I really want to start a Youtube channel. I've really been enjoying watching the many Lets Play videos on Youtube and I'd love to do my own. The plan is to use FRAPS unless I find something better for around the same price. I've currently got the onboard sound from my Asus P5Q Deluxe, and a crappy little earpiece thing with a mic: http://www.keminmusiikki.fi/cat/product_details.php?p=753 I did some testing with the free version of FRAPS and while it captures the game's audio fine, my commentary sounds crap. Really quiet and there's some noise though its not as bad as some vids on Youtube. I'm thinking of the Razer Carcharias (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/razer-carcharias-professional-gaming-headset-51-with-mic) and the Asus Xonar DX (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-xonar-dx-xd-71-pci-e-soundcard-low-profile). Would the above two items do what I'm after? I'm not just in the mood to fork out £100 to do Youtube video's - they'll improve my general gaming experience as well. But I am particularly interested in whether or not they're any good for what I'd like to achieve.
I'm sure that would work well, but you wouldn't be getting a great value for your money. Unless if you're also in the market for a gaming headset, a dedicated mic or even a cheaper headset marketed toward VOIP use would do the job. Take a look at Blue's products, the Snowflake may suit your needs. Pricey though. If you've been trawling the Hardware forum for a while, you may have noticed that I tend to jump on every thread related to the purchase of gaming headsets.. In my experience, you'll get a better result by buying headphones separately from the mic. If you were to find the Snowflake at a fair price, there would be no need for a headset. You'll also look more pro with the Blue sitting in front of you, and a pair of swanky studio monitors on.
Don't get a headset for this purpose, you'll not see any improvement in sound quality even through a Xonar DX, which isn't really designed for recording. You either need a USB microphone with its own integrated preamp such as the Blue Snowflake suggested above (i've never used one but Blue is the Lamborghini of the microphone world, so it's probably pretty good) or you need a proper vocal microphone, preamp and audio interface. Behringer sell a "podcasting kit" for about £70. The only thing in there I've never used is the USB audio interface, so you'd have to find some reviews on that. The microphone and mixer are great quality for the price and will be more than good enough for top-notch video voice-overs. The headphones aren't amazing but they're probably as good as most "gaming headsets" under £60, given that gaming headsets in general are usually overpriced junk. Obviously having a standalone microphone and your own mixing desk gives you incredible flexibility for recording, but if you're not planning on recording more than your own voice over some videos it may be overkill. If you wanted to have several people all chatting together over the same video, this would be the way to do it.
I had a look at the Behringer Podcastudio and the reviews are mixed as far as I can tell. Aside from the USB audio interface, is that kit good? Also, what the hell is a USB audio interface? Is it another piece of kit that you connect the mic to before it goes to the PC? Here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/BEHRINGER-P...RIZU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290105105&sr=8-1
I have the larger version of the mixer and one of the microphones right here. They're both great for the money. The USB audio interface is just an external sound card, you could just not use it if you already have decent on-board sound. Reading the negative amazon review does highlight a few points. The microphone will need to be about 10-15cm away from your mouth while you're recording or else you'll either get a sound that is too quiet or too loud and very bassy. You will also have a lot of cables trailing about the place using this setup. Also the mixer looks like it only has one XLR (microphone) input, so recording from several microphones at once is a no-go. Perhaps a USB microphone would be better for you, as it does not require a sound card and can be placed further away from you while recording. Also there's only one wire and everything is much simpler to set up. Not having used such things as the Blue Snowflake I can't comment on the quality of results, but I know using the Behringer microphone and mixer I have here I could easily equal the bit-tech podcasts in quality if I tried. If you're going to go for the podcast kit make sure you can return it hassle free if you don't like it. I'm one of those people who loves doing things the hard way if it involves a cool looking bit of kit with loads of buttons and flashing lights on it so it's hard for me to judge what people really need in situations like these!
A work colleague does internet radio broadcasts from home and he's gonna lend me his microphone (a USB one) on Monday to try. He never mentioned what brand it was so I'll try to find out and post it in here.
After trying my friends microphone and being able to see that it was my crappy little cheap mic that was limiting quality, I went ahead and bought the Behringer Podcastudio off Ebay, brand new and unused, for £50. I'm extremely pleased with this setup now and by setting Audacity and Fraps to start recording with the same hotkey, I can have it all in sync and then just mix the two audio tracks together at the right amplitude so that my audio commentary is audible over the game sounds. The audio commentary sounds miles better with the Behringer microphone, it's very clear with no noise (none that I can hear anyway.) It's even vastly improved my audio in Teamspeak - friends have commented that I sound crystal clear now. Yay! Thanks for that recommendation Yslen!
First video - crappy cheap and nasty mic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fyi61i-B48 3 vids (playlist) with friends microphone: http://www.youtube.com/user/superego13itch#p/c/1BECAFD0D7BBD044 - the 'tour' videos 2 new vids with my Behringer: - Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMGGqjJTcwA - Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqkPr03F0YM
