I recently had to do some voiceover for a video and used my iMac internal microphone. While not great it was ok. I may be doing more video voiceovers, recording of video while I use either a DLSR with video or my iPhone or iPad and of course a LOT more zoom calls or webinars. Now a lot of farming meetings happen in winter. They used tobe in person but now have pretty much al moved to on-line in some form, podast, webinar or zoom type meetings. I will be attending many of these, either as a participant or presenter. I need to upgrade my lighting system and already have a coupe of things I am looking at in that area but I also really need to upgrade the sound quality.
Looking for suggestions for lapel mics that can plug into phones and cameras and also perhaps a much better headset with attached boom mic for the zoom type of meetings.
I’ve looked at some old threads here but enough has changed about how these tools are used I figured it was ok to start a new one.
For the headset with boom mic I’m running the Jabra Evolve 75. It’s a bit pricy, but seems to work well. Switches easily between my iMac and iPhone (it runs much better over bluetooth on my iMac than using the included dongle).
I’ve been on Teams meetings most of the work day, most of the year. I needed a headset with boom mike, noise cancellation, on-headset controls (mute, volume, channel), and wireless operations. So I bought a SteelSeries Arctis 7. It’s been pretty good and reliable. Holds charge well. Only complaint is the velour ear cushions are scratchy – so it’s worth getting their “leather” cushions.
I’ve knocked this thing off the desk a dozen times and it’s been rugged and undamaged.
I do lectures on Zoom and AV demonstrations with Camtasia.
I mostly use the headsets. I keep the wireless in my office and carry the wired one from home. I prefer the wireless not only to be untethered but also for the better audio (noise cancelling) quality.
I have not liked the combination of mic + headphones for on-line video activities (especially Zoom). The headphones are eventually too uncomfortable and look cumbersome. I plan however to use the condenser mic once I settle down to make demonstrations that do not include me in the video, as I appreciate that its audio quality is superior to either of the headsets.
In summary, the improvements in audio quality that you can get with no more than about a $50 investment cannot be underestimated. You may also be able to run the wireless headset with an iPad / iPhone recording app when out in the field.
