Ha, ha, ha. No, seriously. Don’t ask that until you’ve done the research.
Voice Over has been booming since the cassette days, and with the introduction of the iPhone in 2005, and then the Podcast coming into its own by the early 2010’s and now live streaming, social media, and radio and Sirius becoming all the same thing that…where was I? I digress. Everyone wants to do Voice Over. Everyone has the same questions. So, be taken seriously. Make a list of the equipment you think you’ll need, and note what you already have. You’ll be surprised how little you might actually need to do something off the cuff for friends or for a school project. Do you have a smart phone? There: you’re set. Use the phone’s camera and built-in microphone, and free Apps for either Android or Apple. Podcast away.
Yes, you’ll want more than that. We’re Americans, for God’s sake.
We’re entitled to broadband and freedom to speak (not to be confused with freedom of speech. Both. Please. It’s in the Bill Gates of Rights. Or something. Where am I? I digress). Do yourself a favor, after you decide what type of merch you want to buy, look up the categories to see what experts recommend. Don’t feel like reading? You just like talking, yes? That’s why you’re into Voice Over. Yeah. (Good luck with that). Watch some YouTube videos to see what some of the experts and so-called experts have to say. Watch a few over the course of two evenings, or free time you might have. It gets pretty straightforward figuring out who knows what they’re talking about, and who only have something to sell. I’m not looking down on the folks who do have something to sell, when there’s some good advice that goes with the sales pitch. And a request to like and/or Subscribe is not a sales pitch. You should already be doing this.
Now: when you’ve done the basic research, you can ask me what mic you should buy.
And if you put it like the following, you will most likely get a good answer: Hey, can I ask your advice? I’m not sure what Mic I should get. I’ve been using the built-in mic on my laptop for meetings, but I want to actually record something and have it sound better.
1. I’ve read the USB mics aren’t recommended for Voice Over but they can be okay for a podcast or meeting, and the Blue Yeti is pricier than I thought.
2. I’ll need other things, like a less noisy space to work in, but for now, I can budget $200.00 for a mic
And with that in mind I’ll probably tell you to not buy a mic yet. Get that area you record in dampened for noise, and practice like hell on your built-in mic, or borrow one. Once you’ve committed to a good area to record in, you’ll have either saved up for a more expensive mic, or spent the money on sound proofing where it should go first anyway (it cost more than you thought, didn’t it)?