2 microphones in the same room

[crcorrigan]

Hello guys!

My brother and I were thinking of converting an unused room into a sort of "gaming room" to free up some space in our actual rooms. One thing that we were worried about is mic echo, as we are both quite often playing games together and in the same chat room, such is in discord or teamspeak, and it would be quite annoying to be able to hear ourselves and everyone else being able to hear us twice. Was just looking at any kind of tips that could help reduce a problem such as that. The mics would be across the room from each other and about 7-9 ft away from each other. Right now we both have headsets that have mics that like to pick up quite a bit of background noise, but where thinking of upgrading to usb desktop mics and was hoping for some suggestions that wont break the bank.

Thanks, Corey.

 

[Maarsch]

There's a couple of different ways you can go with this. This is not in any specific order.

First off is a physical separation. Put a curtain in between yourselves. Helps a fair bit unless your #3 sucks.

Then orientation. If you are at opposite sides of the room facing the wall then the screens will be facing each other and you are back-to-back. Assuming you get a cardoid pattern mic both sources of noise within the room will be lined up with the primary orientation of sensitivity if you have your mics directly in front of you. Consider placing your mics at a 30-ish° angle from your face (it'll pick up the voice just fine and will actually do better due to being out of the way for plosives).

Third: Reverb. Sound doesn't travel in a straight line. I mean, it does, but it also bounces off stuff. Your brother's voice won't just reach from his mouth through the back of his head to your mic. It'll go forward an bounce off any flat surface (screen, wall). There's a whole science to this and you can put your HS geometry to work. But basically if there is a flat surface directly surrounding your/your brother's screen you may want to put egg-cartons on there (You can buy acoustic isolation pads for not too much either and it won't look that stupid, but left over egg cartons definitely won't break the bank). Also, angle your screens away from each other slightly.

Forth: Software. [Someone a bit more knowledgeable might want to jump in here] There are things like noise gates and noise suppression in any number of software and which will automatically filter things below a certain volume (Some tuning required). Put this software (off the top of my head you can do this with most Virtual Audio Cables or Voicemeeter) in between microphone and discord (VAC input: Microphone; [VAC has noise suppression+noise gate enabled]; Discord input: VAC output A or smthg). Discord does come with a noise suppression, but I can't say I've ever tested its effectiveness.

Fifth: Microphone choice. Some microphones pick up EVERYTHING. Some are specialized for use in a noisy environment. Check your choices, read reviews and go with one that's excellent at picking up sound from [insert expected distance from mouth] and ignoring the rest. Learn the vocab. What is a condenser microphone, what is a cardoid pattern, what is a large membrane microphone, what is a shotgun microphone, etc. Considering your use is voice specific; google about podcasting microphones.

 

[Solandri]

Most decent microphones have noise cancellation. They use two (or more) microphones to determine which direction sounds are coming from. If it's coming from the direction of your mouth, it transmits it. If it's coming from another direction, it suppresses it. Your cell phone does the same thing, which is why it can be difficult to hear someone if they put their phone on speaker but hold it up to their face. Setting it to speaker adjusts the noise cancellation to expect the mouth to be below the bottom of your phone like you're holding it flat in front of you, not next to the bottom as if you're holding it up to your face.

For this reason, the headset mics tend to be better because your mouth is always in the same location relative to the mic. A desktop mic with noise cancellation (most don't have it) will pick up your voice when you're directly in front of the mic. But if you move slightly to the side or turn your head, the volume of your voice will drop a lot.

If your current headset mics are picking up a lot of background sound, make sure noise cancellation is turned on if the mics have the feature. If they don't, then experiment with headsets which have noise cancellation mics. The best ones (Bose noise cancellation headsets used aboard aircraft) cost over a thousand dollars but can almost completely eliminate the engine noise from a plane or helicopter when you speak into the mic. So the technology definitely works, just some headsets implement it better than others.

 

[crcorrigan]

Most decent microphones have noise cancellation. They use two (or more) microphones to determine which direction sounds are coming from. If it's coming from the direction of your mouth, it transmits it. If it's coming from another direction, it suppresses it. Your cell phone does the same thing, which is why it can be difficult to hear someone if they put their phone on speaker but hold it up to their face. Setting it to speaker adjusts the noise cancellation to expect the mouth to be below the bottom of your phone like you're holding it flat in front of you, not next to the bottom as if you're holding it up to your face.

For this reason, the headset mics tend to be better because your mouth is always in the same location relative to the mic. A desktop mic with noise cancellation (most don't have it) will pick up your voice when you're directly in front of the mic. But if you move slightly to the side or turn your head, the volume of your voice will drop a lot.

If your current headset mics are picking up a lot of background sound, make sure noise cancellation is turned on if the mics have the feature. If they don't, then experiment with headsets which have noise cancellation mics. The best ones (Bose noise cancellation headsets used aboard aircraft) cost over a thousand dollars but can almost completely eliminate the engine noise from a plane or helicopter when you speak into the mic. So the technology definitely works, just some headsets implement it better than others.

Do you have any suggestions for headsets to look at? With good noise cancellation at a reasonable price?