I feel like I am constantly fighting for space on my desk, despite the fact that I have a pretty large desk. In an effort to manage my space I’ve started mounting things to arms: one of my three monitors is floating, and my DSLR, set up as a webcam, and it’s accompanying area light, are also mounted on arms. I had also been using a HyperX Quadcast mic on an extendable arm, but of all of the devices that were now “hovering” around, this one was the most problematic. It peeked out between two monitors, and was limited in it’s range of motion because of it. Plus, I often would turn from one monitor to another and bang my head into the mic, forcing me to push it up and back to get it out of the way. Sitting it on the desk using it’s original mount wasn’t an option because then it would pick up audio from my sound bar (I rarely use headphones, even on chat, and with the boom mic that was never an issue).

I saw someone posting about a set of lavalier mics he had gotten for his phone, so I looked into something similar; coincidentally, Amazon was having some kind of three day sale, so I managed to pick up a DJI Mic Mini set which came with one receiver and two transmitters for a pretty OK price.

Although these are often always aimed at “being mobile”, it’s perfectly acceptable to connect the receiver to a PC via USB-C cable. In fact, both the transmitters and the receiver can connect to cellphones or probably even the PC via Bluetooth, but using USB on the receiver allows it to remain powered at all times.

The transmitter is hella tiny. It has a built in pinch-clip, but also comes with a magnet to allow the transmitter to be attached through cloth or thin material which is a pro move if you ask me. There are also two “dead cat” attachments, windscreens in both basic black and salt-and-pepper, but are made of the same material so the use of one over another is a stylistic choice.

I ran some tests through OBS Studio, and the results were pleasing. I could speak at normal levels and the transmitter picked up everything without issue. Even with the windsock, though, it didn’t sound as good as my HyperX, but I am not surprised. If anything, this mic was a bit too powerful, maybe because I had it clipped to the collar of my T-shirt. I sounded a lot less imposing when I used the magnet to move the transmitter down to sternum level.

I can’t decide if my experience is a learning one, or if I’m overcomplicating things. For example, there’s no mute, so when I’m on Discord I need to be really careful of the noises I make. I often eat breakfast at the PC while I catch up on nightly YouTube releases, for example, but I also often sit in a Discord chat channel. If anyone else is online, they can easily hear me eating, so I have to mute myself within Discord itself. There’s also a very limited gain control accessible on the receiver. It can alter the signal from +/- 9 or 12 dB, which seems to me to be a strangely arbitrary range. The biggest issue is that in order to take advantage of the device’s features such as noise suppression/cancellation, the lighting on the devices, or auto-timouts, I had to install the DJI Mimo app on my phone, and then connect the devices there. This was an exercise in frustration, as I couldn’t use the USB-C cable to get the receiver paired with an iOS device, and connecting both the receiver and the transmitter via Bluetooth was non-intuitive. Once I did so, I was able to update the firmwares and set some settings, but if I want to modify those settings I’ll need to go back to the iPhone to do so.

The weirdest thing is wearing the transmitter. The easiest way to go about it is for me to clip it to my collar, but then it’s right under my chin and might make my voice a bit overpowering. Using the magnet is better, but it makes disengaging the mic harder; I will not make the mistake of taking this into the bathroom, I can tell you that right now. I suspect that clipping it to my collar will be my prevailing option, but it feels weird. Like, trying too hard kind of weird. The good news is that I no longer have to shout from across the basement when I get up to tend to the 3D printer or something, so I have that going for me. I might opt to connect the other transmitter to the iPhone via Bluetooth, and use Discord through the phone, but that might really be straying too far from what should be a very basic process.