Blue Yeti Background Sound Reduction - Hardware Preference

[Amarnra]

Greetings!

So, a while ago (read: last Christmas) I purchased the awesome Yeti micrphone from Blue™ .

My issue is, I have moved to a location with a substantial amount of background noise resulting in static. I live in a student residence with 500 other students, old pipes, windy corridors, the works.

Recording in my cupboard, surrounded by clothes and other nicknacks seems to do the trick at making the sound quality what I need it to be. However, I do not wish to record in a cupboard. I wish to record next to my computer reading a script.

I am considering purchasing a cover for it, however after reviewing some YouTube videos it seems like it acts only as a pop filter, not as a noise reduction mechanism as I had hoped.

I was considering getting a deadcat (call it what you like) but maybe that's a bit overkill for what I'm after.

Please assume I'm not a moron, I have set the gain to minimum on the correct (cardioid) setting so that sound is focused at the front. I speak into the front not the top, as it is a horizontal receiver microphone (I don't know the correct terminology,some guy mentioned it in a video on youtube.). Just assume I do my research into products and I know what I'm doing for the most part.

If I have posted in the wrong section, or Tom's Hardware folks aren't up to the challenge of assisting me, please do let me know.



TL;DR
I need to reduce some persistent background noise and not record in a cupboard and I don't have access to a sound-proof room.

Thanks in advance for your assistance!!

-Lucas

 

[ssddx]

an often overlooked matter is that the microphone ideally should be the closest thing to you. 3-5 inches from your face on a stand or boom arm. being close to you will mean less pickup of background noise generally since you can adjust your settings as such. having it on the desk or further away will need higher gain settings which means more chance of pickup.

both a foam ball and deadcat are types of windscreens. they will reduce the effect of wind on microphones to eliminate some of the howling associated with it and in a more minor way work on plosives just a little bit (sharp puh sounds when talking). if you get wind noise, may be worth having but in a building i would say its not needed unless you have heavy plosives and a pop filter alone isnt enough.

a pop filter screen is meant for plosives and works to reduce wind noise from breath. unless you're getting lots of plosives its not strictly required.

given that in a cupboard seemed to work for you, using a sound isolation box such as https/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4160cB54gNL._SX355_.jpg may work if you're picking noise from the rear or sides. using room barriers also affects sound pickup. things as simple as having a partition behind you when recording may reduce the noises from that direction. wall hangings (acoustic foam, wall rugs, etc) also work in a similar manner

as far as a hardware solution, if the noise you are picking up is of a certain frequency only, a noise gate might help. some sort of adjustable lowpass or highpass filter can work if you're picking up low hum or bumps or high pitched noises without interfereing too much with speech. as far as noises within your normal vocal ranges, its not going to help too much.