Help with advice on getting a pc microphone to send 'voice email'?

[J.J.]

Looking for the most inexpensive kind of mike for a PC so I can dictate a .wav file to send to my lil sis when she is overseas, but want to make sure I get enough of one for full voice reproduction, nothing that is tinny, scratchy, or just plain cheesy!

If anyone has any experience, has one/had one now, etc., I would appreciate your thots and direction in this matter....puh-leeeze? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Vaskez]

Pssst, it's not mike, that's short for michael, it's mic i.e. microphone

Anyway, any old PC mic will do just make sure it's specifically a PC mic not a karaoke one or something. I got one for around $10 and it was perfect. Dunno the make it's a cheap one. Also I don't recommend sending .wav files. Get one of the 2 million free wav -> MP3 converters and convert your dictated files to MP3. This will reduce the size by about a factor of 10 if you choose the correct bit rates. You shouldn't need more than around 32kbps or less for voice. If your sister has windows media player then she can also play MP3s.

[/)eathKiller]

Open up Accesories for Entertainment and get to your Audeio Recorder, Make an audio recording, save it as a Speech based MPEG-Layer 3, Send it through E-mail, simple as taht. Voice-based MPEGs are SUPER small too. I sized down 2 hours of sound to a 6 meg file with voice-based compression [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Vaskez]

Originally posted by /)eathKiller: Open up Accesories for Entertainment and get to your Audeio Recorder, Make an audio recording, save it as a Speech based MPEG-Layer 3, Send it through E-mail, simple as taht. Voice-based MPEGs are SUPER small too. I sized down 2 hours of sound to a 6 meg file with voice-based compression [img]tongue.gif[/img]

There ya go J.J. you don't even need to download an MP3 encoder, I forgot that sound recorder has one.

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Vaskez: Pssst, it's not mike, that's short for michael, it's mic i.e. microphone

Pssst, mike can also be used as an abbrevation for microphone.

Originally posted by the Oxford English Dictionary: Colloq. abbrev. of MICROPHONE 1; also attrib. Cf. MIC. 1927 Melody Maker June 579/3, I think it is more that he plays too loudly than that he is too near the ‘mike’. 1928 ADE Let. 7 July (1973) 134 Open the act with a fake microphone all set and adjusted for broadcasting. You come out and talk into the ‘mike’ announcing the name of a fake station in the town..and say you have a very interesting program ahead and then you can read it into the mike. 1937 Daily Herald 16 Feb. 19/6 He is unlikely to be afflicted with ‘mike’ fright, because, in his line, he has found visible audiences in far more truculent mood than will be his unseen Midland Regional listeners. 1939 Evening News 7 Nov. 4/5 To follow the players about, the ‘mike’ is moved across the floor on a long arm called a ‘mike boom’, and its operator is a ‘mike slinger’. 1943 J. B. PRIESTLEY Daylight on Saturday xi. 68 He delighted in entertainment, liked to make his little speech at the mike. 1956 B. HOLLIDAY Lady sings Blues (1973) iii. 38, I got to the mike somehow and grabbed it. 1962 Listener 12 Apr. 656/3 Robert Kee avoided..entangling his mike-cable in the mob. 1971 D. E. WESTLAKE I gave at the Office (1972) 188 ‘I am a soldier’; he said, ‘not a baseball player. No interview.’ Frankly, I think he had mike fright.

A nice history lesson of the word mike is included.

[Vaskez]

Mike was only adopted as an abbreviation because there are so many dumb people who got confused with mic.

[J.J.]

Originally posted by Vaskez: quote: Originally posted by /)eathKiller: Open up Accesories for Entertainment and get to your Audeio Recorder, Make an audio recording, save it as a Speech based MPEG-Layer 3, Send it through E-mail, simple as taht. Voice-based MPEGs are SUPER small too. I sized down 2 hours of sound to a 6 meg file with voice-based compression [img]tongue.gif[/img]

There ya go J.J. you don't even need to download an MP3 encoder, I forgot that sound recorder has one.[/QUOTE]I appreciate the info, got a couple mp3>.wav type things, cd rippers, dvd rippers, a cdex, been stumblin and fumblin my way towards the original goal of being able to understand and do complete sound, video, and movie production and editing. I'm being eaten alive by my production department, and feel like a lion cub who is next in the progression of getting rid of your rival and all antecedents!

In sheer self defense and customer satisfaction I am moving toward a digital camcorder with minidv format (about $400 w/ 40lux light this xmas), a laptop with at least 2 gig processor and something like adobe premiere software which lets you create studio quality production grade commercials or what not, all for the low, low price of about $1500, pc and program. damn! the camera is the cheapest part, now.

'chew guys know much about production quality filming and editing on the type of system im talking about?

[J.J.]

WOW!! Willow, you rock. that was a terrific etiological breakdown, as only the O.E.D. can do. I lust after the unabridged version with the lifetime updates.... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

but, do you know anything about making commercials and then editing them so your customer's kids look like shirley temple instead of chuckie's friends?

[lethoso]

you can use a pair of headphones as an inexpensive mic... won't sound as good as a dedicated one though... but i can get reasonable quality out of my koss-ksc 35's... if you want i can put up an mp3 recording of what the quality is like tomorrow...