voice-over

ACX Audio Submission Requirements: What The Heck Do They Mean?

January 16, 2019 by Ken 4 Comments

Trying to record an audiobook for ACX? Are you confused or frustrated by the “ACX Audio Submission Requirements”? You might wonder “why do I keep failing the ACX Check?” You are not alone!
ACX is Amazon’s marketplace for audiobooks. If you’re an author, you can find someone on ACX to record your book so you can have an audiobook version of it. If you are a voice over actor, you can sign up to be the one recording those audiobooks and getting paid for it. Also, if you’ve already created an audiobook, you can sell it on ACX.

Those Confusing ACX Audio Requirements

This article is for the folks trying to record an audiobook for ACX. It seems simple enough. Get a microphone. Attach it to your computer. Download the free Audacity recording software (see our course – The Newbies guide To Audio Recording Awesomenss 1 for more on Audacity). Record the book.
But then you try to submit the audio to ACX and you are told it doesn’t meet their requirements. Now what? When you go to their page on what those requirements are, you’re presented with a bunch of technical jargon that may not make much (or any) sense to you whatsoever. The requirements are:

192 kbps or higher MP3, constant bit rate (CBR) at 44.1 kHz
Be between -23dB and -18dB RMS
No peak values can exceed -3dBs
Have a maximum -60dB noise floor

Gah!! What? OK, if you are into audio recording, or are a recording engineer, you might know what all this means. But for the typical non-audio person, this can be super confusing. So let’s just take these one by one.

The MP3 Stuff

Any program that allows you to export or save audio as an MP3 will have these options available for you to just put a check mark in. So you absolutely do not need to understand what it all means. Just make sure you choose these.
The only exception is the “44.1 KHz” thing, which needs to set BEFORE you record. In Audacity, it’s the default. So you don’t really need to worry about it. See the pic on the right for the other settings in Audacity.

Being between -23dB and -18dB RMS

This is average volume. Seems simple when you say it like that, right? And it makes sense to want the average volume to be in a certain range so you can have consistency. So what does this particular set of numbers and letters mean?
First, let me clarify that digital audio is measured in negative numbers. One of the many weird things about it. Remember back to school math when you did negative numbers? It’s like that. For audio, 0dB (dB = “decibels”) is the maximum. It’s the ceiling. Anything higher than that (anything in positive numbers) gets distorted and sounds awful. So audio at, say, -2dB is much LOUDER than audio at -18dB. Once you understand that, things get easier.
Also, “RMS” (stands for root mean square) is just one of the ways average audio levels are calculated. Don’t worry about what it means.
So ACX audio must have an average level at least -23dB. But it cannot be louder than -18dB. How do you get your average volume in the zone?
Well, there are several ways. Tools you can use include a combination of Normalization and Amplify tools in Audacity. But to really understand this, it helps to think about your school years again.
Remember how to get an average? If you have 5 numbers, say 7, 3, 8, 7, and 6. You find the average by first adding them up 7+3+8+7+6 = 31. Then you just divide that total by however many numbers there are. There are 5 numbers. So 31 divided by 5 gives us an average of 6.2.
If someone told you that you needed an average of between 7 and 9, what could you do? Well, how about making one or two of those numbers bigger? If you change the 3 to an 11 (so you have 7, 11, 8, 7, and 6), your average goes up to 7.8. And that would be great. We’re between 7 and 9.
With your audio loudness, if you find out that the average level is too low (say, -25dB), you would know that you need some higher numbers, just like in our above example. You do that by turning up some or all of the audio. In Audacity, you can do this using the “Amplify” control. It might take some trial and error. And even if you get your average in between -23dB and -18dB, you might then run into the problem of having a peak value that is too loud somewhere, which leads us to…

Peaks Cannot Exceed -3dB

Let’s go back to our 5-number average calculation from above. Just for fun, we said the average of our 5 numbers needed to be between 7 and 9. And we adjusted numbers higher or lower until we got an average into the zone between 7-9. But what if I ALSO told you that none of the 5 numbers could be higher than 10? We would have passed the test for AVERAGE value. But we would fail on PEAK volume because one of the numbers (the 11) was louder than our maximum of 10.
What do we do then? Well it’s a bit more trial and error. You need to find the peaks in your audio that are louder than -3dB (between -3dB and 0dB), and turn THOSE down. If you were doing that manually, you’d go through the audio waveform and see where it got loud. The waveform would be quite close to the edge.
Then you could just select that section and lower the volume using the “Amplify” effect. Do this for every peak that is louder than -3dB, and you will pass the peaks test for ACX. However, by lowering volume in those areas, you will lower the overall average volume of the whole thing! It would be like making some of our 5 numbers smaller. So now what?
Run the ACX Check again and see if your average still passes. If it does, that’s terrific. Your average AND peak values now pass.
If the average volume is too low now though, you’ll need to raise the volume of all your audio. So highlight all your speaking parts and raise the level using the Amplify effect again. Just make sure you don’t raise it so high that something pokes above -3dB. See what I mean by trial and error?

Have a Maximum -60dB Noise Floor

Again, this is not as confusing as it sounds. All it means is that the quiet parts where you’re not talking (or breathing) – the spaces between the phrases – need to be really quiet. They don’t want a lot of background hiss, or computer fan noise, etc. And there obviously should not be any barking dogs, purring cats, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, etc.
The best way to do this is to make sure you have a quiet environment when you record. It doesn’t have to be dead-silent. But it does have to be quieter than -60dB.
For most of us recording at home, there will be SOME noise either from your mic (especially USB mics) or your computer or the A/C, etc. I highly recommend using noise reduction to deal with that. See our post New Noise Reduction Tool In Audacity for how to do this. There’s a video on that page too.
After running noise reduction, take a listen to your audio to make sure it still sounds good. If you overdo the amount of noise reduction you apply, or if the noise was too loud in relation to your voice, then your audio might sound weird afterward. If that happens, Undo the noise reduction and run it again, lowering the number in the Noise Reduction amount box in Audacity. This probably won’t be an issue as long as the noise was low enough to start with.

Putting it All Together

There is a free plugin for Audacity that you can use to check and see if your audio passes all the tests. It’s called ACX Check. You can find it here. Instructions for installing Audacity plugins are here.
Regardless of all these requirements, I highly recommend you not let them affect your performance while recording. If you think too much about things like that, it will be hard to focus on your performance. So just do a level check before you start, to make sure your audio is loud enough but is not too loud (goes beyond the edges). Then just concentrate on your performance until you are done. Then AFTER you’re done recording, use the above advice to make sure your audio meets ACX requirements.
I’ll put together more stuff in the coming days here to help give you some details on how to do some of this stuff. But hopefully this post will help you to at least understand all the ACX stuff a little better.

Voice Over Recording Equipment

June 18, 2017 by Ken 1 Comment

Voice over recording equipment is more powerful and more affordable than ever before in 2017. Unlike the needs for musicians, voice over actors need very little in order to produce professional sounding results from their voice recording studio right from home.
Before I start claiming that all you need is a mic and a computer (which is pretty much true), or that the mic can be cheap (also true), I should qualify something.

Time Versus Money

In general, the cheaper the microphone and/or interface, the longer it will take you to record professional sounding voice overs. It is possible. But you sort of trade time for money. And for some, that’s OK. They may have more time than money. Lots of people do.
I actually include “time” in my list of voice over recording equipment. The reason for this is that you CAN record decent quality sound from a mic costing about 50 bucks (what I consider the minimum). But the less expensive gear tends to also record noise.
It is definitely possible to fix most noise problems with software after your record your voice. But that takes time. Some noise removal takes quite a lot of time.

What Takes So Long?

For instance, fixing p-pops (see our post How to Fix a “P-Pop” in Your Audio With Sound Editing Software for more on that) takes a lot more time to fix than to actually read the script you are recording. Removing saliva noises (see my post on that here How To Remove Saliva Noises From Voice Recordings) can take just as long. So if you are doing both, well you see where this is going.
I’ve now mentioned two bits of voice over recording equipment – time and a pop-filter. The pop filter will help prevent most of the p-popping, that bane of voice over recording. But I have never yet recorded a vocal where the filter prevented ALL p-pops. So you’ll want to know how to get rid of them after the fact, which is covered in the article linked above.

So What Are The Other Pieces Of Voice Over Recording Equipment You’ll Need?

Earlier I mentioned a microphone. I also said I thought you’d need to spend at least $50 or so, minimum, in order to get into the realm of professional sounding audio. That is how much it costs for a USB mic called the Samson Q2U (or Q1U). [update: The Q2U, which is the latest version of the Q1U, now has BOTH an XLR output AND a USB. That’s huge news. I’ll be doing a review of this mic in the coming weeks. Watch this space.]
If you can afford a bit more, I recommend the kind of set-up used my most professionals. By that I mean a standard (non-USB) microphone and an audio interface. The interface is a box that plugs into a computer, usually via USB. You plug the microphone into the interface.
The KIND of mic I recommend as your first upgrade from a USB mic is a “large diaphragm condenser” microphone. There are terrific for vocals. A good entry-level large diaphragm mic is an Audio-Technica AT2020, which you can get for about $99.
As for the interface, a great option is a Focusrite Scarlett Solo. One of those will also run about $99. Then along with that, of course you’ll need accessories like a mike stand and cable, and headphones to allow you to listen very closely to your recording, making sure you have no little noises between words and phrases. Those can be hard to hear with just speakers alone.
Amazon has a studio kit that has all you need to get started. It has the Focusrite interface, microphone, mic cable and headphones. Here is a link to the Focusrite Scarlett Solo Studio Bundle. That bundle, plus the addition of a mic stand and pop-filter, will run about $256.
the last piece of your voice over recording studio puzzle is the software. Fortunately, the free Audacity is truly all you need to get started. You can learn how to use it in our course, the Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness.
As you are able to afford it, you can easily upgrade this studio by trying out better and better mics. But you may not ever need to! You may find the studio bundle is all you need to sound as professional as necessary to become a pro.

Voice Recording Studio In Your Bedroom

June 6, 2017 by Ken 1 Comment

It’s easy to create a voice recording studio in a bedroom at home in 2019. Using a computer and just a couple other small bits of gear, you can easily record professional sounding voice overs at home.
Most people think you need to have a super expensive microphone to make really top-notch voice recordings. Either that, or they think you need to go to a professional voice recording studio.
Fortunately, neither of those things is true.
So why do so many people make such poor quality audio recordings at home? The answer is almost always this: a lack of knowledge.
I’m not saying you need to be an audio recording engineer to create professional audio at home. But there are some basic things you should know.
Without the basic understanding of a few simple things, even the most expensive microphone in the world won’t help you make professional sounding voice recordings. But if you DO understand these few important concepts, you can make even a really cheap microphone sound good.

So What Do I Need To Know?

Simply put, you need to know how to prevent and/or remove noise in your voice recording studio. When I say “noise,” I’m referring to any sounds that you do NOT want in your recording.
I assume the thing you DO want in the recording is your voice. That means anything that is not your voice is noise. Major examples include:

Room sound – reverb and echo from your voice bouncing off the hard surfaces of your room
Electronic noise like hiss or crackling sounds
Extraneous noises
- barking dogs,
- crying babies,
- air conditioning blowers,
- mouth noises (p-pops, saliva clicks, slip smacks, etc.)

That pretty much sums it up. If you know some of the main reasons why these noises happen, and then know how to either prevent them, or fix them if they do get recorded, you’ll be able to get the best quality possible from even the cheapest microphones.

Where do I Find This Knowledge?

I’ve written a handy guide, complete with videos, that will teach you how to improve the audio you record in your voice recording studio. It’s called Home Recording Awesomeness: 6 Mostly Free Tips For Making Your Audio Sound Expensive.
As the title suggests, most of the tips are things you can put into action immediately, without having to buy any gear or build anything.
You’ll learn things like how to use software (even free software) to get rid of noise in your recordings, since it is pretty darned impossible to prevent absolutely every possible noise from being recorded.
You’ll also learn some super simple things to do with a microphone that can make a huge difference. In fact I’ll give away the first tip right now. It’s simply – get your mouth closer to the mic.
I know! That sounds WAY too simple to make any kind of real difference doesn’t it? Well you can hear the difference for yourself in the video that accompanies this tip in the guide.

Hey, What About Those “Couple Of Other Bits Of Gear”?

Oh you remember that? Yes, in the first part of this article I said “Using a computer and just a couple other small bits of gear, you can easily record professional sounding voice overs at home.”
You probably have guessed by now that one of those other bits of gear is a microphone. Yes, you’ll definitely need one of those. But what kind?
I’ll assume that you’re just starting out and probably want things to be simple at first. So I recommend a USB microphone.

USB mics are great because you can just plug them straight into your computer’s USB port and start recording. But don’t just grab any old mic with a USB plug on it. You need something that will make you sound like a pro. There are lots of choices for lots of prices. But I recommend starting with the Samson Q2U, which is only about $50.
If you’d like to hear a voice recording I made with a Samson Q1U, check out my post Voice Over Recording Using Audacity and a $49.00 USB Mic.
While USB mics are a great bang for the buck and super convenient, most of them do put out a low-level hiss. Of course, with the 6-Tips guide, you’ll know how to get rid of that after the fact. But you can make the jump to a different kind of set-up that uses a standard (by which I mean “not USB”) microphone and something called an “interface.”
In order for a microphone to record into a computer, it needs two things (which are built right into a USB mic):

An analog-to-digital converter, and
A preamplifier

An interface box (well, sometimes they look like little tubes instead of boxes, but just go with me on this…:)) such as a Focusrite Scarlett, which is what I use, has everything a mic needs to record into a computer – the converter and the preamplifier.
The interface box plugs into the computer with a USB cable. Then you simply plug your mic into the interface box and you’re ready to record your awesome voice overs.
You’ll also need some software. For voice over recording, you may never need anything more fancy that the incredible Audacity audio recording software. Why is it so amazing. Well, mostly because it’s free :-P. But also because it can do all the basics – very possibly everything you will ever need it to do! That post I mentioned above (Voice Over Recording Using Audacity and a $49.00 USB Mic) has audio recorded with Audacity, as the title suggests.
The last piece of gear you’ll want is headphones. These don’t have to be expensive. But you do want a good way to hear the details of your voice recording to make sure it is as clean and free of noise as possible. You can usually hear little things in headphones that you can’t hear when just listening to your recording through speakers.
You can always upgrade the mic, interface, headphones and software at a later date. But these items I listed are pretty awesome already. If and when you decide to upgrade, you can do that a little at a time as your budget allows.
So now you know. You can set up a voice recording studio pretty much anywhere you can put a computer, microphone and – if you’re not using a USB mic – an interface box. I think a bedroom is as good a place as any:).
Now go out there and get voice over jobs!

Voice Over Recording Tips: Editing Conversations In Reaper

March 26, 2017 by Ken 4 Comments

If you have ever been asked to record and edit a conversation between two people, say, for a voice over job, then you are probably aware of the logistical problems this can cause. The client usually has visions of just getting the two people together around a microphone and simply reading their parts at the appropriate time. Sure, that would be OK if you always had both people available at the same time, along with two great microphones, a large enough space for both people to occupy at the same time, etc. But these conditions are not always available to us.

Boy-Girl-Boy-Girl

So for the sake of the example, let’s say you only have one microphone and you have to present the client with a conversation between a man and a woman. This is a situation I had monthly a while back and it seemed to take forever to get it right. Also, the boy (me) recorded all his lines in one long take, creating one long audio item in a track, and likewise for the girl. One segment of the job required that the bog-girl voices alternate with exactly 3 seconds between them. That made the job even longer, especially since I was doing it manually, clipping and trimming each bit of dialogue, and then using the grid (set to seconds and minutes) to drag each clip into place and ensure a 3-second space between each. Yikes!

Time Saving Tips

By the way, we’ll be using the excellent audio recording software called Reaper for this example, but similar tools can be found in other multi-track recording programs.
The first lesson I learned was to color-code. I used blue for boys and pink for girls. Yeah, yeah, it seems sexist but it works! Besides, my wife (the “girl voice”) likes pink. Anyway, in Reaper you simply right click on the audio item which opens a pop-up menu, go to Item Takes and Colors/Set Items to Custom Color. If you end up putting both voices on one track (which is easier when putting a 3-second gap between each), this becomes very helpful.

Slice and Dice Automagically

The next bit of time-saving automation was the Auto Trim/Split function. What this does is allow you to slice one continuous audio file into several separate audio items in a track based on when there is silence and when there is speaking going on. This was huge! I had been slicing (using the “S” keyboard shortcut) just before and just after each phrase, and then dragging the edges of the resulting clipped audio item in to get rid of the silence. That was 4 different operations (2 slices and 2 drags) for every phrase! Multiply that by dozens of phrases for each voice and you have a LOT of work. But with Auto Trim/Split, you select the entire long audio item in the track and hit one keyboard shortcut (you can set your own – mine is “ctrl+~”) and boom! Every phrase becomes its own item, perfectly trimmed on either side. See the picture at the top of the article where this has been done to each voice). That one discovery saved me about 20 minutes per voice!
Below is a video that shows you step-by-step how to use the Auto Trim/Split tool in Reaper to save you huge amounts of time.

The other thing that was taking a long time was spacing each voice, alternating boy-girl-boy-girl, with exactly 3 seconds between each phrase. As I mentioned earlier I was doing this manually until I discovered the Reposition Items tool in Reaper. [Update: Reposition Selected Items (as it is now called) is not part of the native Reaper set of tools. You need the free extension set – SWS extensions – by just going here: http://sws.mj-s.com/ and downloading the SWS extensions file and installing it by executing it. Then it will be added to the Actions list in Reaper]. You select all the phrases in a track, open Reposition Items, and simply tell it how much space should be between the items. This is very like the “distribute” function in many graphics programs. To put 3 seconds between the boy and girl voices, though, requires both blue and pink to be on the same track. But that was pretty easy. Just space them out and slide them until they are well and truly between the blue phrases in the adjacent track, select all the pink phrases, and simply drag them up onto the track with the boy/blue phrases. Now that they are all on the same track, select them all (you can lasso them all by holding down the right mouse button and dragging over them), open Reposition Items, and put 3 seconds into the Time Interval window.
With those tools I was able to cut my processing time for this job by about 50%. Even if you don’t have to space them out evenly or put them on one track, I’m sure you’ll find a combination of these tools to be very helpful if you have to produce a voice over job with more than one voice.
Cheers!
Ken

Sennheiser MKH 416 Shotgun Microphone Review

May 12, 2016 by Ken 48 Comments

We normally think of shotgun mics as “movie mics” – the things that sound crew folks hang over people’s heads with those long boom poles when shooting video. and though they are awesome for that job, did you know they were also highly prized as voice-over mics? Either way, I want one:). My Star Rating –

[This review of the Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic originally appeared here in 2013. But I thought I would update it a bit in the wake of all the microphone reviews I’ve been doing in 2019. I still want one of these, BTW:). But I ended up buying an Electro-Voice RE20 (another one I was reviewing for B&H) for my voiceover purposes until then.]

I had the privilege of testing out the Sennheiser MKH 416 microphone recently. What can I say? This mic has been described as the desert island mic by many. It’s so well known and well-liked that it goes by other nicknames too, like “The L.A. Mic” and “The Movie Mic.” Around the internet you see words like gold, the one, amazing, industry standard, and staple crop up over and over again.

So what is this thing that makes it so great?

Well you’ve probably heard audio through it before if you’ve ever watched a movie – or television. It is a standard in the film and TV industries, often used outdoors for news casts and interviews as well as location shoots. It is also used a lot in the voice-over world because not only does it make voices sound awesome, but it helps them cut through background sound effects and music. Many a movie trailer has been recorded with a 416. The next time you hear “In a world where……” etc, chances are that was recorded with a 416.

Also in this review I tested the Rycote Softie Windshield on the Sennheiser for an outdoor video test on a windy day.

So, enough of the gushing – gimme details. Yes, I heard you. OK, here is the skinny.

The Sennheiser MKH 416 is a short shotgun mic. That means that it is ultra-directional, picking up audio that is in front of it really well at longer distances than a standard condenser mic. We’ve heard of the cardioid pickup pattern. This mic has a hypercardioid pattern, which rejects sound coming from behind it in about a 120-degree field. The 416 is also different from regular condensers in that it uses something called RF biasing rather than the more common DC-biasing. You can read the technical details of this in this article, but RF (radio frequency, btw) biasing has some benefits, such as that the mic becomes less sensitive to moisture ( a good thing in an expensive mic commonly used outdoors), has a wider frequency response, and is extremely low noise levels.

Other features?

Other awesome features of the 416 make it nearly indestructible (not that I put that to the test with the review mic:)), less sensitive to plosives (p-pops), and less sensitive to the proximity effect, which is that thing where the low bass frequencies get more hyped the closer the mic gets to the source. Voice-over folks may think, “hey I like it when my voice sounds deeper when I get close to the mic.” My answer to that is that with this mic, you don’t need to rely on the proximity effect because the 416 picks up the lows of a human voice incredibly well already.

Use as a VoiceOver Mic

The 416 is fast becoming one of the most popular microphones in the voiceover industry, which has traditionally been dominated by large diaphragm condenser mics (LDC). I’ve already mentioned one of the reasons for that – you can spend less time worrying about p-pops, though in my testing, I still needed a pop-filter for the plosives. Another reason that the 416 can be a little further away from your mouth without picking up room sound noise. Plus it is lighter and much skinnier than your typical LDC. Both of those things can help when you’re reading a script while recording. But ultimately the real reason this mic is terrific as a voice mic is that it simply sounds incredible.

Shotgun Shootout

I compared the Sennheiser MKH 416 against my mainstay, the Rode NT2-A large diaphragm condenser, recording a short bit of voice-over copy. I was really impressed with how much better the Sennheiser sounded than the Rode – and THAT has never happened to me. Sure, I’ve never tested a $999 mic against my $399 Rode, but to date I have never recorded another mic that sounded better than my beloved Rode. There is a first time for everything. The Sennheiser made my voice sound rich, detailed, deep and punchy all in one aural experience of awesome. I now know why people call it the desert island mic.

Be careful of the 5 dB bump starting at 4Khz

I did notice in the first test that the 416 produced a little more sibilance (the high hissy “ssssss” frequencies) than I normally like. Then I remembered that I have a bit of EQ permanently set on my preamp to reduce the lows and increase the highs. I did that because the Rode sounded a bit heavy in the low end without it. So I bypassed the EQ on the preamp and that took care of the sibilance issue with the 416. I did notice in the pamphlet that comes with the 416 that it is designed with a 5 dB “bump” in the high frequencies starting around 4 KHz. See the frequency response graph on the right.

Below are the two audio samples, first with the Rode, then with the Sennheiser.

VoiceOver On the Rode NT2-A
RodeNT2-A Sample

VoiceOver On the Sennheiser MKH 416
Sennheiser MKH416 Sample

Outside Test In The Wind

As I stated above, the 416’s most common use is in the film, TV and electronic news gathering (ENG) fields. I recorded a few different videos, one with just the built-in mic of my Canon Vixia HD Camcorder, and then three different shots with the 416 hooked up to the camera (one of the reasons I went with the Canon Vixia is that it has an external mic input) using a BeachTek DXA-2T Camcorder XLR Mic Adapter (see our review of the DXA here). First was the video with the 416 naked, without a windshield of any kind. Next I put on the foam windshield that comes with the mic. Then I thought I’d test a 3rd-party windshield (the fuzzy “dead-cat” kind) called the Rycote Softie Windshield (standard 19-22 mm hole size).

Results in the wind

The first result was that The shotgun was on a mic stand right next to the camera in this test, so the audio in all video clips below was recorded on mics that were the same distance away from my noggin.

The audio would have been truly awesome if we had a 3rd person holding the mic on the end of a boom pole (sometimes called a fish pole) mic holder with the mic just above my head and out-of-frame, pointing down at my mouth. I’ll do that test another day.

Now for the test against the wind. In video 1 (just the camcorder mic), you’ll notice the wind is extremely loud and the voice audio is thin and distant. In video 2, using the shotgun mic instead of just the on-board camera mic, the audio quality of the voice was MUCH better. But because there was no windshield of any kind, the wind was still pretty loud. For video 3 using the foam windshield that came with the mic, the wind noise was noticeably less of a problem. For final video we used the Rycote Softie Windshield. And though there was a pretty significant breeze, it was amazingly quiet.

Only the built-in camcorder mic (not shotgun mic attached)

With Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic attached, but without a windshield

Sennheiser attached with included foam wind shield attached

Sennheiser attached with Rycote Softie Windshield attached

Summary

The Sennheiser MKH 416 shotgun mic is – how shall I put this – officially freaking awesome! Sadly, I have to return mine since it was on loan from B&H Photo-Video-Audio. Otherwise it would be my primary mic for all my voice-over and video work. It does cost $999, and as soon as the piggy bank gets heavy enough, to quote Mike Meyers, “it will be mine – oh yes – it will be mine.” Also the Rycote Softie Windshield worked magic at reducing wind noise for outdoor video use.

As long as I am quoting my favorite movies, here’s one from Ferris Beuller applied to the 416. “if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.“

[Update: B&H has “hands-on review” of this wonderful mic. Check that out here.]

Cheers!

Ken