sounds with your voice AND how you work.  Do you have sound proof environment that can handle a very sensitive microphone?  If not, don’t buy a Neumann and pick up the dog barking down the street.  Are you just starting out and want to earn back the money you’ve invested in your training, demos, and studio?  Well, a less expensive mic then might be the ticket.  

You want a microphone that showcases your vocal strengths.  I love the warm attributes of my voice, so I definitely want a microphone that will showcase those tones.  So how do you find out which microphone is best for you?  You could go to a local recording studio and do a shoot-out with their microphones to determine what works best.  But in my case, you buy four mics then spend a few days doing a shoot-out.  The mics that don’t work go back under the store warranty (the stores knew I was going to test them for a day or two) and the winner stays.  

Thankfully, I have an audio engineer as a husband.  After a lot of quality time in the studio, we both had strong opinions about each microphone.  None of them were bad – it really did come down to personal preference.  At the end of our shoot-out, I had a lovely new microphone.  Now comes the journey of working with it till it becomes a comfortable old shirt.   

Please comment below if you have a microphone that you love or tell me about your process for deciding on your studio microphone.