Usually you are not going to get to pick the voice microphone in your radio station's production studio. Typically, the station engineer in conjunction with the program director select "the microphone" to achieve a specific vocal quality that best fits the station format. It's not unusual to see the same model of microphone in every studio in the radio station. This is for consistency of sound quality, and it ensures the various station announcers sound the same regardless of which studio they use.

However, since you may not be doing a regular air shift, the rules are different for you. You learned in the chapter that production talent often experiment with several different microphones before finding one that fits their voice. Can you do this? Sure you can. Many larger music stores display microphones you can try. Here's a hint when trying microphones. Don't look at the price tag. Keep notes and rank the microphones as you try them. Let your ears tell you when you have found "your" microphone. You might be surprised to learn you did not pick the most expensive microphone in the display.

As you become more experienced and you develop an "ear" for production, you will want to purchase your own microphone and preamplifier that does the best job of presenting your voice. My advice is to develop your voice first, and when you feel your microphone is beginning to limit your vocal abilities, buy the new microphone.

Many good sounding microphones range in cost from $200 to $500. If you are patient and can try out a microphone, you also can find great values on a used microphone from time to time.