• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

UPDATE & Review: MXL DRK Microphone

John Diel

EF5
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
854
Location
North Central Oklahoma
In keeping with the best possible voice over recording and the thread I had a while back regarding Microphones and what you use, I decided to go with the MXL DRK (Desktop Recording Kit). http://www.mxlmics.com/Comp_Recording/comp...cord_index.html

The mic came in a nice package and it's own carry case. Has instructions for it's use, and everything you need to get a good start with a decent Mic. $100 bucks is what it cost.

I also have a few extras that I got with it so my total out is about $150. The extras I have are a Shock Mount, Boom Arm, longer XLR cable.

The mic itself, is pretty heavy. It's a self contained unit that accepts both phantom power (power through the XLR Cable) and a 9 volt battery that comes included. The instructions were clear and I was set up in about 10 minutes. Most of that was fiddling around and reaching to the "Mic In" jack on the sound card.

The Mic is medium sensitive in that it does pick up ambient sounds in the room, but really aren't that noticable. The distance from your mouth to the mic makes a big difference in the quality, but I found that, in general, 2 inches works out very well.

You will need a foam windscreen or mesh "pop-stopper' as it is some what sensitive to the hard consonant sounds (T's, P's, S's). It produced a reasonably warm sounding recording of my daughter's voice and really worked like a champ.

If your serious about your Video Voice Over and don't like the tinny sound you get from your computer microphone, I would invest in one of these Mic's. It's not a Shure 58, or a Sennheiser, but it sure is a great budget solution.

I use Audacity for my mixing and voice over recording needs. It's a freeware program and is simply packed with features. You can get it here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

To give an example: My daughter does a daily radio show during the week. It's an AC Top five countdown and an extra song her friends recommend. Total air time is about 10 minutes daily. We were going to the Studio, recording everything there, and sending it all through an analog mixer with the music and background stuff. For a 10 minute cut, it took us about an hour to get it all done.

Sunday night, she recorded all her Voice Over's and I had the entire weeks program done in about 2 hours. This includes editing out stutters, mistakes, hiccups, etc. It's a great combo that can't be beat.

As soon as I find some space somewhere, I'll get a couple of sample MP3's out for everyone to listen to.

With the setup as it is now, I will start recording short spots with Severe Weather tips for the radio station. You can't get any better than that folks. It's quite a set up and the sound simply beats the little electroset mics normally used with computers.
 
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