Best Microphone for Voice: Heil PR-40
What can I say? I’m crazy about my Heil PR-40. This was not my first microphone, but I’ll be damned if it ain’t my last. As most people who get started in content creation, whether recorded videos, songs, livestreaming, or podcasting, I started off with a cheap desktop mic. Cheapest I could find, honestly, because anything more expensive would have cut into the video game budget! “And what does it matter?” I figured, “Everyone uses this same cheap desk mic, and it sounds fine.”
But it didn’t sound fine.
Every single sniffle, cough, burp, fart, chair creak, and shoe squeak would be piped directly into my poor audience’s ears. On top of that, any sudden loudness, exuberant laughter, agonized screams, or even just good old fashioned deep-voiced emphasis would be terribly distorted and clipped out. Even at the best of times with a calm normal speaking volume, it would exude a very perceptible hiss, an accompaniment to the woeful creaking chair.
The truth is that the cheap mics sound like absolute garbage and you’re coping by telling yourself it doesn’t. It’s time to upgrade.
For The Serious Amateur, Semi-Pro, and Small Business Professional
I knew damn well I needed to upgrade my microphone. When reviewing my livestreams or videos, what stuck out the most was how appallingly bad the sound quality of the mic audio was. Sporadically distorted voice, picking up every little ambient noise in the room, and the constant hum during bits of silence. I hadn’t spent much on the microphone at all, yet I still felt buyer’s remorse at my flippant decision.
Most Times People Don’t Even Watch, Just Listen In
Unless you are blessed with exquisite physical beauty, most of your audience won’t stick around long to see your smiling face if they are being assaulted by terrible audio. The fact of the matter, when you really start to dig into the analytics and channel stats, most “viewers” are anything but: they are actually listeners.
Think about it: you throw on a music video, podcast, livestream, video or whatever to have as some background while you’re at work, at home doing chores, on a drive, or just relaxing. You’re probably not sat their with your eyes glued to the screen. The ears are much happier to listen from afar.
Audio is Easily the Most Important Factor
This applies to any media production, and I don’t care who you are. Bad audio is the biggest turn-off, literally, people will just turn you off. And can you blame them? Before you drive them all away with you $20 auditory abomination of a microphone, consider a solid upgrade: the luscious Heil PR-40.
And I Do Mean Solid
In all fairness, Heil doesn’t necessarily recommend the PR-40 as a vocal mic. That didn’t stop me, though, I don’t really care if it’s built stronger, tougher, and better than what it needs to be simply a microphone for vocals. Because I like to play hard. I’m also a lifelong musician, so I wanted something that could be used for micing up my instruments, amps, or drums and not just livestreaming. The nearly-indestructible PR-40 was the clear choice for me.
Designed to Record Cannon Fire
The PR-40 is the industry standard microphone for extremely loud, explosive sounds. It was purpose-built to be strapped onto the side of the barrel of a cannon to record the blast for Hollywood movies. To this day it is used for the same purposes, also being the most common microphone you will see at heavy metal rock concerts shoved into the hole of the bass drum, and pinned to the faces of all the musician’s amp speakers. It’s the only microphone designed to handle this kind of abuse, and it loves it.
Unintended Consequence: Velvety Vocals
Completely unintentionally, and totally by accident, the Heil PR-40 is an incredible vocal microphone. This is due to the oversized diaphragm, which for purely coincidental reasons picks up the human voice beautifully, with a warmth and richness that I like to describe as a “radio voice”. It puts a little pepper on the voice, ever so slightly, warm and soothing. You could almost describe it as creamy or velvety, adding a slight bit of rich resonance.
Unsurprisingly, Radio DJs Use PR-40s All The Time
The main reason it has a recognizable radio voice sound is because many, many radio stations have these as their standard issue live-on-air microphone. Chosen for its characteristic warm smoothness, it’s also an absolute tank of a microphone. Radio DJs will do a lot of live events, and this microphone is the tried-and-trusted workhorse of the industry for it’s sound quality and durability.
Focuses on the Sound You Want, Rejects All Else
It has a very tight pickup pattern, and excellent rear sound cancellation, making it perfect for being able to record clearly in a noisy environment. This is why you see them mounted directly to the face of an amp speaker, or an inch away from the kick drum. It focuses onto a tight area around the top, and easily block out anything behind it.
The downside (kind of but not really) to using it for vocals is that you do need to have it close to your face, somewhere around 8-10 inch distance, and you really want to speak right into the top of it. For livestreaming or podcasting, this means that the microphone will need to be in frame with you. It’s really a stylictis thing that boils down to opinion, but I think it’s a handsome mic anyway so I considered it a bonus.
Heil PR-40: Quality, Durability, and Versatility in Equal Measure
It’s not exactly a one-size-fits-all, with it’s tight pickup pattern it’s not really meant for recording wide areas or ambient room noise, but guess what: that’s only needed in Hollywood productions for B-roll or filling in audio gaps in movies. Nobody wants to hear your stomach grumble because you’re hungry and haven’t eaten since you started streaming 12 hours ago. And I swear if I hear that chair creak one more time I’m going to unfollow.
One Artist, Many Hats
While I do have some particular favorites, such as the noble and underrated banjo, I’ve played and dabbled in many different instruments over the years, from accordion to the xylophone (which I made out of old buffalo bones). If you’re looking for a mic that can be strapped or taped onto just about damn near anything, and give you a beautiful clear recording of it, it’s hard to keep looking after finding the Heil PR-40. I don’t have to fuss around with soundproofing, turning off the A/C, or unplugging my aquarium airpumps (fear the indoor shrimp farmer!), I can simply tape the PR-40 to whatever I want to record and go, baby, go!
It’s Not Recommended, But I Do It Anyway
Okay, audiophiles, you’re right. The attractive and sturdy PR-40 is not even recommended as a live vocal microphone by Heil themselves. It’s because it’s overbuilt, too awesome, too durable and trustworthy, and it gives a warm richness to the human voice, instantly recognizable as that radio broadcaster voice. Too bad, I’m doing it anyway, will continue to do so, and will heartily recommend it to everyone within screaming distance, which I can easily do into my PR-40 without any shittiness or distortion.
Strike Fear Into the Hearts of Your Detractors
One of the best side effects to upgrading your microphone is how serious it makes you seem to people. Whether its your podcast audience, or video game live chat on stream, as soon as people hear that rich creamy radio voice they know they are dealing with a professional. Regular viewers and casual observers alike take you seriously, respecting you as a pro broadcaster rather than just a hobbyist. It’s particularly fun in online gaming, since you sound way better than anyone else in the chat, intimidating your foes.
The Brass Tacks
It’s not the cheapest microphone out there, but it’s really not meant for a beginner or hobbyist, and this article is about the best microphone for voice, not the cheapest! At $350* (up to $400* for the chrome variant), it might give sticker shock to some, but consider that this thing will capture your voice beautifully right out of the box. The next step up would be a movie-grade microphone at $1000-$2000 and beyond. Not to mention, those studios absolutely have a batch of PR-40s to record whatever particular specific sounds they need that aren’t the overpaid actor’s voices.
This truly is a professional grade, broadcast quality microphone used by radio DJs everywhere, and widely a standard piece of gear across the entire recording industry. For the quality you get, $350 is a steal. I plug mine right into a USB interface, then straight into my computer. For live broadcasts, I don’t even flinch and have the best sounding voice in the room. For recordings, sometimes I have to touch it up a bit in my software, but barely. I don’t need a chain of expensive mixers and effects and whatnot to sound really, really good. Go get you a Heil PR-40 right now!
*price at time of writing this article, click link to see current pricing.