I’m thinking I’m taking this audio stuff way too seriously now.

Scene: I was editing my recent “Let’s Play Stellar Tactics” videos and I really did not enjoy the sound of my own voice. No one does, I suppose, as I hear that no one likes the sound of their own voice, but in my case I could identify some pretty specific issues with the recording.

Prime among them was an echo that is a result of my voice bouncing back to the mic from the wall behind my monitor. It’s not sound-proofed like it should be were I recording these videos on the regular and on the serious, so I guess I got what I paid for. I tried adding filters within OBS and that helped a bit, but for everything else that was still and issue my primary recourse was to “fix it in post”, and that turned out to be another flavor of problematic.

Naturally, I took the wrong lesson from this and started thinking that “maybe the mic is to blame”.

The first consideration is that I have a budget, and that budget is small. Like, $200 or less small. The second consideration is the difference between a condenser mic and a dynamic mic. I currently have the HyperX Quadcast which is a condenser mic, so I started looking into a dynamic mic. The third consideration was USB versus XLR; the Quadcast is USB because XLR requires a mixer in between the mic and the PC.

Initially, I looked at the Fifine Gaming Audio Mixer Bundle:

This is an all-in-one package which includes the dynamic mic and a basic mixer for $84USD. After thinking about it for a bit, though, I was wondering what I’d be getting for $84USD, really, and would it be significantly better than the Quadcast?

Next, I decided to look into more recognizable brand names, like the Shure MV6 ($169USD):

This is marketed as a “gaming mic” and while the Shure band is well known and respected, slapping a “for gamers” byline on a product from a company that makes studio-grade equipment screamed “we swept these components from the factory floor and put some neon colors on it to appeal to gamers”. I’m probably over-thinking it; however, the next step up, the MV7X, is one I’ve seen “in the wild” before:

It’s only $10USD more than the MV6 as of the writing of this screed, but it’s XLR only and doesn’t come with a mixer, which is an additional “mystery cost” as I’d have to source my own mixer of quality and I have absolutely no idea what the final bill would be in that case.

In my travels I came across a Reddit post in which someone said that software on the PC might be able to help, which made me remember that I have Steel Series’ Nahimic Companion app installed. I fiddled around with this and tested some OBS sessions, and I think I got things pretty OK; not perfect, but I think there’s enough going on now that I can tweak the mic audio in DaVinci Resolve for better results than I got from my more recent video.

Of course, all of this boils down to “how much does it matter”. Is this a problem that only I am hearing? I don’t have hissing or background noise, and I can reduce and even eliminate the echo by moving the mic closer to my face. The downside, though, is that I have to speak quieter than I had been, which results in me whispering much of the time. That’s not too exciting, though I’m not an exciting narrator on a good day. Still, I saved myself some money, and if I end up not making any more videos in the meanwhile, that’ll mean something.