Need a mic suggestion.

[Spleefer]

I do streaming on YouTube and Twitch and need a good quality mic to use that won't pick up background noise and will be able to clearly hear my voice. I currently have the Blue Yeti USB mic since it sounded good in YouTube videos I watched but when I bought it with a windscreen on it there was still background noise and my voice wasn't that clear I also played around with the settings and nothing.

 

[Leeiuum]

I do sound engineering as a hobby (not a professional) and it really depends on your environment and how much background noise you want to "remove" before understanding or recommending microphones. The same applies to your budget.

An environment pretty much is about what material you have in your room to eliminate reverb (kind of like an echo). Carpets for flooring can help and acoustic foam to put on the walls pretty much isolates noise. Anything that is considered shiny can reflect noises from around the room generating the same sound creating the reverb.

The Blue Yeti is a cardioid condenser microphone. It's going to pick up A LOT of background noise. So if your main problem is background noise then you would want the opposite of a condenser, which would be a dynamic. You may have seen many streamers and YouTubers use the Shure SM7B which is a dynamic microphone. The polar pattern is so much smaller than a condenser so you'd have to be literally right on top of that microphone to work. I do not recommend the SM7B for this (it is insanely expensive) but it definitely gives you an idea of what different type of microphones there are. If this is the case for you then I recommend something small to start with and better upgradability down the line, which the Samson Q2U would be great for. Having both USB (plug & play) and XLR (advanced usage) as inputs it could be a microphone that lasts for a while.

Alternatively, you can keep your Yeti and put some filters on it using OBS Studio (or its fork, SLOBS) or other tools that allow microphone manipulation filters on-the-go. However I have used Blue microphones before and I have to say that the Yeti's unique feature with having different polar patterns is their best seller. The sound card installed is almost identical to a $20 XLR microphone from Amazon. The Yeti itself is also very hard to maintain due to how heavy it is (compatible shock mount and boom stand).

 

[MarkElf]

Looking into the bare minimum, if you have a $120 - $140 budget then go for the blue Yeti or HyperX quadcast (they have an rgb one now). To me, they sounded the more natural with the quadcast sounding just a hit more natural though it picks up background noise pretty easily. Above me mentioned the same issue with the blue Yeti so pick your poison. Can't recommend anything cheaper. I'm pretty happy with my quadcast that I recently mounted on a boom arm.

Reread the post, guess that makes my entire post irrelevant. As the quadcast probably picks up more background noise. Investing in sound panels might be good option but I'm not super knowledgeable on the topic of sound.

 

[Dylann]

I do sound engineering as a hobby (not a professional) and it really depends on your environment and how much background noise you want to "remove" before understanding or recommending microphones. The same applies to your budget.

An environment pretty much is about what material you have in your room to eliminate reverb (kind of like an echo). Carpets for flooring can help and acoustic foam to put on the walls pretty much isolates noise. Anything that is considered shiny can reflect noises from around the room generating the same sound creating the reverb.

The Blue Yeti is a cardioid condenser microphone. It's going to pick up A LOT of background noise. So if your main problem is background noise then you would want the opposite of a condenser, which would be a dynamic. You may have seen many streamers and YouTubers use the Shure SM7B which is a dynamic microphone. The polar pattern is so much smaller than a condenser so you'd have to be literally right on top of that microphone to work. I do not recommend the SM7B for this (it is insanely expensive) but it definitely gives you an idea of what different type of microphones there are. If this is the case for you then I recommend something small to start with and better upgradability down the line, which the Samson Q2U would be great for. Having both USB (plug & play) and XLR (advanced usage) as inputs it could be a microphone that lasts for a while.

Alternatively, you can keep your Yeti and put some filters on it using OBS Studio (or its fork, SLOBS) or other tools that allow microphone manipulation filters on-the-go. However I have used Blue microphones before and I have to say that the Yeti's unique feature with having different polar patterns is their best seller. The sound card installed is almost identical to a $20 XLR microphone from Amazon. The Yeti itself is also very hard to maintain due to how heavy it is (compatible shock mount and boom stand).

I'm in a room with wood floor, several computers, monitors, etc. It has a lot of echo and picks up tons of background noise. Would the Samson Q2U remove most of that? I also use voicemeter and other things to try and lessen the bg noise

 

[Leeiuum]

I'm in a room with wood floor, several computers, monitors, etc. It has a lot of echo and picks up tons of background noise. Would the Samson Q2U remove most of that? I also use voicemeter and other things to try and lessen the bg noise

Any dynamic microphone would benefit in a room that isn't pampered for audio. Condenser are really sensitive mics and dynamics are very insensitive.

If you're into XLR microphones (advanced), there's a few differences between dynamics and condensers (if you're interested in this route). Dynamics don't offer as much frequency range because it doesn't require that much power to run, unlike condenser microphones. So you don't need an interface that offers 48 volts of phantom power, instead enough gain as dynamics are naturally very quiet microphones. Some big dynamic microphones such as the Shure SM7B and the Rode Procaster require pre-amps to work properly, which is a separate add-on-device that provides more gain than your interface. A pre-amp is required if you buy a cheap interface and it doesn't have that much gain, but if you purchase a good quality interface it normally comes with a good enough (or better) pre-amp installed.

Whereas condensers are very sensitive, require phantom power but not a lot of gain. This is why many condensers use USBs and why a lot of people use the condensers for upgradability (in terms of requiring pre-amps, etc.)

Regardless of my description/information, you have many computers running at the same time with wooden flooring (as you've already said). Dynamics will benefit most to you. Just be aware you'll definitely need to be on top of that thing when you want to talk.

 

[Dylann]

Any dynamic microphone would benefit in a room that isn't pampered for audio. Condenser are really sensitive mics and dynamics are very insensitive.

If you're into XLR microphones (advanced), there's a few differences between dynamics and condensers (if you're interested in this route). Dynamics don't offer as much frequency range because it doesn't require that much power to run, unlike condenser microphones. So you don't need an interface that offers 48 volts of phantom power, instead enough gain as dynamics are naturally very quiet microphones. Some big dynamic microphones such as the Shure SM7B and the Rode Procaster require pre-amps to work properly, which is a separate add-on-device that provides more gain than your interface. A pre-amp is required if you buy a cheap interface and it doesn't have that much gain, but if you purchase a good quality interface it normally comes with a good enough (or better) pre-amp installed.

Whereas condensers are very sensitive, require phantom power but not a lot of gain. This is why many condensers use USBs and why a lot of people use the condensers for upgradability (in terms of requiring pre-amps, etc.)

Regardless of my description/information, you have many computers running at the same time with wooden flooring (as you've already said). Dynamics will benefit most to you. Just be aware you'll definitely need to be on top of that thing when you want to talk.

i already have a mic stand that’s nearly against my face when i’m speaking into it because i’ve configured my mic to be quiet so it picks up less bg audio, that won’t be a problem. i don’t wanna invest into a bunch of fancy things for my microphone, usb mics or a simple xlr would be best for me

 

[Leeiuum]

i already have a mic stand that’s nearly against my face when i’m speaking into it because i’ve configured my mic to be quiet so it picks up less bg audio, that won’t be a problem. i don’t wanna invest into a bunch of fancy things for my microphone, usb mics or a simple xlr would be best for me

Would definitely recommend the Q2U in this case if you're absolutely gonna have it in your face. You would still have the upgrade path if you ever chose to do so, but the microphone is a blend of everything: quality (of sound and material) and features. Sounds like the best option for you.

Looking into the bare minimum, if you have a $120 - $140 budget then go for the blue Yeti or HyperX quadcast (they have an rgb one now). To me, they sounded the more natural with the quadcast sounding just a hit more natural though it picks up background noise pretty easily. Above me mentioned the same issue with the blue Yeti so pick your poison. Can't recommend anything cheaper. I'm pretty happy with my quadcast that I recently mounted on a boom arm.

Reread the post, guess that makes my entire post irrelevant. As the quadcast probably picks up more background noise. Investing in sound panels might be good option but I'm not super knowledgeable on the topic of sound.

Blue Yeti has a sound card equivalent of a 20$ microphone (check out the BM-700), Blue hard wired it for their unique property which was changing polar patterns making it the most versatile podcasting microphone. It became popular for live streaming (which it wasn't intended for) and recording games. The material used is metal, but they designed it thick so they could sell their overpriced accessories that were pretty much needed to maintain the Yeti.

You can check how terrible and God awful the Blue Yeti is by looking at the frequency response on this page, every line graph is pretty terrible. You want the sound to be as flat as possible (find the 0dB line) and although the red line stays on the center area throughout the test, it still spikes and wavy all over the place.

This is my personal microphone's frequency response (the line graph) to compare it to. It's mostly flat until the 3rd line after the 2khz frequency mark.

If the microphone is a flat curve on the 0db line, it means it's the most natural. The far right can be a decrease or increase in treble, far left could be a decrease or increase in bass, and in between being the same but for the mid-frequencies.

As much as I love HyperX, their Quadcast is the worst sounding microphone of them all (even worse than the Yeti), you can see by the statistics here. If you read my analysis further above you can see why. It has a very high peak of treble (high frequencies) and then it randomly spikes to below natural sound. The spikes are pretty much everywhere and doesn't have much to offer. It's decently natural in the mid-frequency mark but it's still not great.

 

[Dylann]

Would definitely recommend the Q2U in this case if you're absolutely gonna have it in your face. You would still have the upgrade path if you ever chose to do so, but the microphone is a blend of everything: quality (of sound and material) and features. Sounds like the best option for you.


Blue Yeti has a sound card equivalent of a 20$ microphone (check out the BM-700), Blue hard wired it for their unique property which was changing polar patterns making it the most versatile podcasting microphone. It became popular for live streaming (which it wasn't intended for) and recording games. The material used is metal, but they designed it thick so they could sell their overpriced accessories that were pretty much needed to maintain the Yeti.

You can check how terrible and God awful the Blue Yeti is by looking at the frequency response on this page, every line graph is pretty terrible. You want the sound to be as flat as possible (find the 0dB line) and although the red line stays on the center area throughout the test, it still spikes and wavy all over the place.

This is my personal microphone's frequency response (the line graph) to compare it to. It's mostly flat until the 3rd line after the 2khz frequency mark.

If the microphone is a flat curve on the 0db line, it means it's the most natural. The far right can be a decrease or increase in treble, far left could be a decrease or increase in bass, and in between being the same but for the mid-frequencies.

As much as I love HyperX, their Quadcast is the worst sounding microphone of them all (even worse than the Yeti), you can see by the statistics here. If you read my analysis further above you can see why. It has a very high peak of treble (high frequencies) and then it randomly spikes to below natural sound. The spikes are pretty much everywhere and doesn't have much to offer. It's decently natural in the mid-frequency mark but it's still not great.

What’s your discord? I have some more questions

 

[Leeiuum]

What’s your discord? I have some more questions

Sorry I only use my Discord for personal reasons. You can ask them freely here if you wish.

 

[Dylann]

Sorry I only use my Discord for personal reasons. You can ask them freely here if you wish.

so prices have raised, the samson q2u is like $60 now, and the behringer um2 i was planning on buying with it is also more expensive. How much would the um2 benefit me? Now that it’s double the price i’m not sure i want to spend that much

 

[Leeiuum]

so prices have raised, the samson q2u is like $60 now, and the behringer um2 i was planning on buying with it is also more expensive. How much would the um2 benefit me? Now that it’s double the price i’m not sure i want to spend that much

The Samson Q2U is both XLR and USB. So you don't need the interface to power the microphone. It's just for advanced usage. However using an interface is better than USB because you have more control. You have more control over the gain (gain is different to volume) and also have more benefits with having multiple microphones with the same interface (benefits podcasting usage.)

 

[Dylann]

The Samson Q2U is both XLR and USB. So you don't need the interface to power the microphone. It's just for advanced usage. However using an interface is better than USB because you have more control. You have more control over the gain (gain is different to volume) and also have more benefits with having multiple microphones with the same interface (benefits podcasting usage.)

so the um2 will allow me to use it as an xlr right? does it being xlr improve the quality at all? or is it just that i’d have more options with gain and all that. and if i buy the um2 would i need to buy anything else to make the two work together?

 

[Leeiuum]

so the um2 will allow me to use it as an xlr right? does it being xlr improve the quality at all? or is it just that i’d have more options with gain and all that. and if i buy the um2 would i need to buy anything else to make the two work together?

Yeah, XLR has improvements on audio bandwidth but to tell you the truth there's not a load of difference. XLR's best take is the functionality and improvements for control.

 

[Dylann]

Yeah, XLR has improvements on audio bandwidth but to tell you the truth there's not a load of difference. XLR's best take is the functionality and improvements for control.

The voicemeter program I use lets me customize some settings also, whats the difference between using a program and having an xlr to change settings on a board?

 

[Leeiuum]

The voicemeter program I use lets me customize some settings also, whats the difference between using a program and having an xlr to change settings on a board?

Processing power from the software, so the soundcard (interface) takes all the tasks instead of having to use resource from CPU computer. Also if you're using a condenser (the Q2U is a dynamic and does not require this), then it needs phantom power to operate.

If you have a more expensive dynamic microphone such as a SM7B, then you need a lot of gain to operate, so you'd need a really good interface. The Samson Q2U doesn't require THAT much power hence why you can run it on USB.

 

[Dylann]

Processing power from the software, so the soundcard (interface) takes all the tasks instead of having to use resource from CPU computer. Also if you're using a condenser (the Q2U is a dynamic and does not require this), then it needs phantom power to operate.

If you have a more expensive dynamic microphone such as a SM7B, then you need a lot of gain to operate, so you'd need a really good interface. The Samson Q2U doesn't require THAT much power hence why you can run it on USB.

you think if i buy it as a usb mic i’ll be fine? if i ever outgrow usb i can buy an interface and use it as an xlr

 

[Leeiuum]

you think if i buy it as a usb mic i’ll be fine? if i ever outgrow usb i can buy an interface and use it as an xlr

it should be completely fine as USB, that's why the option is there (if it wasn't, there would be no USB option available). I forgot to mention that XLR can help a lot with white noise (kind of like the static noise you usually hear from TV), but if you don't mind any of this for the sake of an extra $60 is your best go.

 

[Dylann]

it should be completely fine as USB, that's why the option is there (if it wasn't, there would be no USB option available). I forgot to mention that XLR can help a lot with white noise (kind of like the static noise you usually hear from TV), but if you don't mind any of this for the sake of an extra $60 is your best go.

gotcha thank you

 

[KilZoldyck]

I suggest a Q2U but i mean it's whatever you think is best.

 

[Leeiuum]

gotcha thank you

No problem. I'm on here pretty often if you want to revert back to this thread for more questions. You can also check me out on https://twitch.tv/givebirb for live audio samples (if you ever catch me streaming). I have a range of different microphones and will be happy to plug them in to show people the differences.