Loving the Sound of Your Own Voice

This is almost a part two of my last post about USB headsets. Almost.

One of my other core issues with USB headsets is that you can’t hear yourself. You can’t hear what your voice sounds like going through the microphone. There’s good reason for that, but it’s still a bad idea if you want to make good audio recordings.

Why They’re Designed This Way

You’re going to have to forgive some geek-speak to understand this. Because you will run into this term now and again, I think it’s okay to explain it here, so please bear with me.

There’s a principle in audio production called “latency.” A synonym for it is “delay.”

Have you ever been on a telephone call (particularly an overseas call) in which there is a delay between the words you speak and your voice echoing back to your earpiece?

That’s latency. Less latency is better when it comes to good sound production.

It’s the time it takes for the sound you create to travel out to the equipment that’s turning it into a signal that can be transmitted, and then travel back to your ears through the listening portion of your device.

Okay, enough with the geek-speak.

The reason understanding why latency matters is the explanation for the reason you can’t hear yourself in a USB headset.

The electronic circuits that send your voice to the computer through a USB headset just aren’t sophisticated enough to send it back to your ears fast enough for you to hear yourself without feeling like you’re trapped in an echo chamber (or on a really bad overseas telephone call).

Because this is an expensive problem to fix, they don’t. And thus, you cannot hear yourself in the earphones of a USB headset.

Why You Should Care

Despite my attempt at cleverness in the title of this post, this is not about enjoying hearing yourself talk. It’s about listening to the sounds you are creating and making them the best sounds possible.

You need to be able to hear what’s coming through your microphone for three basic reasons.

1 – Background noise.

The noises made by your ceiling fan, your A/C vent, your child three rooms away, or the cat contentedly purring on your desk. You need to know if the microphone can hear these sounds, and eliminate them before you start recording.

2 – Mic position.

If your breath is hitting the mic in the wrong way, you suddenly start sounding like Sylvester the Cat. It’s call sibilance, and it’s really annoying to have to listen to as an audience member. If you can hear yourself, you can reposition the mic before you start recording and eliminate it.

3 – Gain.

As I’ve said elsewhere, gain is sort of a synonym for volume. You need to make sure that the signal you’re sending to the computer for recording is neither too loud nor too soft. If it’s too loud, you get what’s called “clipping”. It’s a horrible distorted noise that makes listening impossible. If you’re too soft, you’ll have to artificially boost the gain in the editing process and you’ll end up adding all sorts of hiss and other noises by doing that.

What To Do About It

Start listening to yourself.

Step up from the USB headset to a proper microphone. If you’re not ready to go the full-blown professional route, go for a USB microphone (I have some recommendations if you’re interested).

Once you have the USB mic, you need a decent set of headphones. Yes, your iPod earbuds can be used, but they’re not going to serve you well in the long run.

Why?

Well, they’re lousy with closing your ears to outside noises (which you can confuse with sounds coming through the mic itself) – the geek term for this is “sound isolation” – and they don’t have a wide enough range of sounds they can reproduce for you to really hear everything that’s going on with your recording.

I’m a huge fan of the Sony MDR-7506 studio reference headphones.

No, they’re not cute and dainty, but they’re one of the best dang set of headphones for the money you will find.

DISCLAIMER: If you ask 10 sound geeks for a recommendation for a good set of reference headphones and you’ll get at least 12 answers.

Disclaimers aside, these are one of the most widely-used headphones in the professional recording industry. If you watch the special features on movies, look for the sound people; more times than not they’re wearing these headphones. I certainly have. And if you go into a professional music studio, you will find at least one set of these lying around.

Why?

Because they’re good, and given what they do, they’re reasonably-priced. You can find them for around $100 if you know where to look (hint: click link above), and while yes, $100 is real money, it’s cheap for professional-level audio equipment.

Let me sum up

Being able to hear the sounds you are creating through the microphone are critical to recording success. If you can’t hear what you’re recording, dollars to donuts, you’ll waste a tremendous amount of your valuable time re-recording.

Why spend your time re-recording when a modest investment in your business can eliminate the need?