Configuring Blue Yeti; Echo and Clipping

  • Thread starter Thread starter generic125
  • Start date Start date
G

generic125

New member
I just recently got a Blue Yeti microphone and a capture card to record game commentaries, me and my friend have been using a *different mic, i'll edit the name in when I ask him later* over at his house, but I decided to get one so we can do dual commentaries for online games and other situations

So far I've played with the levels and gain a bit, settling at 20/100 in windows and the gain on lowest. It seems to clip a little bit even after turning it down, but the main problem I have is a sort of echo I'm hearing, i'm not sure if it's the acoustics of my room or some sort of accessory I'm missing, but It's definitely noticeable. another issue I have is when turning the recording volume in windows down below 20, it occasionally stop recording one side, ie, I'll turn it down to 5, turn the gain up slightly, and when recording it will only capture the right ear.

I'll provide some clips of testing it with the various different settings, maybe I'm just being paranoid, but any advice on what to do about it, software, hardware or otherwise would be greatly appreciated.

What the sound quality on our videos is usually like: n7xm2vb

My microphone test: m3lkxff

(I can't post links yet so i'm providing the tinyurl codes)
 
What the sound quality on our videos is usually like: n7xm2vb


My microphone test: m3lkxff
 
No probs.

Sorry, I don't have time to listen at the minute but, heads up, people will want to know what your capture card is. ;)
 
Haha alright, well just to get it out of the way it's the avermedia Live Gamer Portable, the video up top wasn't captured with it but from the recording we did today it works like a charm, highly recommend it.
 
Ok, I've got a minute now.
So this is a USB mic, right? That makes the capture card irrelevant. My bad. :facepalm:

The echo you're hearing - Is it worse while you're recording or just the same?

Your recording has some room ambience but I wonder if you were hearing latency too?
Latency is a delayed preview while you are recording. It can be very offputting to the point of making it difficult to speak, but that's only because you hear your voice acoustically and the digital delay.
Once you play it back it's fine.

For speech the easiest solution is to just mute your track while your recording. You don't need to hear yourself, right?


If the problem is just the room ambience then that's a different thing.
First thing I'd do is experiment with how close you can get to the mic without issues.
The closer you are the lower you'll need to talk and the fewer reflections you'll capture.

You mentioned clipping so this may not be possible. Are you using a pop filter? That's pretty much essential for close condenser mic work.

Perhaps your friend was using a dynamic mic? They're very forgiving in this respect.

Beyond that, get dug into the studio building and display forum. There are all sorts of threads about acoustic filters and room treatment.
 
I don't listen to previews when recording, only when testing out different levels and configurations.

The room ambience was an issue, but I moved my computer off my desk and onto the floor so I lessened that to what your hearing now. If possible i'd like a physical way to block out room ambience, I hear you can do it with software but it causes extra latency.

Getting closer to the mic would work of course, but it's difficult to find a position for it on my desk besides where it is, which is about a foot and a half from my face, when recording around 2 - 3 feet from both of us.
Like you said though the clipping could be a problem, I haven't yet tested how it deals with pops, but thats something i'll check out later on.

Thanks for the advice, if I get people in here saying the audio isn't that bad I might just put it up to me worrying too much, but otherwise i'll get to investigating some more.
 
Truth be told it isn't that bad. It doesn't sound like radio but I can hear exactly what you're saying.

I don't see any way to remove, what is effectively, reverb after recording, but maybe you know something I don't. ;)


Ok, well if you're working at a few feet distance and that's the ideal setting for you, the only real answer is to treat the room.
I don't know how into this you are, but ideally you'd want some pretty heavy treatment at the first reflections points between you and the mic. ie. the places where you could hang a mirror and see the mic.

That would make a massive difference to any room. It's also possible to just make portable versions and set them up while you're recording.

For them to work they'd need to be 4" thick or so. Like this.
I've never used reflection filters (the ones that clamp to the stand) but at that distance I don't think I'd entertain it.

Search the studio display/building forum for voice-over, VO, speech treatment.
Avoid using words like booth in the search 'cos you'll get all sorts of useless threads.
 
Alright, I'm not sure I can see myself constructing something like that, but is the idea that you want to lessen the distance between the walls behind the mic to reduce the time it takes for reflected sound to come back, meaning a shorter or non-existent echo? if so I might be able to find some way to hang something up during recordings.
 
It's not shortening the distance that makes the difference. It's the fact that the chosen material absorbs or diffuses reflections.
That's why I recommended 4" rockwool rather than blankets, for example.
You really need mass to do the job.

You could quite easily cloth wrap smaller panels of rockwool and hang them or desk mount them instead of making wooden frames like mine.
The problem is that that the material is quite flimsy without some kind of frame so I'd want to permanently mount them if they were frameless.
Some people make 'pillows' out of rockwool and glue/tac/nail those to the wall.
In fact, maybe that's a plan? Pillow cases stuff with it?

In a small space you might get away with maybe 18" square panels? It's hard to say.
 
I think the main problem is that I have my computer and mic positioned at the wall on the end of the room thats the longest, spanning about 6 -7 meters, so theres a lot of room for echo. I doubt I'd be able to move my desk, so blocking the noise is the only way. I'm think I could put my doona up on the back wall to block some of the sound, is that something that would make any difference? it's decently thick

Would there be something I could put on the mic to have the same effect, a muffler of sorts to block out reflected noise, or should I consider hanging something up on the back wall. If I were to go the easy route and buy some insulation how much would it cost me for a roughly wall sized ammount.
 
Last edited:
Oops, double post, didn't realise I posted on the second page
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top