The One Where Cassie Needs A Better Mic

Ben and I made a CD over Christmas to give to family members as a cheap gift. It turned out pretty good, and I actually listen to it pretty regularly because I like the songs, but I've always been kind of disappointed with it. Today, I realized why.

I started recording some new songs today. All was going well, but I was having the same problem that I did last time - the songs sound flat, and uni-dimensional. Songs should be full of emotion, of layers, of inflection and levels. But our songs all seem to be lacking. Today, I was singing my best, but discovered that I had to kind of sing all at one volume level in order for the mic to pick it up. Looking back, I realized that the same thing had happened with the last CD. Whenever I tried to sing softly, it didn't pick up properly, and if I reset the mic in order to catch that soft stuff, the louder parts were annoyingly loud. Ergo - it was all one level.

Now it seems like a huge "duh" that I've been mildly unhappy with our CD. It's not that we're bad singers, it's never really been about that. I've just always felt like our performances on the CD were soulless. We were trying, and we did succeed to a mild extent, but overall for two people who do musical theater, it was dull.

Now that I know why that is, I think that getting a new mic would help a lot. The one we have now is part of a headset. If I take the mic off and put it on the counter or hold it in my hand, I won't be able to hear the music. It's coming in through the headphones, which are attached to the mic. Not to mention that I'd probably end up with an echo of the music that way. So I have to wear the headset. Because of that, though, the mic is right by my mouth, and I sound loud, even on quiet songs. And half the time you get breath sounds that come across really loudly in the recording. If I move the mic away from my mouth, it's not sensitive enough to pick up the singing.

I think if I could get a hand-held mic, the quality of the recordings would improve by leaps and bounds. They're designed to pick up more sensitive noises, so I would be able to put all sorts of levels in my singing. The acoustics in the room would be more beneficial at that point as well. Instead of sounding like I'm singing right in your ear, I'd sound like I was actually performing - which is what I want.

The problem is that hand-held mics are expensive. We can maybe find a second-hand one for a reasonable price, but I worry that an old, used mic wouldn't work well. We're still looking into it. We'll just have to see what happens. I'm not sure that I'll be recording any more songs until we get one, though. They're really kind of a disappointment as it is. But if we can't get a good mic, at least now I know why I don't like the recordings. Mystery solved!