Microphone audio cracks/pops

Daebunz

So I'm starting a lets play channel with 2 very good friends of mine, and we had our first recording session today. After reviewing the footage we notice that there are very brief moments during heavy laughter where the mic audio does some cracking/popping I guess you'd call it. It's very fast and only happened during a few specific instances where we were loud but obviously not a problem we want to continue dealing with beyond this first session.

We're not super well versed in dealing with recording equipment before starting this creative venture though so I could use a hand on determining the likely causes/how to fix it. We're using a Blue Yeti mic, and we have a pop filter and some mic covers but we opted to see how the audio sounded without them for this first recording (though this didn't sound like the kind of issue those fix, but if we're way wrong and just using them would solve this then yay).

We're sitting about 4ish feet from the mic, and while the gain on it is already fairly low as to not pick up any other misc audio, it could also go a little lower if that would help here.

This is probably an easy thing to fix we just don't know where to start, big thanks in advance to anyone that can point us in the right direction. I was gonna run through some things to try tomorrow but if anyone had the know-how to save us some steps that'd be awesome.

bowen

You'll need one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_filter

Also, low qualify microphones will suffer from crackling.

Daebunz

well, the yeti certainly isn't what i would call a low quality mic, but if that's all it takes then cool beans

I didn't think high volume moments causing cracking was something the pop filter would fix but I guess so

bowen

I assume it's the preamp being overloaded by loudness. Distance will help that. You can always amplify quiet noises, can't really fix crackling from loud noises.

Pop filter will help with your popping though.

Daebunz

Yeah, lowering the mic sensitivity and increasing the distance a little more should help there then

ok, thanks for confirming my suspicions

edit: though I'm not having the crackling when in audacity only but I was when also recording so I wonder if something else is amiss. I'll have to tinker with it

bowen

Blackbeard7 wrote: »

Yeah, lowering the mic sensitivity and increasing the distance a little more should help there then

ok, thanks for confirming my suspicions

edit: though I'm not having the crackling when in audacity only but I was when also recording so I wonder if something else is amiss. I'll have to tinker with it

Speaking of your edit, I did find this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/letsplay/comments/2mjw50/audio_issue_with_blue_yeti/

Daebunz

Huh, yeah that guy's issue is more consistent across his whole video vs specific instances of loudness in mine but it sounds like a similar issue

that gives me some ideas in case the tweaks I'm gonna try next time don't solve it

metaghost

Depending upon your hardware, what you're describing can also be a consequence of latency, as digital artifacts (like clicks and pops) can occur when a computer is struggling to manage simultaneous recording and playback. Within whatever program you're using to record the audio, you should be able to alter the buffer size of your input — a greater buffer will ease the computational burden, but if you're listening to yourselves as you record you'll start to hear an echo. This echo isn't a problem for what you're doing, as it doesn't reflect the recording and shouldn't hurt your performance (as you're just speaking), but it's something to be aware of.

Daebunz

That could be it too

it looks like I can bump up the audio encoding bitrate but I'm not sure if that's the same thing as a lot of the terminology re: recording and audio is new to us still

metaghost

Blackbeard7 wrote: »

That could be it too

it looks like I can bump up the audio encoding bitrate but I'm not sure if that's the same thing as a lot of the terminology re: recording and audio is new to us still

Increasing "encoding bitrate" would actually increase the burden, as that describes (in a roundabout way) the clarity of your recording. (Think about MP3s: higher bitrate = better quality but larger file size.)

Typically you'll want to go into the audio preferences where you select the input source (in this case your Yeti microphone) and within that interface there should be a slider that describes buffer size in terms of samples.



The above screen is from Reason, which may be slightly different from whatever program you're using to record. Regardless, you can see that there is literally a "buffer size" slider which as it moves would alter the values of the latencies described below it. Reason, being a Digital Audio Workspace (DAW), has functions to compensate for latency such that playback during recording isn't totally disrupted, but you likely won't have such an option. But again, that's not really a big deal for your purposes, it's more an issue when recording live music and wanting to ensure that the players are in sync with one another.

Daebunz

Oh ok, makes sense.

Thanks for that info, I'll fiddle with things before our next recording session and see if we can improve the situation

metaghost

Also, since you're recording audio for the purposes of video playback, you'll want that "Sample Rate" value to either be 48k or 96k.

Sir Carcass

Sounds like possible clipping. Do you have a visible clip meter on your equipment (usually green level indicator that shows current incoming volume that turns red when it maxes out)? Typically before recording, you want to test the levels with the loudest you would possibly be so you can make sure your signal doesn't clip. A compressor would probably help keep your low volumes and high volumes more even.

Corzey

Hey, this post is a little old but will hopefully help someone. I went to Audio in Settings and changed the Sample Rate back to 44.1khz. Hopefully that helps someone