Microphone for gaming?

[Psittac]

So I want to use my HiFi-man HE-400i's at all times and am looking for a solution for in game chat.  I haven't taken much of a look into something like a modmic but will do that soon.  I wanted to find out what my options would be for some kind of stand-alone mic.  I know there are condenser mic's for streaming and what not but I need something that won't pick up my noisy ass mechanical keyboard.  Would a shotgun mic work for gaming?  Dunno, I'm very new to PC audio as for the past umpteen years I was on a rolly cart infront of my HT setup and didn't used to have comm's.  Looking for any advice input or thought's.  Thanks

 

edit: oh and I really enjoy the ability of my Gaming One headset to push the mic up over my nose so breathing isn't broadcast in games (IE: intense moment's in Overwatch or PUBG)

[nfolenius]

6 minutes ago, Psittac said:

So I want to use my HiFi-man HE-400i's at all times and am looking for a solution for in game chat.  I haven't taken much of a look into something like a modmic but will do that soon.  I wanted to find out what my options would be for some kind of stand-alone mic.  I know there are condenser mic's for streaming and what not but I need something that won't pick up my noisy ass mechanical keyboard.  Would a shotgun mic work for gaming?  Dunno, I'm very new to PC audio as for the past umpteen years I was on a rolly cart infront of my HT setup and didn't used to have comm's.  Looking for any advice input or thought's.  Thanks

 

edit: oh and I really enjoy the ability of my Gaming One headset to push the mic up over my nose so breathing isn't broadcast in games (IE: intense moment's in Overwatch or PUBG)

i think a sennheiser gaming headset with a boom mic would be great, considering their noise cancelling is darn near perfect, typing this on a phone so it's really difficult to try to link anything, but i would definitely research it, ( i am no professional, so don't flame me if i am picking something that you don't like)

[AAJoe]

Well, we have a pretty large number of people use their 400 series with a ModMic, so I'll throw our hat into your arena of options for ways to use your HiFiMans.

 

Keep in mind there's no mic that will ignore a very loud keyboard. You can dial it in pretty good with the right setup and gear, but there's a pretty large amount of diminishing returns on how much you spend on a mic setup to deal with this problem.

Easy and cheap solution is keep your face close to the mic (this is where a boom mic works well) so you can keep the sensitivity as low as possible and use a uni-directional mic so it blocks out the sound coming from in front of you a bit.

 

Anyway, see the signature for the whole ModMic solution option and I am happy to answer any questions you have.

[MadModder]

You push your mic up over your nose? Why don't you just assign a key as "push to talk". A couple of teams I play with will mute you if you use "voice" activation. After mute, comes boot. No more invites.

[Psittac]

@nfoleniusI already have a pair of sennheiser game one's and love them, just might give them to my blind friend so he can daily with them and voice chat too. I also have a pair of razer kraken pro's but they are in no way a daily use.  I'm just looking into this because I just got my balanced dac/amp for my hifi-man's and don't want to take the darned thing's off lol.

 

@AAJoe I just had a look at one of Paul's video's and I'm rather tempted to forgoe all of the issues with a mic and boom and pick up the modmic.  One of the hifi guy's I just started watching had mentioned some kind of issue with common grounds between headphones and mic or something, it was a side comment referring to another video that I haven't watched.  I guess if you could give an answer to this it would really help me narrow thing's down.  Question: Considering I am running a dac/amp on an XLR connection, what would be my best option for input from a modmic?  Will onboard audio work? Are there upgrade path's for an affordable "mic amp/dac?"  Again I'm new to most of this but don't want to look back and go "oh man wish I had done that".

 

@MadModder  The games I play don't typically have requirements that strict, and I'm not coordinated enough to use push-to-talk, I'm getting older and don't have the reflexes to play my best and throw another function into the skill set.  Also I don't play competitive and most games I play only use comm's for chatting or non-time sensitive coordination. I'm moving to lazy games and want to chat while I play.

[Psittac]

oh, I would still like some input on a microphone and a boom because they look cool and I would like to be fully informed when I make a decision.  I'm not going full on production quality, just something for simple voice chat.

[AAJoe]

@PsittacSorry for the slow reply here, been a hell of a busy day. Sadly I can't say why because its all under NDA! It won't impact your decision here though, that much I promise.

 

Common ground issues between mic and headphones... well... because a headphone signal and a mic signal by default run on unbalanced cables I guess he could be speaking to the fact that you can sometimes have shielding issues when running these cables next to eachother (which the ModMic does). It's a pretty rare instance where that gets reported as an issue, but it has happened. Otherwise... I have no clue what this could mean That said I am the marketing guy, not the tech guy! FYI XLR is a balanced cable, meaning it is protected from other signal interference (that is why its absolutely required for running longer cables).

 

As for your question: Are you saying you already have a dac/amp for your headphones running an XLR connection? If so, it may but probably does NOT have a 12v or lower input for mic. If it does not have a mic input (again be certain its 12v or lower and NOT 48v or 24v) you're stuck running it direct to your PC via either the motherboard or a USB port. We strongly recommend using our USB adapter, because most motherboards cause a huge amount of EMI on their mic line in and often do not supply the full power to the mic via Plug-In-Power (Which I guess is supposed to be a 5v signal), causing it to be overly quiet.

 

So, TL;DR.  If you already have a Dac/Amp, Pick up an Antlion USB Adapter (10 dollars) with your purchase and just ignore the headphone port on it. No further items are needed. If you happen to live in Denver we're gonna be at Dreamhack with some sweet deals on Oct 20!  

 

However if you meant that you were still planning on buying a DAC/AMP

 

https://mayflowerelectronics.com/arc-overview/

 

Our friends over at Mayflower in conjunction with Tek Syndicate are making that bad boy. It sounds AMAZING from what I have heard as far as how our mic does on it. It's not out yet, but... you know... their office is just down the road from us  (Tek Syndicate that is, not Mayflower). I'm plenty excited to steal ... I mean borrow one when they arrive in full.

 

Sadly even if I did know the release date I wouldn't be allowed to say. I think its fairly close.

[doits]

A modmic is the simplest solution, I used one before getting a usb dynamic mic(Audio-Technica AT2005USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone) .    For my setup with a loud ac unit/ceiling fan/mech keys a dynamic mic and cheap neewer boom arm with shock mount(20usd) is more isolating than a condensor mic(a modmic also works). A dynamic mic requires the mic to be right below your mouth or you'll be quiet and you will have to adjust sensitivity to not pickup breathing, but once it is setup I just move boom arm down to face and it works with whatever headphone. 

For your setup I'd likely go with modmic, but if you have the space for a boom arm, and like to use multiple headphones(open pair and closed pair), a iem because headphones can be hot, or with speakers; a separate mic is ideal. 

There are cheaper dynamic usb mics but I only have personal use with at2005.

[Psittac]

@AAJoe Thank you for the response, that is exactly what I needed to know.  And FYI I already have a dac/amp with a balanced connection on it.  I'll certainly get the usb connector if this is the route I go because I know that my mic is extremely quiet on my headset, actually even if I stick with my headset I should get one of those.  Also I am in Denver, guess I need to look into what Dreamhack is lol, I'm glad you brought it up because I wouldn't have even known about it.

 

@doits Thank you for the input, I was seriously considering the modmic and still am, however I am getting into head-fi so I plan on changing headphones a lot.  Also I have a huge 8ft desk so there is plenty of room for a boom.  I'll keep all of this info in mind moving forward, may just stick with headset but I'm happy to be informed.