> One other weird qualitative thing that can sometimes help.  This should
> never matter, but sometimes it seems to make a differrence.  Record in
> 16-bit STEREO, using two microphones if you're doing speech, THEN
> subsample to 8-bit stereo, THEN mix down from stereo to mono.  I know,
> I know-- but I'll be damned if sometimes it doesn't sound better.


It also gives a certain "fluffyness" or lack
of sound clarity on the vocals, caused by the
independant delays on each channel and phase
differences in the two sound waveforms at different
frequencies. Sound engineers really try to avoid
that!

I've been in professional recording studios and
watched them mike up and do vocals, and the best
system is to use a single high quality mike with
proper EQ etc added later. The exception to single
miking is when they add a second mike further away
and usually in a "live" area of the studio with
hard walls to get some early reflection miking which
is then mixed at a much lower volume than the main
mike, but this is for singing rather than speech.

If you want to record good speech, get a good
near-field mike like one of the Shure dynamic
models popular with DJ and voice over people.
Expect to pay $150 USD or so. A really good mike
amp is essential, but you can get great results
with a good (older) tape-deck as these generally
had good mike amps built in and can be used just
as a mike amp by putting it in "record". :o)

Connecting a $25 mike into a PC sound card will
sound VERY ordinary by comparison.
-Roman

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