Mic Comparison: Condenser VS Dynamic in Untreated Room... with a surprise twist!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ม.ค. 2021
- If you're just starting out recording VO at home, which kind of mic sounds better in a regular ol' untreated room? I pit the popular Røde NT1-A against the cheaper combo of a Shure SM57, covered with a Shure A81WS foam windscreen... but watch until the end for the big twist!!
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Great advice. On point. You are providing a great service.
A friend of mine bought a $2k Mic only to record how bad his “acoustic” space sounds.
May your friend have learned the lesson to always research first before buying or doing things.
Hard lesson, but true one.
Thank you. This video explains what I've been trying to google for two months now. So many videos and article talk about "the best mic", as if any expensive mic would work in any room.
That plot twist! 😱😱😱 Thanks for making this video!
Awesome advice! Thanks David!!
David - very helpful videos and so professional. You deserve way more subscribers!!
wow very cool tip at the end. I thought the sound was really smooth and was what I needed to find...and awesome to see you found a much cheaper version. I much appreciate this video ...I been looking for days for the best mic for an everyday room area and its been getting beyond overwhelming to understand the differences lol...so this helps me out so much ...especially a more affordable way just to try it.....thanks again so much ....gonna be looking to find these online. :)
So glad this was helpful to you!
Omg! This video is so helpful!
And your voice also enornous too, so keep the great work!
Awesome! Thank you. This was priceless in my journey of finding a mic. Ps the shure is the mic that has been used by presidents since it was created!!
Nice twist, and thanks for the video!
Just something to add, many SM57 clones (like the Pyle - I'm not sure about the stage right) don't include a transformer, which some say gives an extended low end and a less "pinched" high end, albeit with lower output. The biggest difference between the SM57 and the SM7b (other than the form factor) is a lack of a transformer in the SM7b. I tested the Pyle with the Shure and couldn't tell a huge difference other than a bit more high frequency response in the Pyle, which I take as a good thing!
There are tutorials online to mod your own SM57, or you could pay $140 for a Zen Pro modded "transformerless" SM57. I personally dig the Pyle, just don't use the included cable.
Wish I could give this comment a hundred Likes :) Thanks for the wonderfully informative comment! I didn't want to get too "into the weeds" about this stuff in the above video, but I'm so glad you've pointed these things out here. I finally got a real SM57 in my studio to compare the two, and you're absolutely right: the Stage Right is much lighter than a real SM57, so it almost certainly doesn't have a transformer inside. But! It's fascinating to hear you say that the Pyle clone has a lower output than a legit SM57, because the Stage Right clone actually has a HOTTER output than the Shure, which could very well make it a better choice for people with budget interfaces that may not have enough gain to drive a real Shure. Otherwise, my experience was similar to yours: couldn't tell a huge difference.
Helpful video. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Thanks for this helpful info, bro!
Such great content !
Hey! I own a 57 and looking to get a NT1a for voice work! this is a perfect comparison for me
Wow! This video had me.👏🏼👏🏼
thanks for the informative video,
I would recommend to also post some sources for the items in the video.
Amazing
When i was a teenager i purchased a clone Shure SM58 mic. I opened it up & it had pieces of glued iron on the inside of the mic body. The pieces of iron gave the mic some weight to it which gave the false impression of quality.
I have a question. My buddies and I are running a podcast reviewing beer and video games. It's comical and occasionally our laughs get a little loud, would the Shure be a good way to go for helping prevent bleed over? We're kind of new to this and learning as we go. Thanks for any help and great video!
Great info...thanks...got a new sub here 👍🏾
Excellent tips i already use this combo with sm57. I have a question we run a Short Story Podcast( solo narration). Do you think its closer to voice over than to Podcast?
In my opinion? Yes, I think what you’re describing is closer to performing voice over (like an audiobook) than the more casual, extemporaneous speech of a typical podcast. Given the choice, I’d ideally choose a condenser microphone for this purpose. But! If you’re wondering if you should buy a condenser mic, consider this: the purpose of a high-quality condenser mic, well-recorded, is to make your voice sound beautiful. That’s it. That’s what they’re built for, having the most pleasing sound possible. Dynamic mics, however, are built to be problem solvers: they must necessarily compromise the aesthetic quality of their sound in order to be really good at background noise rejection and intelligibility. I always believe it’s important to choose the right tool for the job, the tool that solves more problems that it creates. You may be able to get a more pleasing sound with a condenser, but you may find you’ll have to work harder to tame room reflections, and use a little more EQ and compression in post to make your voice sound as “strong and meaty” as it does with a dynamic.
I’ll also add this: I think cheap dynamics are better than cheap condensers. At $100 USD and below, I think it’s easier to produce a fuller, stronger, and overall more professional-sounding recording than with a comparably-priced condenser. Cheap champagne tastes more expensive than cheap wine, because the bubbles help disguise the quality. Dynamics are “bubbly:” their punchy, in-your-face sound may not always be the best choice, but they rarely sound as terrible as a dead, lifeless, and noisy cheap condenser.
Hey! Does the a81ws prevent breathing sound when really close to the nose? Thanks
Thanks for this dude..I wish I could steal your voice!!
That's so nice, thank you!! But if you could hear some of my earliest VO jobs, phew, lemme tell ya: I did NOT sound like this at all! It took me YEARS of editing my own recordings and forcing myself to listen critically to what my own voice IS and is NOT good at doing before I was able to reliably talk into a mic and make it sound the way I want it to. If I can do it, anyone can, it just takes time :)
How well does a room need to be treated? I have a small room with a bed and some audio foam and lots of stuff around the room like figures and stuff. Is that not enough? It sounds perfectly fine on my Blue Yeti but will it sound bad with the Rode NT1?
Great question, and unfortunately the answer is "it depends" 😆 For starters, the Røde NT1 picks up more HF detail than a Blue Yeti, and with more clarity, which will make your voice sound more professional, but yes, it's possible you'll hear more of the room reflections in your space when using the Røde. If your floor is carpeted as opposed to hardwood, that'll help. How much treatment is "enough" depends largely on your purposes. I sell my audio services to production clients at fair market rates, and I want them to be able to hear that ALL of my recordings sound clean, present and reverb-free, even before ANY kind of digital processing. I want to give them a reason to choose ME over a different performer, so I want them to be impressed! So a recording space that's virtually completely dead-silent is important to my business. If you're a podcaster or a streamer, or if you're just doing it for fun, it's not so important that it sound perfect.
Great video. This could be exactly what I've been looking for. I've been considering getting a dynamic mic due to the fact my room is not treated that well and I can't start sticking things on the walls. However, I keep coming across videos that say that the dynamic mic causes a lot of hiss because you have to turn the gain up so high to get an adequate volume level. Just wondering if you have any opinion on that? This seems like a great option for people like me with little to no treatment in their room. Thanks for the content.
Lazarus comin' in hot with all these great questions lately! :) Brilliant TH-camr Julian Krause goes into this subject VERY in depth on his channel, he's great to watch and very educational, but some of his knowledge is so technical it goes way over MY head (my education's in acting, after all, not audio engineering), so I'll do my best to put it in layman's terms. The TL;DR is that, yes, dynamics are less sensitive, and need more gain, which can produce more hiss... but in practice, it might not actually matter that much. Here's a few reasons why:
-In most cases, you can reduce hiss to an acceptable level by lowering the gain at the preamp stage (the gain knob on your audio interface) and then boosting the overall volume level in software, by adding compression and additional gain "in the box." Any DAW can do this in post, and if you're livestreaming, OBS can do it as well. In my other video about the SM7b, I'm doing it in hardware, before the signal ever reaches my computer, with the DBX286 channel strip: I only have the gain dial set to around 52dB (well within the range of many low-cost audio interfaces released within the past few years that can reach 60dB), but with the additional gain from the compression and output stages on the DBX, I'm getting a very healthy signal with an amount of hiss that I consider acceptable.
-What's an "acceptable" amount of hiss? Depends on what you're recording, of course, but most of the mics that I personally have in my mic locker are whisper-quiet (the Røde in the video above, my Neumann TLM 103, we're talking around 7dBA of self-noise), so that's what I'm used to. But I also have reference recordings that I've made in bigger studios on a Neumann U87, one of the most prized and revered VO mics around. That thing is much noisier at 12dBA, and when I use dynamic mics that are properly gain-staged, as I've described above, they're not any noisier than the U87, so I'd say for most uses, it's not a problem.
-Lower sensitivity in dynamics is a feature, not a bug: it's part of what makes them great for live use in untreated spaces. That said, some dynamics are more sensitive than others. The knock-off I'm using in the video above actually has a higher sensitivity than a real SM57, which means I can use less gain to achieve a signal that's as loud as the real thing. And it's running thru the cheap, noisy preamps of a Zoom recorder! I think you'd agree that you're not hearing hiss loud enough to ruin the audio in my video, right? ;)
Now, if your goal is to record delicate, whisper-quiet narration, like for an audiobook... and get paid to do it? There's nothing that can beat using a large-diaphragm condenser in a treated room to reliably get professional results every time. But if your work isn't mission-critical yet (as in: you don't yet have a big paycheck riding on the quality of your recordings) then there are definitely ways to get perfectly fine recordings from a dynamic mic, in an untreated room. You just gotta try a few tricks of the trade ;)
@@davidautovino Wow, thanks a lot for that detailed response. That's really helpful. Appreciate it. Keep up the great content.
@@davidautovino This comment and the video were very helpful. I'm just getting started, I don't even know the right questions to ask, and this gave me useful information I didn't even know I was looking for. Thank you!
Hi, I want to record my written poetry professionally. Suggest me a good audio interface and microphone. But my room is not sound proof. The sound from outside comes inside our room. If I use Audio Technica 2035 mic and Shuru SM 58, then what will be the difference between the two? And which audio interface would be better for ShureSM 58. In which there is no noise and the quality is also good at the time of recording.
I bought a Behringer SL75C.. many say it sounds better than the real deal SM57... unfortunately, everyone says it sounds better than my usual $200+ Procaster as well :-P. I may buy the A55M shock mount and a pop filter and start using it more
I'm very curious about this relatively new class of broadcast dynamic mics aimed at streamers, like the Procaster, the Shure MV7, the Audio-Technica AT2040, etc. I don't have any in my studio yet, but I only ever see other TH-cam videos comparing them to the old broadcast standards like the Shure SM7b, the Electro-Voice RE20, or the Sennheiser MD-421. No one ever compares them to less expensive dynamic standbys like the SM57. Between your Procaster and your Behringer SM57 clone, which do you prefer?
@@davidautovino Procaster isn't really a budget mic aimed at streamers like the Podmic is. Procaster is aimed at more of an SM7B competitor that IMO, sounds better than the SM7B. Honestly, an XM8500 probably sounds better than the Podmic, AT2040, MV7, etc, and it's a $20 mic.
man, i suffer misophonia, i cant stand sounds like the spit and others mouth sounds. I wanted to get the SM57 (cause its half price than Nt1) but it seems like captures a lot of little details like the spit. I totally agree when you said that SM57 has a hyped sound, so... i was happy cause i didnt have to pay $230 for the Nt1 cause theres the cheaper SM57 but now i dont know what to do... do you think that i can fix this with EQ?
Oh wow, I'm sorry to hear that, that must make recording really rough! While you might be able to tame some of those sounds with EQ, you'd probably have to cut away so much high-frequency detail that your overall sound would suffer. Here are some other things you might try:
-Our mouths produce extra saliva when we're dehydrated, so if you know that you'll be recording at a certain day and time, start drinking extra water as early as the night before. I know that sounds overboard, but drinking that much water seriously does help a LOT. Eating a slice of a tart apple or something else that's sour before you start recording can be a last-minute band-aid, too, but hydration is key.
-Over years of doing this, I've discovered that my own mouth produces a lot of smacking sounds when I have to open my jaw wide. This happens when I transition from a word that ends with my lips close together to a word that begins with an open vowel (there's a good example right in that sentence: saying the words "that ends" produces a smack right in between those two words). I've learned to quickly identify problem words like that, and trained myself not to open my jaw too wide when I pronounce those words. I know this isn't something that's a practical, immediate fix for your problem, just something to keep in mind long-term :)
-Izotope makes a plugin called "Mouth De-click" that does an amazing job getting rid of mouth noises. While it's only available in the more expensive RX 9 Standard package, you can get a more basic version, simply called "De-click," that works almost as well as part of the cheaper RX 9 Elements package, which frequently goes on sale for as little as $20.
-This is the most expensive solution unfortunately, and I can't 100% vouch for how well it works, but... I've just spent a month working with a Shure SM7b, and it seems like (SEEMS like: I haven't done any real side-by-side comparisons or anything) it does a really good job smoothing over any little vocal imperfections in my delivery, including mouth noises. It has a somewhat tamer, smoother high-end than the SM57, and is less sensitive overall, which probably helps those little pops and clicks fade away into the background and be less noticeable.
what other microphones, can the A81WS windscreen be compatible?
It's designed to fit the Shure SM57 and the SM81, a more expensive small-diaphragm condenser (I have a friend who uses one for VO and it sounds great). It's too large to fit my pencil condensers, and it's too small for dynamics with a ball-type grille (like a SM58), though conceivably, you could unscrew the grille and verrrry delicately try to insert the bare capsule (just be careful you don't damage your mic!).
would the A81WS fit over the Neewer nw-800 condenser mic. (yeah i messed up getting the condenser, it picks up EVERYTHING.)
Not a chance, unfortunately, the opening in the A81WS is way too thin.
Hey Brother this video is perfect as I am building my YT studio in a small basement ( echo chamber lol ). Can this be mounted on a boom? Subbed btw and you deserve more!!
Thank you! Glad it was helpful. Yes, I've got it mounted on a telescoping boom in this video, but I also have an actual Shure SM57 with the same windscreen mounted on a scissor-boom at my computer desk and it works great. There's lots more you can do to help cut down on those echoes in your basement, too! Check out this great video on how to DIY some acoustic panels out of old bath towels (cheaper AND they work better than foam panels): th-cam.com/video/pABvTWSxOes/w-d-xo.html
I prefer the shure clone. Obviously due to room rejection. In a fully treated room it would maybe be a different story
I actually got a chance recently to directly compare a real SM57 (w/windscreen) inside my vocal isolation booth against a Røde NT-1, for a remote client, and... the Shure held its own surprisingly well. It had a lot more self-noise than the Røde, even when running through the clean, transparent preamps of an Apogee Duet, but not so bad that it was unusable, and I was surprised to hear the clarity, balance and overall quality of the Shure could totally hang in the same ballpark as some of my nicer condensers. I once read an engineer's blog where he claimed he used the SM57/A81WS combo for all his work that wasn't absolutely "mission critical," like web and local radio ads, because it was easy to work with and sounded just fine. And I can totally hear that with my own ears now!
@@davidautovino I actually came on here looking for solutions as where I am now, treating the room is not optional and I have a Austrian audio OC18 going through a RME baby-face pro. Problem is the condenser picks up slight echo in low end and resonance off the high end that makes it a bit brittle sometimes. Wanted to try pick up a dynamic and looking for solutions for male speaking/rapping vocals. Shure sm7b is the main option, sennheiser 441 is out the price range on and I'm willing to spend. But definitely on the look out for other options like this.
@@jjohnwords2873 Ooof, that's a tough situation. You're using some lovely gear there, must be frustrating that your recording environment's not ideal! I once taught a recording class for highschoolers, and tried to set up a temporary booth (blankets, acoustical panels hanging on stands, etc) in a classroom that had awful acoustics. It did the job for the purpose, but I could never get it to sound anywhere near as good as my permanent booth at home. While I think the SM57/A81WS combo would totally work for something professional but "disposable," like a radio VO, in your case I feel like it'd be worth springing for the SM7b if you're trying to get the very best our of your talent for a rap album. Good luck!
Are we talking also about recording music or just podcasts
Great question! My videos focus on spoken word only. Mixing vocals in a song can go a long way toward covering up self-noise and room reflections, but in broadcast VO especially, the voice recording is compressed and mixed to stand WAY out in front of any background music, so self-noise and room noise issues become even more noticeable. So a mic that’s a great bargain for singers might not always be as useful for VO, and it can be hard to find info out there that truly makes a distinction between the two.
Have you tried the PD-70 Presonus dynamic broadcasting microphone? This mic is a SM7B knock off Also needs a line lifter just like SM7B.
I’m definitely intrigued by it, especially given its price! While Presonus is obviously trying to position it as a SM7b competitor with its styling, I have to wonder if it’s actually closer in performance to a SM57, as the reviews I’ve seen point out it doesn’t quite have the bass response of an SM7b. Those reviews do seem to agree that it’s an excellent value for the money, but I’d be interested to hear if it’s worth the extra $30 or so over an SM57. If you have one, I’d love to hear what you think!
@@davidautovino its trash
I'm a bit of a mic junkie. I own all of the above and many more. The sm57 is much better in my opinion than the PD70. I keep it because it looks cool on the shelf. I actually really like the sound of the Beta57a a lot also and you're in it for about the same as the sm57 + the filter. I'd definitely go sm57 over the PD70 though.
Stupid question but.......Can it be direct hooked up to an iPad?
Not a stupid question at all! Both of these mics CAN be connected to an iPad or iPhone, but not directly. Both need some kind of USB audio interface, with built-in preamplifiers (and in the case of the Røde NT1-A, one that can supply 48v phantom power... most do). Some USB-C interfaces can be connected directly to the most recent USB-C iPads, but models with Lightning connectors require Apple's USB Camera Connection Kit (and possibly a powered USB hub in between, if the interface requires bus power!). It's actually all very complicated, so no, totally reasonable question :) There are some very good (not great, but very good) USB mics that will work with fewer connectivity headaches, like Apogee's HypeMic, the Røde VideoMic NTG, and the very affordable Samson Q2U.
Lol, you sneaky little...
hahaha!
Cheeky.
I can hear the noise floor noise when you're talking into the microphones.
I’m a studio why do you need a windscreen?
Man the misinformation in this video really wants to hurt my brain but here's the facts.
Dynamic mics don't inherently reject room reflections. There's some handheld mic that have a super/hyper cardiod pattern and can situationally reject some noise, but pick up more from the back.
SM7B is not known for sounding like a condenser, that was what the RE20 was marketed as. Neither is true however.
Outside of professional voice jobs, most people will never NEED a microphone over $100. Good fake out though. Lol
I just got a UA volt 276 and an mv7x. Sounds like shit even with plugins
That's too bad, that interface + mic sounds like a winning combo to me :( Only thing I could guess it might be is: are you close enough to the mic? A dynamic like that, you really want to eat it like a radio DJ, like 3" away from the grille, max.
absurd. please share your jobs
Thanks for your interest in my work :) You can hear a small portion of my professional output at this TH-cam playlist:
th-cam.com/play/PLMZHTvrP_3nxC8-nriimY_zEdEDB9kTYl.html
"classically trained stage actor"..... what movies have you been in? people dont really act on stage anymore, since about the advent of motion pictures... how classic was this training? you dont look that old? hahaha
shure good, rode trash...........
How would the Shure compare with a shotgun mic like the at 875r in an untreated room ? Looking to pick up a new mic for Christmas. Thanks
Personally, I'd still pick the Shure. I don't own the 875r, but I've used it on set once before, it's certainly a fine shotgun mic for the price... but I've found that even the shotguns that I do own that are a step above the 875r (namely, the Audio-Technica AT897 and the Rode NTG2) let in a bit more "room" than a dynamic like the Shure will.
@@davidautovino even for voiceover ?
@@GloriousPanic ESPECIALLY for voiceover, yeah. One unfortunate side effect of the Sennheiser MKH416's popularity is that it's sort of perpetuated this myth about shotgun mics being in any way desirable for VO. Most will do in a pinch, sure... and in the case of the Sennheiser, besides it being "THE shotgun mic that's actually used for VO," it also makes a good "travel mic" for pros, since it's a bit better at room rejection than most large-diaphragm studio condensers. But very rarely does ANYTHING beat a dynamic microphone for untreated spaces. If you don't need to hide a mic outside of a video frame, then there's really no need to prioritize getting a shotgun mic UNLESS you are 100% after the sound of a Sennheiser MKH416.
@@davidautovino thank you so much David for taking the time to respond. I'll definitely go with the sm57 now. Alot of vo guys keep saying it's only good for instruments but I trust your opinion.
@@GloriousPanic The SM57 is a hands-down great mic, and a solid investment: anyone who records things for a living will never find a time when they have ZERO uses for one. Now, admittedly, as a voiceover guy, is it the first mic I reach for in my treated studio? No. But if I'm traveling and I can't predict what the acoustics are going to be? I always make sure I pack one, because no matter where you are, it's almost impossible NOT to make a useable recording with a SM57 ❤
My biggest issue is hitting the -60db noise floor (acx standard). I currently sit around -40db with my $20 USB Condenser mic. I have treated the space the best I can and the sound treatment of my recording area won't get any better until I can invest into a diy booth. Do you think that by using the shure dynamic clone and shure windscreen that I can get my noise floor to drop to -60db? I'm not quite sure how it works, but if that IS the case then I'd place my order for it asap
Great question, Eggbert! Without knowing exactly which model of mic you're using, I feel pretty safe going ahead and guessing that it's your microphone itself that is generating the noise. The electronics inside ALL condenser mics make them produce a given amount of hiss, and THIS is what we refer to as "self-noise," i.e. the noise a mic produces all by itself. It takes engineering, R&D, and high-quality components to produce a microphone that produces less self-noise. More noise is also produced by the gain in the analog-to-digital (or AD) conversion circuitry in an audio interface (or in the case of a USB mic, built-in to the mic itself). Same deal: it takes purpose-driven design and high-quality components to produce low-noise circuitry. This is why the clearest, hiss-free audio interfaces (your Apogee Duets, UAD Apollos, RME Babyfaces, etc.) start at around $500, and the quietest mics (like Røde's brand-new NT-1 5th Gen, with an amazing self-noise rating of only 4 dbA) start at around $250.
I think you see where this is going: with the quality of components that can be sourced to sell a microphone for only $20, there's no way a mic that cheap is going to have circuitry anywhere near as quiet as you need it to be to hit a -60db noise floor. I would bet that your mic itself is probably making your signal a good 30 decibels louder than it should be.
Will the Shure (or the clone I use in this video) be better in this regard? Almost certainly, but you'll likely still hear more noise in your recordings than is ideal. That's because, although dynamic mics produce no self-noise themselves (they are passive, unlike the active circuitry in condenser mics) they are WAY less sensitive to sound waves than condensers. This is a double-edged sword: it means that it's harder for them to pick up the sounds you DON'T want, like room reflections, or your computer fan in the background, or traffic outside, and that's great... but it also means that they require way more gain from whatever is pre-amplifying them (whether that's an audio interface, or built-in USB AD circuitry) and THAT means more hiss if that circuitry isn't high-quality. So you'd need to spend a few hundred dollars on a really good audio interface to make sure that the Shure (sure that the Shure, heh heh) can clear ACX's noise floor requirement.
If I were you, I would look at the Neat King Bee II. It regularly goes for only $120, and has an incredibly low self-noise rating for the price (6dbA!). It'd be great for narration and is a true bargain (check out my video about it!). Paired with a relatively-affordable high-gain, low-noise interface like the MOTU M2 or the SSL 2, you should have a much easier time clearing that noise floor hurdle. Good luck!
@davidautovino holy cow, thank you for the long and detailed reply! What you said about self noise makes a lot more sense! I haven't signed up for acx and I'm not necessarily looking to do book narration, but anytime anyone brings up the noise floor, they refer to that -60db for acx. Would I be able to get started on fiverr with the current microphone and current -40db to make voiceovers until I buy the other equipment? Or is -40db still too high even for fiverr customers? Thanks again!
@davidautovino also, would you recommend the neat king bee ii condenser paired with the motu m2 over the shure dynamic paired with the same audio interface? I guess I was just under the impression that if you don't have a treated space or a booth then you will have issues with a Condenser mic. However if the neat king bee II would be better (in both quality and in noise floor) than the shure or any dynamic, I would gladly pay more for it
@@davidautovino sorry for the third comment, I just realized I never put the mic in my first comment. It is called JOUVINO jv906. How do I find the self noise rating on manufacturers website?
@@eggbertjohnson2591 No apologies necessary, you're asking all the right questions, I hope I can answer them helpfully :) Firstly: you won't find any detailed manufacturers' specs on your mic because they don't actually measure them for mics like this. Here's the truth: these mics are built using a tiny back-electret capsule. This is a $00.02 part the size of a button, and is most commonly used as the microphone element on children's toys that can record sound. They build in whatever AD chip is currently cheapest on the production line, and stick it all inside a body that "looks" like a professional-grade microphone. There's no design or engineering really to speak of, they're selling these things based on looks alone. And then user reviews usually report that they sound much better for video calls than the mic that's built-in to their laptop... but in truth, the only real reason it sounds better is that they're able to place these mics closer to their mouths for a better signal-to-noise ratio. Please don't let this bum you out or discourage you. It's only $20 ;)
Now, how do you move forward from here? I posed your situation to a friend of mine who's an expert audiobook narrator and editor (whereas my main expertise is commercials and characters). I asked him about getting down to that -60db threshold, and how much he uses processing or plugins to get there. Here's his response in full:
"It's after processing, and you HAVE to process to get to their tech specs. So, yes, you can use anything you like to get to their noise floor - just do it right and don't destroy your audio. I used to record with a yeti in a box (you've seen the pics from back in the day), and I could get to those specs and it sounded fine...and then they compressed on their end and it sounded like garbage...but at that point, I stopped caring because I was onto the next job (other than to say to myself - well that sucks, but I can't fix what they did). With ACX you are your engineer (unless you outsource it to someone like me) and the upload is the final product (barring their own compression - which is awful).
Clean up is 100% better and easier when your space is great. I've had people send me everything from a snowball to a yeti to a shure sm7b (which I personally hate) to a sennheiser. In the end, if the space is clean, it will all pass muster and be great for audiobook products. If the space isn't clean, the sennheiser will be a mess with everything it picks up, the shure will sound like you are talking into a folgers coffee can, the snowball will sound like a headset, and the yeti will just have a few artifacts to clean, but echo and reflection can be a problem."
...so my main takeaway from his advice is: treating your space should be top priority (which I agree with!), but on top of that, spend some time learning your way around Audacity's Noise Removal tool, as there's no other reasonable way to consistently keep the noise floor below -60db without it, or something like it (I really like Isotope RX, which can go for as low as $20 on sale).
As for mic choice: it depends a bit on the source of your environmental noise. Is the problem that your room is highly reflective (echo-y), or do you have external noise beyond your control (traffic, HVAC, construction, etc.)? If it's just echoes, save up for that Neat King Bee II as your "forever mic" :) It actually does surprisingly well with room reflections, and you can always add more padding to your space (and you can do it cheaply too- check out this great video about how to make acoustical panels out of old towels!: th-cam.com/video/pABvTWSxOes/w-d-xo.html).
But if it's outside noise that's beyond your control, then yes, a dynamic is probably the safest bet. I love the Shure SM57 (or cheap clone!)/A81WS windscreen combo in the video because that windscreen isn't just any old foam pop filter: it's dual-density (two types of foam) and is much thicker and longer, so it enforces a distance between your mouth and the capsule, just like its big brother, the $400 SM7B. This keeps the dynamics of your recordings much more even, AND it's virtually impervious to plosives. All this equates to a way more polished and professional sound than this amount of money typically delivers, and is a great safety net for you to learn proper mic technique. If you teach yourself how to use a noise removal plugin gently and transparently (there's an art to it) you can probably get away with using a cheaper interface than the MOTU, like a Focusrite or Behringer.
Finally: by all means, try your luck on Fiverr! I'm sure technical expectations are generally a bit lower there, and I truly believe that experience is the best teacher. There's no better motivation for learning to swim than diving into the deep end of the pool! :) Best of luck to you!