Can you recommend a microphone?

[kayale]

I'm running a study that measures response times on a pronunciation task. I'm wondering how I can check my sound card to see if the computer I'm planning to use is measuring precisely (as much as possible) to give me accurate data. Also, is there a way to record the response (at the onset to make sure it was indeed the response of the word on the screen and not some background noise that triggered the response)? I'm guessing a standard microphone will be fine for my needs, but again, I'm wanting the RT to be very accurate. Is there a difference in the quality of microphones in terms of their ability to measure accurate RTs?

[jarvis24]

As far as microphones go, see above. Doesn't usually make a big difference but you can get significant variability due to extraneous noise if your sensitivity is set too high. And you can miss valid responses if you have it set too low. The best way to validate your RTs is to:

1. Check out this link and the section in the the users guide on voice RTs and setting up the sensitivity: see http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?p=269

2. Collect some sample voice RTs and save the responses as wave files (see user's guide). Open the samples up in a freeware audio editor like Audacity and compare the RTs reported by DirectRT with the onset of the voice responses as indicated in the audio file editor.