Lots of my money earning projects are deadly dull and have announcements between sections like "MT31A - 127968 - recorded on 3rd January 2024" - and as the actual content is assembled in the office, not the studio which is 30 ft or so away - I used to get fed up walking there with the piece of paper, reading it, reading it again because I messed up, and then going back to the office computer. I had the idea of sticking a mic on the desk, on an arm - much easier. The office has hard walls, and big double glazed window to the car park, railway line and crossing. In fairness the trains passing are quite quiet inside, but the beeping siren is audible and in pauses between words it could be heard - plus, the acoustics sound unpleasant. It's an office! I bought one of the screens and tried all sorts of mics in it. The hope was that the foam would be in the path of the beeping. The rumble is quite low frequency, so I figured that was an EQ thing. I tried all the obvious mics, then tried to use shotguns - all failed. I had a huge pile of mics and they'd all failed (the screen got dumped very quickly). It clicked that video folk often use an old rule - don't use shotguns indoors - because of the reflections and other room problems. As the mics were all laying around, I made a quick youtube video on that subject. If you're interested in how different mics work in my office and what they all sound like here's the video. It might not help the OP hugely, but the sounds captured are quite memorable if they hit you in the future.
