Best mic for home office with children in the house?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Stalker
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Michael Stalker

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I'm a programmer. I started working from home two months ago, and don't have the ideal audio setup, yet. I have four children, and my co-workers can often hear them through my Samson Meteor mic. My co-workers can also hear an echo when they talk; my mic picks up the voice output from my desktop speakers.

I'm looking for the best mic for my situation.

Here's my current setup:
* Samson Meteor mic for my input
* Yamaha YST-MS30 speakers for my output
* I have the mic in front of the speakers, positioned such if the speakers are at 12 o'clock on my desk, the mic is pointed at 5 o'clock.
* I sometimes put my mic in a portable vocal booth. This helps cut down the ambient noise some, but not a ton.
* My mic is about 2 feet from my mouth.
* My mic is pointed away from the office door

I'd prefer not to use a headset or headphones, and I'd prefer to use desktop speakers. I talk with others for a few hours every day, and wearing headphones gets uncomfortable.

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but:
* I'm planning on getting hardwood floors in my office
* I'm planning on getting solid core doors to cut down on the noise from my children
* I'm considering getting a mic stand with a boom, getting the mic closer to my mouth, and decreasing the input volume

Could you suggest a better mic? It would be great if they made mics that picked up sound in exactly one direction. Or, if you think the Meteor mic isn't the problem, could you suggest any ways to cut down on the echo and the ambient noise?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Generally speaking, condensor microphones and speakers at the same time is a recipe for feedback. The Sampson is doing what a large diaphragm condenser is supposed to do: pick up every nuance of what is happening in front of it, along with all of the room reflections, echoes, ambient noise, etc. Moving it closer to your face and turning down the gain is a good first step.

Honestly, a headset with a mic would be the best solution. But I understand, long hours wearing them is uncomfortable. At my office, we use Microsoft Lync with our laptops' built-in speakers and microphones when we code/trace together. It's pretty smart about not letting feedback/echo through. Sound quality is definitely acceptable. Ambient noise is still a problem though, defined by your computer's mic and its sensitivity.

If you're going to stick with the external mic thing, look into various dynamic microphones. They're less sensitive, so they'll pick up less of your environment relative to your voice. Look for a pickup pattern of cardioid, hyper cardioid, or super cardioid. Those will have the most focused sensitivity in front of them (where your voice is), and the least sensitivity from behind them (where your speakers are). Maybe some sound absorbent material behind you, wherever your speakers are pointing. that'll cut down on room reflections and give your mic less ambient noise to pick up (except for noise from the children...I suggest wrapping them in sound absorbent material and see if that helps!). Hardwood floors will make room reflections worse, unless you have acoustic treatments on your walls/ceiling to absorb the reflections from the hard floor.

Maybe even look into lavalier mics. No boom stand to worry about. Just don't forget about it being clipped on when you stand up to go to the bathroom :) Or heaven forbid you get a wireless lavalier and pull a Naked Gun and broadcast your bathroom visit to everyone on your Skype call.
 
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Thanks for the feedback, Tadpui! I tried my computer microphone for awhile. Unfortunately, my computer fan blows most of the time, and it creates quite a bit of noise that the built-in microphone picks up.

What's the difference between hyper cardioid and super cardioid? I've done some Googling, and can't find a clear answer to that one. It looks like both pick up sound directly behind them more than a cardioid mic would.

I should have added in my initial post that I'd prefer good sound quality and a USB mic if all other things were equal. I'm willing to sink some money into this, too.

I'm also open to software solutions. I tried finding noise gate software for the Mac, but didn't come up with much. NoiseGator wouldn't work with my USB mic.
 
Get a Panasonic USB headset mic with headphones attached.
 
ido1957 said:
Get a Panasonic USB headset mic with headphones attached.
Click to expand...

Really, that or something similar is going to be the most logical answer here. Find some comfortable headphones that you can tolerate wearing for long stretches. My stepson frequently falls asleep in his Razer Carcharias. He wears those things for hours while he games with his online buddies.
 
> I suggest wrapping them in sound absorbent material and see if that helps!

:) Yeah, a friend of mine suggested putting them in the voice box. I don't think that's a good option, though!

I played around a bit with the input volume on my Samson Meteor and its proximity to my mouth. That improved things quite a bit. Is there a sound difference between using a condenser mic close to my mouth with the input volume turned low, and a dynamic mic with the input volume turned high? I did some reading, and some people say dynamic mics pick up less ambient noise, but others say that this is just because most people keep dynamic mics closer to their mouths.

If I end up picking up a dynamic mic, what do you all think of these four?
* Samson Q1U
* Samson Q2U
* Audio Technica AT2005USB
* Audio Technica ATR2100-USB

If I go with the headphones solution, do earbuds with a mic on the earphone cable work, or is an over-the-ear headset with a microphone boom the way to go?
 
I definitely prefer over-the-ear headphones to earbuds any day. Better sound quality, better isolation from the environment, and much more comfortable to wear for a couple of hours at a time.

And really, the integrated microphones on those gaming-types of headsets are of acceptable quality for voice chatting. Then you don't need to worry about jacking with a boom stand, which takes up floor space.
 
I don't see anything in the answers I can ad to except maybe one thing. Dynamic mics are usually designed with abaffle cehind the diaphragm. That is to reject sounds coming from the audience or other instruments not directly in front of the tip. You might try turning the set up around so it faces the kids or the source of the unwanted sound. It should pick you up and only you, Your co-workers can tell you if it is working. Don't jam your back up against the wall. You don't want a standing wave from the rear wall hitting the mic. But your head should be enough to block it. Just a thought.
Rod Norman
Engineer

Michael Stalker said:
I'm a programmer. I started working from home two months ago, and don't have the ideal audio setup, yet. I have four children, and my co-workers can often hear them through my Samson Meteor mic. My co-workers can also hear an echo when they talk; my mic picks up the voice output from my desktop speakers.

I'm looking for the best mic for my situation.

Here's my current setup:
* Samson Meteor mic for my input
* Yamaha YST-MS30 speakers for my output
* I have the mic in front of the speakers, positioned such if the speakers are at 12 o'clock on my desk, the mic is pointed at 5 o'clock.
* I sometimes put my mic in a portable vocal booth. This helps cut down the ambient noise some, but not a ton.
* My mic is about 2 feet from my mouth.
* My mic is pointed away from the office door

I'd prefer not to use a headset or headphones, and I'd prefer to use desktop speakers. I talk with others for a few hours every day, and wearing headphones gets uncomfortable.

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but:
* I'm planning on getting hardwood floors in my office
* I'm planning on getting solid core doors to cut down on the noise from my children
* I'm considering getting a mic stand with a boom, getting the mic closer to my mouth, and decreasing the input volume

Could you suggest a better mic? It would be great if they made mics that picked up sound in exactly one direction. Or, if you think the Meteor mic isn't the problem, could you suggest any ways to cut down on the echo and the ambient noise?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
 
I ended up getting a small mic stand with a boom, turned the input volume down on my Samson Meteor, and positioned it about 3" from my mouth. It still picked up some sound from the speakers. So...I'll likely get a headset.

Two questions:
1. What headset would you recommend? I'll be using them for 3-6 hours every day, so they need to be pretty comfortable. I'd prefer wired over wireless, but I'm willing to go wireless if that kind is far better.
2. Do you have any thoughts on the four dynamic mics I listed earlier in the thread?

Thanks for your feedback, everyone!

EDIT: Tadpui--I remembered you recommended the Razer Carcharias. I'm updating this post to let you know I didn't forget :)
 
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I missed this topic first time around so I'm probably late with advice, but and few thoughts...

A headset would (as others have said) be the ideal but, since you have to wear it for hours at a time I can understand your reluctance. In that case, I'd suggest you consider a clip on lavalier mic clipped to your shirt or tie up nice and high near your mouth. There are lots of name brand ones around but if you want a cheapie to try, I've bought a number on eBay from a Chinese supplier--so far great service and the quality is pretty amazing for the money (though I've only been using them for about 5 months so I can't comment on their longevity. Details of their lav range here: http://stores.ebay.com.au/mic-company/Lavalier-Mic-/_i.html?_fsub=5661069013

You'll have to work out which connector to get--personally I'd suggest you get a cheap USB interface with XLR inputs (or maybe a basic Behringer USB mixer) and get the mic with an XLR/Phantom connector. However, that's a bit more expensive than the basic 3.5 mm mic--but consider your computer sound car. Many can't handle electret lavs. However, that brings me to point 2.

Second, your feedback issue. I was a bit surprised by that since most online chat programmes are arranged so that your own voice isn't fed back into your speakers. Then I looked up your current mic and found it's a USB model. Just guessing, but that could be your problem. Since your mic is on a different input to your computer than the speaker output (which I assume is from your onboard sound card) it's possible that the system in your chat software that should be muting your mic from the speakers might not be working. Perhaps that's another reason to get a sound card and have everything on one system.

Anyhow, perhaps some things to consider if I'm not too late.
 
The USB part does make things complicated. The software noise gate I tried would only work on my Mac's internal microphone.
 
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