Standalone Mic Recommandations?

[SammyTheCat]

So a good amount of years ago I bought a Snowball mic for my setup. The sound is pretty clean, but it's insanely sensitive and I have no idea how to go about fixing this. As far as I know it doesn't come with software, it was just plug and play. Adjusting the input levels just seems to cutoff my voice entirely despite it being a few inches from my face.

It's not so much an issue when I use discord as it has the noise suppression stuff, but I wanted to start streaming/recording and mic just picks up every stroke despite having a quieter keyboard. This obviously isn't ideal. 

I did watch a video on expanders/gates in obs for background noise, which helped with all of the fan noise, outside noise and all that, but I'm not sure where to fix the keyboard noise compared to my voice.

If there's any programs or different mics that have built in options that can fix this, please let me know.

 

P.S. Keyboard is as loud as if you're in the room, not just a faint noise in the background. It's like the mic is sensitive to higher pitches/sounds.

[ShearMe]

You say the mic is a few inches from your face, is it on a boom arm of some kind? Getting it up off the desk and closer to your mouth helps with lowering the gain so you can still be heard while reducing background noise.

 

If you've already done that, there's probably not much else that can alleviate your situation. Condenser mics are sensitive by nature. Best route to go after that is to find a dynamic microphone. Here's one option: https://www.amazon.com/Technica-AT2005USB-Handheld-Dynamic-Microphone/dp/B007JX8O0Y/

[SammyTheCat]

25 minutes ago, ShearMe said:

You say the mic is a few inches from your face, is it on a boom arm of some kind? Getting it up off the desk and closer to your mouth helps with lowering the gain so you can still be heard while reducing background noise.

 

If you've already done that, there's probably not much else that can alleviate your situation. Condenser mics are sensitive by nature. Best route to go after that is to find a dynamic microphone. Here's one option: https://www.amazon.com/Technica-AT2005USB-Handheld-Dynamic-Microphone/dp/B007JX8O0Y/

I just have a simple arm/stand physically on the desk to get it a bit higher, it's not much different than having it directly on the desk. Now snowballs from what I can tell are on the cheaper end as far as condenser mics, would a more quality one have better noise suppression options? I've seen streamers with mics like the elgato wave or similar mics that don't seem to have this issue. I wouldn't mind spending a bit more on a better quality mic if it would alleviate the problem, or if it had software that I could fiddle with to fit my needs.

 

Discords noise suppression seems to work just fine, it's mostly stream related.

[ShearMe]

4 minutes ago, SammyTheCat said:

would a more quality one have better noise suppression options? 

Generally, no. Most microphones don't inherently come with noise suppression outside of the polar pattern. The snowball already has cardioid options (you probably want switch setting 2).

 

 

13 minutes ago, SammyTheCat said:

I've seen streamers with mics like the elgato wave or similar mics that don't seem to have this issue.

More expensive mics can be made to sound better, but they don't magically solve problems like background noise. I don't have any knowledge of Elgato products to be able to speak to them, but I highly doubt you can get out of your problem buy throwing money at it. All mics need to be "tuned" to the situation. Some types are easier to tune for certain situations. The best audio I've personally heard from game streamers are the ones using dynamic microphones.

Have you watched any guides on live mic processing? Here's a basic one: