Inexpensive External USB sound card for voice overs

johnbl wrote on 1/14/2004, 12:42 PM
Im running a dell 360 workstation 2.8 p4 with 1 g ram. I have the generic sound card integrated with the motherboard and when doing voice overs the quality is fair -poor. Im looking for an external USB (dont want to open up the case) that is inexpensive that will give me better voice over quality. I guess I need ASIO driver included with it according to the other recent post to get real time fx response. I dont need the sound card for any other purpose really. This is for amateur hobby work. Thanks JOHN

Comments

Cold wrote on 1/14/2004, 2:00 PM
Firstly, what mic are you using and do you have an external mic preamp?
Steve S.
Rednroll wrote on 1/14/2004, 4:46 PM
I think the M-audio Mobilepre USB or Audiophile USB , might have your name written all over it. They connects USB, have 2 mic pre's with Phamtom power for condenser mics and are in a good price area. MSRP's are $179.99 and $249.99. Goto www.m-audio.com for more info, they have quite a few selections for this type of work. The audiophile USB, looks to have a seperate power supply that plugs into it, and the Mobilepre USB is powered off of the USB port, so that might be better if portability is an issue and having to plug into an outlet. You also might want to check out Sound Devices product line. I have a Sound Devices "USBpre" that I use and it's very quiet. I paid $500 for this one though, so it's a bit higher than the m-audio stuff, but they also have others available, not sure of the prices. www.sounddevices.com.

red
johnbl wrote on 1/14/2004, 5:54 PM
no external mic preamp and presently acheaper omnidirectional sony mic
Cold wrote on 1/15/2004, 1:24 PM
The suggestions Red made are good, The Tascam us 122 may also work for you I'm using one of these in my portable rig. Some users have reported issues, though, it works fine for me.
If you don't need pro results a simple preamp might do the trick, but often the price difference between a cheap preamp and a usb all in one may make it better to go the all in one route.
By the way, a cardiod mic is much better for voice over work. Less background noise plus some proximity effect if you wish for it. I prefer dynamics (ev re-20 or sennheiser 421), but it allways depends on the voice.
A cheap large diaphram condenser may be another option.
Steve S.