Office Mic Setup Assistance

spool32

Hey everyone,

I have what I figured was a common problem, but either my google skills have failed me or it's not all that common after all:

I have a home office, about 12x17ft. It has wood floors (with thin rugs) and poor insulation. In this office two computers, one for me and one for Belasco. Our chairs are about 5-6ft apart, and we're both facing the same direction (one of the long walls). We are both frequently on discord comms together in the evening and on weekends, and I work from home so I'm on meetings all the time during the day.

What is the optimum equipment and noise suppression setup to prevent us from being picked up on each other's microphones? I'm willing to spent a fair amount on gear to solve this problem, either mic or otherwise. I have some stuff lying around including some very nice Shure XLR receivers I inherited several years back (what up @syndalis), but I'm open to any solution that makes us both sound good and doesn't cause us to both get picked up by both mics most / all of the time while we're in a D&D session or raiding together or whatever. I currently have a corsair wireless mic/headphone setup that is ok I guess? I don't like it. Bel has a Logitech mic/headphone that I'm looking to replace anyway because she needs on-ear.

I've tried a lot of settings within discord and can't seem to find the balance between "detected at a normal voice" and "doesn't detect other stuff very much". Both of us HATE push to talk, so that's really out as a solution. Do we need better mics? Some kind of sound dampening? Is this even possible in a small room? Neither of us want to do our hobbies in separate spaces, so moving one desk out is absolutely off the table.

Help!

Naphtali

Have you tried any audio processing software (something between the microphone input and the feed going to everything else, like discord, etc) to try and filter out each other (noise gates, etc). The biggest issue is probably how close you are to each other, unfortunately. You might just need to reorganize your office space to put some more physical distance between both computers.

I'm sure it's not impossible; you're likely going to want to maybe look up what podcasters do with multiple microphones/people in a single room and how they isolate each other.

Hahnsoo1

Hi spool! This is an area that I actually have a fair amount of expertise. I want to say up front that there are no perfect solutions to this problem. The main crux of the problem is decreasing the amount of sonic energy/vibrations reaching the microphone of the other person. Increasing the distance helps (sound uses the inverse square law over distance for volume dropoff), as does having a large amount of mass between the mic and the person speaking (something like a thin sheet of plastic wrap does nearly nothing except block some wind distortion like a pop filter, but a heavy sheet of mass-loaded vinyl or wall of bricks stops a lot of vibrations). I doubt you'd want to build a wall to separate visual LOS with your wife, though.

Room treatment can help stop internal "echoes" in the room, but this is unlikely to help your situation, as the vast majority of the sound coming from the nearby person is direct, not reflected.

Microphones have specific "pickup patterns", and most headset mics have an "Omni" pickup pattern (pick up sound from all directions). You will want a cardioid or hypercardioid headset mic (cardioid is often labeled as "unidirectional" and hypercardioid is often labeled as "bidirectional", although sometimes this is a fake marketing term and the mic is really omnidirectional instead). Cardioid or unidirectional doesn't mean it grabs ONLY sound from one direction, but it grabs less sound from other directions than the one it's aiming at.

Also, the closer the mic is to the source of the sound, the lower you can set the sensitivity/gain, so it won't pick up as much sound from sources further away. So having the headset right up at the corner of your mouth, nearly touching it, and then calibrating your software and sensitivity to that position can help a lot. You are trying to achieve the highest signal-to-noise ratio when you place a mic close up. The difference between an inch away from your mouth and a centimeter away from your mouth is huge when it comes to calibrating. Get right up close to it.

Also, something as simple as making sure that the microphone element is pointed directly at your mouth (and not facing out) and is on the opposite side of where your partner is can make the difference (your face blocks some amount of the directed sound).

As far as products, the Antlion ModMics are pretty good and can attach to any headset (and have both an omni capsule and a unidirectional cardioid capsule, so be sure to use the right one). I think the most recent Steel Series Arctis 3 (and 5s and 7s) recently changed their mics to be bidirectional hypercardioids, but I haven't actually tried them. I get good results with Astro A50s, but ever since they got bought by Logitech, I'm wary of recommending them. Corsairs usually come with omni mics by default, but there is a unidirectional cardioid detachable mic that you can use to replace the omni.

spool32

@Hahnsoo1 would it be worth considering a mic on a boom or a stand? I'm definitely not opposed to abandoning the headset/mic combo in favor of separate pieces. Part of the issue, I think, is that sometimes I glance her way, or she looks mine, and that seems to make it worse. You're right that I don't want to put up a wall, though I'm not opposed to covering the space in front of me with sound absorbing cones or something if that would help.

I have a Samson DE50X that makes me sound awesome but my god does it pick up literally everything, and reading the manual it is omnidirectional so that checks out. Also the wireless pack eats batteries like candy, so it's really not a solution.

Hahnsoo1

spool32 wrote: »

Hahnsoo1 would it be worth considering a mic on a boom or a stand? I'm definitely not opposed to abandoning the headset/mic combo in favor of separate pieces. Part of the issue, I think, is that sometimes I glance her way, or she looks mine, and that seems to make it worse. You're right that I don't want to put up a wall, though I'm not opposed to covering the space in front of me with sound absorbing cones or something if that would help.

I have a Samson DE50X that makes me sound awesome but my god does it pick up literally everything, and reading the manual it is omnidirectional so that checks out. Also the wireless pack eats batteries like candy, so it's really not a solution.

So, this (mic + boom) is what I use at my PC desk, but I wouldn't recommend it for most gamers. The kind of mic technique that you would use to keep the signal-to-noise ratio high is the same (up close and personal), which means always moving your lips toward the stationary mic whenever you wanted to speak. It takes a while to train yourself to do this consistently, and it's not very conducive to having your head free and on a swivel for gaming. On the plus side, you can mount the mic so that it is facing away from the other person (which helps a lot with the pickup pattern), and any time you want to comment just to your partner, you can just move your head away from the mic (if you have the sensitivity set up correctly). If you do decide to go this route, I would recommend a broadcast dynamic mic. The Shure SM7B is a bit of a meme at this point, but I wouldn't recommend it (unless you also plan on launching a music career). I'd go with something like an RE-320 or an sE Dynacaster (what I currently use). For most of these analog mics, you will need a decent audio interface to run it, but anything like an M-Audio M-track Solo or better will be fine.

I still probably would recommend a headset first, for most gaming. The freedom to swivel your head and move around without worrying about mic distance is a big plus.

Hahnsoo1

There's some weird niche shit like throat mics (conductive mics you strap onto your neck) that work really well at sound isolation, but it's not easy to take on/off that stuff casually.

Naphtali

I second modmics with the caveat that the inline mute switch on the modmic unidirectional can wear down with use over a long time of use (two+ years in my case) and the connection will break (meaning you'll have to take it apart and play some wire surgery to fix).

Both the modmic uni and modmic usb (which has a switch to go between uni and omnidirectional) have worked really well for me, and the bonus of them is you can use them with some really nice headphones instead of getting an all-in-one gaming headset.

spool32

I'd forgotten about Antlion... I saw them at SXSW back in I want to say 2015, they gave me a couple of freebies. I can't imagine they're unidirectional. The wireless one speaks to me, not having a second cable attached to my head would be nice.

I guess I'll start price comparing the Modmic and a couple of these unidirectional boom guys and see what works. Maybe one of each for Bel and I, so she can ditch the Logitechs for something on-ear that doesn't slowly squash her jaw.

BlindZenDriver

I suggest looking at Jabra headsets.
I'm using one both at work and from home, at home I am able to have the stereo playing normal non-party listening levels without my colleagues hearing it playing (I have asked). And at work I can talk to outside people with other colleagues doing the same in the room, including one sitting at a desk sitting just up time mine (his monitor backsides touch my monitor backssides except like a inch in between).

Mostly I use the headsets just for talking, but on the occasion I have watched movie clips, the news and also done a little gaming and found it to be rather pleasant even though they aren't market as gaming gear. Also battery wise they easily go all day and when you turn them on a voice in you ear will announce battery time and connection status, plus there is also other convenient details like fold up the mike arm and mute the mike and vice versa.