Microphone setup for voice over work

Following on from my post about starting voice over work as part of my motion design projects I thought I’d do a quick run down of the setup I use:

Before I started I did quite a bit of research into the different microphones available and the best setup for recording high quality audio. Here’s what I went with:

The microphone

Obviously the most important part, I opted for the RODE NT1-A Condenser Microphone which came as part of a bundle on Amazon that included a mount and pop shield (the circular shield that diffuses the POP sound from certain words).

Recording the audio

Just as I was about to click buy, I suddenly wondered how the microphone would actually work with my laptop. A quick google and I found I needed an audio interface - basically the microphone plugs into the interface box, the interface box then plugs into the laptop via USB.

I opted for the Focusrite Scarlett solo interface, I had no idea about any of it but the reviews seemed to say this one was pretty good.

Finally: the stand!

Again, another last minute realisation was that the microphone bundle includes a mount for the mic, but no stand - for simplicity I just chose the Rode table stand. I’d probably go with something different, the stand is slightly unstable with the microphone on top unless you position it in a certain way.

And there we have it! Here’s a sample of how it sounds from one of my latest projects:

The audio quality is excellent and the setup provides everything I need to record voiceovers. It’d be great for podcasts & screencasts too.