New girl here, blue yeti mic question.

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callisto22

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I am new to all this but I bought a decent mic but I think I am just using it wrong, any help would be appreciated. :thumbs up:

I recording my audio with my Blue Yeti (not pro) with my laptop but there is still background noise. I am just using the windows sound recorder(I tried audacity but there is an odd static) These audios will be voiceovers for videos I sell.

Here is some info:
USB plugged into laptop, mic is 15ft away from laptop.
Mic is 1ft away from me
Mode: Cardioid
Mic recording volume(on PC): 30
Gain: Set to 0

I feel like my settings are wrong or something. Should I have the volume on my pc lower, higher or have higher gain or something? I don't quite understand the issue but I am sure it's just something I am doing, lol.

Thanks for any help!! :-)
 
Any chance you could post a recording of the noise? sounds to me, atm anyway, that it could be too much gain. the other option would be some gating and reverb.
 
I'm wondering if it could be the USB cable - 5m is pretty long for this.

I would try using a short USB cable and having the laptop closer to you.

Worth a try....
 
Hi Calli!
Any chance you could chop in that usb mic and start again?

Much depends however on what your aims and aspirations are. If you just want to put voice overs on The Toob then that mic will probably do (with some tweaking about which we can probably help) However, if you want to make music, sing, play an instrument, build tracks, even if only for your personal pleasure, you really need an Audio Interface and a separate microphone and the odd thing is, such a microphone does not have to be at all expensive. With a modest AI* you could use a cheap capacitor (aka condenser) mic costing $50 or less.

But, as to the status quo: Assuming you are using Win 7, get into the Audio Devices menus and find that usb mic. Then find "Levels" and I bet you will find it at 100%. Back off to 5%, maybe even less.

Depending upon the "nastiness" of your room (they are ALL nasty unless you do something about them!) you might need to be 6" from the mic rather than 12 but you must use a pop shield. No biggy, coat hanger and tights, job's a good'un!

*Best value and bombproof AFAICT. Steinberg UR22.

Dave.
 
Gaz: Yes I will post a sample.
John: It does the same thing with the cord it came with as well.
Ecc: I am just using voice overs, no music or anything crazy. Yes I already did that my mic volume was at 30% so I will try it at 5. The mic gain was at 0, should it be higher? I'll buy/make a pop filter.

Thanks for the replies!
 
As ecc said.... If you're selling videos, buy appropriate equipment to get a professional-ish sound. That means a normal microphone and audio interface, not a USB microphone.

Don't use Windows sound recorder, or Audacity. There are better options available. For not much $.
 
DIY DIGITAL LAB: DIY POP SHIELD

That ^ tells it as well as needs be, ain't rocket science!

Ok then.
For VO's on the web a USB mic is probably going to be ok once the gain/noise is sorted (I really must get hold of one one day to see just how good or crap they are!) .

Once you HAVE got the noise under control you will surely start to notice the poor acoustics muddying up your voice, unless you have an unusually large, lavishly furnished Country Estate House. The fix here is absorbent materials in front of you AND behind. A lot of room mud comes back over your shoulder. Duvets are the standard answer but you can use almost any soft material. Blankets, fur coats, talk into easy chairs!

If you get the system REALLY quiet you will start to get bothered perhaps by "noises off". Kids in the street, house noises, especially clocks! Birds, piGeons are a big PITA!
But then maybe you will be lucky and perhaps not as fussy (mad?) as some of us?

Audacity is, err, OK! But limited for recording. Do download my fave' free DAW for the tyro..MAGIX Samplitude SilverCloud.

Forgot. If the mic has a "Hi pass filter" (bass cut) switch, engage it.

Dave.
 
Thanks again for the replies. If I bought a different Mic what would you guys suggest? I already have a sheet hanging up, I will add a blanket. I will check out that program. Will I be able to just open it and hit record And save? I like simple stuff, just like my videos or audio, I like to hit record and save. :-) I will test out some settings and seee how it goes, I don't need perfect sound but for the silent parts of the clips it prefer it be a little less noticeable. Thanks! :-P
 
Okay, lots of things to try.

First, the simplest. Make sure you're talking into the proper side of the microphone. If the mic is the wrong way around or you speak into the end, you'll get more room noise than voice.

Second, use the fact that the mic is cardioid and point the BACK of the mic at anything you determine to be the worst source of noise. Cardioid mics are sensitive at the front and reject most sounds at the back.

Third, buy that pop screen and cut your distance to the mic. If you move from one foot to six inches, your voice will be four times as loud compared to the background noise.

Fourth...yeah, get some proper software. Audacity should do it so maybe track down that noise by swapping USB cables and seeing how you get on. A shorter cable might help--15 feet is the absolute maximum for USB and that assumes a good quality cable. Try Reaper...free to try, cheap to buy.

Fifth, don't try gating and reverb. 'Verb is death to a voice over. Track down the noise problem and fix it.

Sixth, do some improvised acoustic treatment. Get as far as you can from the wall you're facing and put something soft there. Then get something soft (duvet, movers blanket hanging behind you (but not flat against the wall--try for six inches or a foot out. In the longer term (if you plan to do a lot of voices) read up on proper acoustic treatments. Pro voice booths are heavily treated and very dead.

Seventh, once you have a proper piece of recording software, don't arbitrarily set your levels to a number. Check the meters and adjust for proper levels. What are proper levels? Aim for the average around -18 and the peaks in the -10ish sort of range. A bit hotter won't hurt though--just leave plenty of headroom before you hit zero.

In the longer term, the advice to get a standard mic and USB interface is good but that won't automatically fix your problem. It'll fix the problems you find when you start to do a lot of work and worry about things like earphone monitoring.

Hope some of this helps.
 
"Will I be able to just open it and hit record And save? I like simple stuff, "

Don't we all! Now I am the biggest PC numpty there is so I find a lot of this stuff hard work (gimme an amp to fix anytime!). But do you remember first using Msoft Word or your starting emails? Tricky weren't it?! Same with music software, takes bit of getting used to.

I personally think Sam Silver is about as simple as a DAW can get and still be useful. For instance, getting your recording, (which will be in .wav file format and leave it like that until you are ready to "publish") out as MP3 is very easy in SS, just hit "Export As" and you get a choice and you can also choose the level of MP3 quality you want to use. I dare say Reaper does similar but although I have bought it I rarely fire it up.

And harken unto Bobbsy. He knows more about recording than I ever did and shall.

Dave.
 
One thought on the DAW...what software are you using to edit your videos? It occurs that for simple stuff you may be able to record directly into you video editor.

...and ecc83's analogy about Word or Email is good...a bit of time spent learning some basics will yield big dividends in your satisfaction. While you don't need to be an engineer, there's no such thing as hitting record and saving --at least not if you want it to sound okay. There's nothing worse than coming back to a project after a year or two and wondering "why the heck did I let that go through without fixing it?".

I'll ignore ecc's attempt to make me blush. I'm just a boring old retired git.
 
Thanks. Here is a sample of how far away I am, maybe a little further back, this wasn't recorded with my yeti though just my Logitech c920.... Honestly my c920 is recording clearer than my yeti right now. Less static anyway.

send space . com/file/nrj4tr (no spaces)

I can't place a blanket behind me as my fans wouldn't like that. Lol

I edit with windows movie maker as it's simple and has the smallest file size. I use mp4. I have magicx, pinnacle 17 pro, adobe premiere pro cc, cyberlink but they all seem to have a much bigger file size than movie maker and I can't figure out why. I really like pinnacle though.
 
just my 2 cents worth, if you are using a laptop try without the power supply as these can generate a lot of unwanted noise (make sure you have a healthy and full battery tho:)
 
Wow, that's odd with the link. Did you guys click on an ad? Click where it says "click here to download from sendspace". I know it's not spam it's a video. I pay for that service and that's how most people get my videos is paying for them and downloading from there and I've never heard anything about spam.... :-/
 
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I figured out your guys' problem I think. Under where it says "download" there is a check mark that is checked and says: " Download with sendspace accelerator and get recommended offers."

Un-check that. :-)
 
Ok so mic recording volume should be 5 or below, what should mic gain be at? Also, I just have the mic sitting on a table, should it be in a shock mount or something?
 
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callisto22 said:
I can't place a blanket behind me as my fans wouldn't like that. Lol

I edit with windows movie maker as it's simple and has the smallest file size. I use mp4. I have magicx, pinnacle 17 pro, adobe premiere pro cc, cyberlink but they all seem to have a much bigger file size than movie maker and I can't figure out why. I really like pinnacle though.
Click to expand...

There are ways and means for the acoustic treatment--for example I have a carved wood divider screen I picked up cheap at a garage sale--it has more gaps than solid (I'll try to get a picture). With something soft clamped behind it, it looks good from the camera side but really helps acoustics in a bad room.

callisto22 said:
Ok so mic recording volume should be 5 or below, what should mic gain be at? Also, I just have the mic sitting on a table, should it be in a shock mount or something?
Click to expand...

There's no answer to where you should set your gain--basically you adjust it to be where it needs to be to get the right levels on your recording.

Yes, some kind of shock mount is a good idea--indeed some of your noise might be vibrations transmitted via whatever desk or table the mic is on. (I have the same problem as the others on your link so can only guess--I got a GoPro camera ad instead of your stuff). If you can't get a shock mount, another option can be a floor stand with a boom arm which gets the mic off the table and lets you position it precisely.

Edited to add: Here's the wooden screen I was talking about. Excuse the junk in the foreground--we moved house a few days ago and are still living in a warehouse!

Screen-for-HR_zps42b26f39.webp
 
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Just to be clear... there really is an mp4 to download on the page. I got it and it's a video of her. But FUCK ME, that send space website is something out of the 90's with the spam ads all over the whole thing. There's a tiny little line of text to download the file... the rest of the things that say Download, Download here, Press to Download... all that is spam that will download adware onto your machine.

I've found it quite interesting to try and remove it all. Took over my browser and extensions, installed programs, installed files in different user accounts on my machine, etc. Bobbsy make sure you run a virus scan. Preferably a boot scan (or whatever it's called when it scans before you boot).

Sorry I don't have any advice calisto... I'm new too trying to learn from others problems/ solutions.
 
Hold the presses!

Following your instructions, I managed to download your video.

First, a couple of comments on the video. A 46MB download got me only 12 seconds of video (at least that's all that played) and the frame size was astronomical. I had to reduce it hugely in my player to see much more than your left nostril. A nice nostril, granted, but...

Anyhow, sound.

When you said voice over, we may have been misled. Is the sound always with you on camera or do you edit to other pictures and record voice separately without you on camera?

Anyhow, I think most of the hiss is down to you being too far from the mic and therefore having the gain too high to get a decent level. Your estimate of the mic being a foot away was optimistic--I'm guessing I could see at least 18 inches of space in front of and below your mouth and no sign of a mic. The Yeti is designed to be a studio mic and wants to be really close--which would ruin your live picture of course (except for gear heads like me who like watching mics! :D ).

So, if my guess is right and you only do things on camera, let me offer a completely different suggestion. Ditch the Yeti and any other mic on a stand away from you and invest in a self-powered lavalier mic you can clip onto your clothing nice and near your. This is the sort of thing you see on newscasters and interviewers all over TV. There's lots to choose from including some that can plug straight into some models of GoPro camera (if that's what you're using as suggested by your file name).

How's that for a flip flop on recommendations?
 
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