Best Audio System to use for Animation?

[Raymond Palma]

Hello Everybody:

I am creating my own cartoon. I am wondering what best audio system to use. I want to be able to record voices using my computer. Should I use one mic for several people to speak into, or should I use a system where everybody has different mic's hooked up to them. If so, does anybody know what mic system would work best? This is the last hurdle I need to over-come before I get this baby rolling. I appreciate all responses and different opinions.

[Tohoscope]

I'm new to doing this, so take this with a grain of salt.

I've been using Audacity for both recording and editing "voices." You can find it here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It's free, there's versions for windows, mac and linux, and it's not too difficult to figure out how to use.

I'm not sure of what you mean by a mic system. I only have one mic input on my laptop. So I record all the dialogue separately and mix them together with Audacity. It's mostly because I'm limited by my hardware. I have picked up a Radio Shack mixing board for $20 that has 4 mic inputs and mixes the sound down to a stereo out. I'd planned on testing it to see if I could use it to record to the laptop or say an iPod or something similar. I just haven't had the chance to do it yet.

How do you plan on doing the lip sync in your cartoon?

[Raymond Palma]

Hey Buddy:

I appreciate you getting back to me.

I did call radio shack and they said they don't make the mixing board for computers anymore. Can you tell me the model you are using?

Today, I purchased a mircophone from Radio Shack, an unidirectional microhphone (model 33-3038) for 24.99. I had to purchase a 1/4 to 1/8 adapater so I can fit the end of the mircophone cable to my computer mircophone in. Well, I am using Audacity and the sound quality is horrible. It makes crackling noises when I am speaking. Do you think it's the microphone or maybe there is an option in Audacity that I can control this crackling noise?

The only problem with using a mixer that records all the voices as one track would be if something messes up then you can't go into their indiviual track and clean it up because it's all one track. Do you agree? If I purchased a mixer I would want it to be one where you can record indivual voices, indivual tracks and then mix them all together.

The software I am using to create the cartoon is called Anime Studio 5.

I APPRECIATE you getting back to me again regarding my questions. And please let me know if you have any other questions for me as well.

I am new to record voices and creating this cartoon also so my advice is based on daily things I am doing and seeing how to move forward as well.

Thank you.

[Corretta Singer]

Hey Ray,

More than likely you are going to need some software with the ability to tweak and adjust audio. Your microphone will also determine if your audio quality will be good or not.
For me, I record on my brother's studio setup, which has a phantom powered mic attached, mixing-board, etc. That's a bit high-end, so maybe you want to stick with something simpler. A regular mic can work fine, the unidirectional is perfect to avoid picking up "wild" audio, but use a wind guard or baffler to avoid any breathing sounds going in, (we actually use one made from a wire frame, over which we have stretched a stocking). Don't skimp on quality when buying a mic, it can mean the difference between "ok" and "awesome". Do research on microphones.
As for recording audio. If you are recording one voice at a time a simple Software to use is Acid Pro. You can also get Sound forge as it has more tools to tweak audio, remove miss, hum and so on.

Now, for multi-track recording, you'll need something heavier and dare I say more expensive. Software like Logic and Protools are industry standard, studio software but those require some external hardware to work ie. mixing boards and more than one mic, amps etc. As you said, do not record multiple voices in the same track as you will not be able to edit them individually. Logic and Protools have the option to wire multiple mics into the system and record each into a separate track, which would be perfect...however...expensive.

My advise to you, if you want to save yer pennies...get a good mic, acid pro and sound forge, or if you are not too sure about these, research audio software (invest in some plugins for sound forge) and record each voice individually.

You will need some patience with audio as sometimes, even with good equipment, there is still alot of tweaking to do.

I hope this helps somewhat...

peace :)