Need help/suggestions for 2 mic setup. Living gaming stream.

[crwh]

Hello All,

New here. Came across this site through google searches and this place definitely seems to be the most helpful. However I haven't been able to find anyone in our same exact situation.

Currently my wife and I stream together(on the same stream) and we have a Blue Yeti placed between us in an untreated room. Needless to say the Blue Yeti placed between us w/ the gain turned up ends up picking everything up in our room including an echo off the walls. Not the best audio setup for a 2 person stream.

After doing a bunch of research to upgrade our audio, we are going to attempt a 2 mic setup. Our desks are right next to each other so the 2 mics will be about 5 feet apart.

My main concern with this setup is mic bleeding(me being picked up on my wife's mic or vice versa). We plan on having each mic about 6 inches from us when speaking. What I am looking at getting based on what I've been reading online:

Behringer Xenyx X1622USB (getting this because this is the "smallest" USB mixer I could find w/ 2 XLR inputs AND 2 Inserts to support the MDX4600).
Behringer Multicom Pro-XL MDX4600
2 - Audio Technica AT2020 (I know Dynamic might be better for this setup, just hoping we could pull it off with AT2020)

Please let me know what you guys think. I did look at Dynamic mics such as the Rode Procaster however they are much more expensive so I am "hoping" AT2020 would do the trick.

Any suggestions on gear changes or tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated. Trying to do this with all outboard gear to spare on our CPU usage during streams.

Really hoping this is possible.

Thanks in advance!

[Bobbsy]

Well, two thoughts.

The first is that, even if you can't properly acoustically treat the room, the addition of "soft stuff" like curtains or movers blankets around the place will help deaden the echoes. When in one previous house I had to record in an untreated room, position the mics so there were soft, thick curtains behind the person speaking/singing and a wall of book shelves with very uneven books on the opposite wall (i.e. behind the mic) helped quite a lot.

The second is that, if you can rearrange things, placing your desks to face each other would minimise cross talk between the mics. The AT2020 has strong pick up from the "proper" side and almost none from behind it so if you can be in each other's dead spots it'll sound better.

Third (I know I promised only two but I never plan ahead), you don't mention mic stands but if you can get two floor stands with boom arms rather than desk stands, this will hugely reduce thumps and noises that would be picked up as you hit your keyboard or bump the desk. FYI, for your needs, two of the cheapies that you can always find on eBay would be fine. I wouldn't recommend them for gigging musicians but around the home they should last okay.