Good morning Frank,

Thank you for your input, it's always appreciated.

I agree with you, Frank, Richard's comment made a lot of sense, even I'm not an expert on sound.

The room is quite small and with the green screen up, which is quite large, I thought it may help to soften the sound. However, I have just replied to Bux's comment and I wonder if it's worth me trying again with perhaps one of those fluffy covers for a microphone or a pop cover.

I must admit, I purchased my Sennheiser headset on recommendation from a Dragon NaturallySpeaking expert, as that requires a good microphone. They always recommend a headset for this purpose. I must admit, it's had many hours of use; in fact, I almost use it all the time when I'm in front of my PC, as I use Dragon so much. Although interestingly enough, I tried the Blue Yeti Microphone
with Dragon and it seemed to work really well, as in accuracy, which surprised me!

Like everything, Frank, we never stop learning. It sounds like you have learnt a lot regarding your guitar equipment. I do understand how you like the organic sound of all tube amps, etc, that classic sound!

Have a fantastic weekend.

Roy

Hi Roy

The mic covers, also called wind and pop screens can be effective for outside use and for cutting down “acoustic bleed-over” in close quarter multi-instrument sessions like recording studios.

Room acoustical parameters can be very challenging, so much so that recording studios, movie theaters, and home theaters are specifically built around them.

Have an excellent weekend! 🥳
Frank 🎸

Good morning Frank,

That's interesting, like so many things, there is more than meets the eye! It sounds like it may be a case of experimenting.

I appreciate your help.

All the best.

Roy

Hi Roy

Yeah, tweaking sound parameters is a never-ending pursuit! Lol

Rock On, 🤘
Frank 🎸

Hello Frank,

Yes, I definitely believe you! It's good to learn about different things, though, Frank, which I know you will agree with. I think I mentioned that I was learning more about video editing, I thoroughly enjoyed the process and I still am enjoying the process!

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Roy

Hi Roy

It’s good to learn at least one new thing everyday! 😎

Frank 🎸

Good morning Frank,

Yes, that's a very good principle indeed!

I trust that all is well with you.

Have a fantastic Sunday.

Roy

Same to you, Roy! 😎

Frank 🎸

Hello Jenni,

Thank you for your reply, it's appreciated.

That's interesting, Jenni. Can you tell me what the actual sound treatment is on your walls, please? I'm guessing it may be some special sort of fabric covering to soften the sound. I know very little about sound, apart from my headset, which sounds much crisper and clearer than the stand-alone microphones. However, I would prefer to use a desktop microphone rather than a headset.

Have a good weekend.

Roy

Roy, I have actually turned a walk-in closet into a sound studio because I'm about to do some voice over work. So I used foam acoustic tiles on the walls and covered the desk with stick-on felt. For other sorts of recordings you can achieve some good sound if you just treat the wall directly in front of the microphone. You can also use things like moving blankets or comforters to deaden the sound bounce. Hope this is helpful. Have attached a photo of my studio.

Hello Jenni,

That sounds like a really good idea, especially as an office space doesn't need to be huge. I can imagine the difference in the quality of sound is probably huge compared with a normal room.

DaveBux was saying how he uses a caution or pillow to make the sound softer. I probably should have tried one of those pop filters. I might go for the Rode NT-USB+ microphone next time, which comes with a pop filter.

Thank you for the information, Jenni, I do appreciate it.

Have a great weekend.

Roy

Hi Richard

I fully agree with everything you said! 👍👍

What type of recording and sound engineering do you do?

Have a Great Weekend! 🥳
Frank 🎸

I don't any more... I used to handle live sound at folk festivals in the UK and had a studio at home.

I dabbled with a 4 track cassette system mid-70s! Graduated to a 16 track Roland digital system at some time and later to 32 tracks using mainly a Presonus Studio Live with Studio One software, thereby keeping it portable. It was great for both studio and live work, making it relatively easy to travel with and record live when needed.
;-)
Richard

That's great, Richard!

In the early to mid-70s, my high school and college band was still recording on reel-to-reel! Lol 😎

Now, I have a PreSonus Studio 24c, a Line 6 POD Studio UX2, and a Blackstar Polar 2 audio interface that I use to go into my Pro Tools DAW. They are each optimized to make digital plugins sound best with certain guitars.

I also have an iRig HD 2 interface that plugs into my Mac laptop for "quick and dirty" use with GarageBand.

It's easy to spend more time tweaking all the digital toys to adjust the sound than actually playing music on the guitar, a trap I try to avoid at all costs! 🤣

Frank 🎸

Hello Richard,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my blog post, thank you.

I'm doing well, thank you, I hope you are too. I must admit I haven't seen your name crop up on the platform lately.

I must admit I didn't know that Richard, it always fascinates me what people do, I mean that in an interesting way.

Yes, I can believe that those things make a huge amount of difference. I see people with things (sorry, I don't know the technical term) around their microphones, etc; maybe I need to look up accessories for this particular microphone.

I would say I'm about 35 to 40 cm away from the microphone, Richard.

When I use my headset to create videos, the sound is very crystal clear, but when I use a desktop microphone, it just doesn't have that clear crisp sound. When I see people like Jay creating training, the sound seems absolutely fine. But my sound is lacking something unless I use a headset.

Like everything, I have a lot to learn about sound and microphones, etc.

Once again, I appreciate your help.

All the best.

Roy

Although I don't know much about sound, Richard, those names ring a bell! My brother and myself used to play around a little bit with old audio equipment that we were given!

Roy

Hi Roy
The thing as that microphones haven't really changed a lot since the 60s!
However, the recording world is now mostly digital and the same old microphone and speaker technologies are still being used, designed for capturing and playing back analogue (acoustic) sound.

This means that the quality of audio to digital (AD) converters for recording and digital to audio converters (DAC) make a big difference. DAs and DACs are of course built in to computer sound cards but most professionals don't rely on them; they use separate converter units or as Frank mentions, a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). This means that the sound can stored on the computer, but the computer itself doesn't handle the conversions.

Personally, for my small, instructional videos, I just try to ensure the sound is clear and I use the built-in sound card built into my HP laptop.

Yes, it's a good idea to use a pop screen, or a wind sock with the microphone. The "pop screen" is designed to cut down on pops created by vocally created pressure differences and the fluffy "wind sock" is primarily used for recording outside and can cut down wind noise.

Now, ignoring music, I think the one effect that is worth learning about is "compression". It's a way of optimising the sound. Without going into techy stuff, the human ear can hear a wide range of volumes but recordings often include minimum and maximum levels that don't work well together. Turn up the volume and the loud bits are too loud, and turn down the volume and the soft bits are too soft!

In the analogue days, a compressor used to be called an expander/limiter. You'd use it to increase low level sounds and relatively limit the highest levels. Nowadays, most video editing software handles this automatically when it creates an output file to satisfy normal human tolerances.

One of the best examples of excessive compression is experienced when the adverts show on TV. Have you noticed that if you're watching a film and set the volume the way you want it, when adverts come on they suddenly sound much louder.

The thing is that unnatural, aggressive compression, is often used with advertisement sound (usually when the ad is broadcast). They turn up the softer parts excessively. So although the loudest sound is no different to the film, the average volume we hear during adverts goes up. This is done to grab people's attention thereby keeping advertisers happier.

Now, here's the thing, if the soft parts include background noise, when they are increased, the background noise goes up as well. Most background noise is relatively soft and often goes unnoticed (apart from normal Portuguese discussions that often sound like people arguing when they're not!) There are ways to reduce background noise by discovering the specific frequencies where they exist and reducing the level of those frequencies which can cause other unwanted side effects.

This is why it's important to cut out as much background noise at source, as possible.

Here endeth the lesson for now.
Have fun!
;-)
Richard

Hello Richard,

That's interesting, I must admit that I'm quite surprised, as most technologies move on quite quickly.

I appreciate you clarifying how a microphone works, etc. I know some YouTube's have some really wonderful equipment, but realistically, I want to try and keep it simple, but at the same time, have a good sound. I have a Nvidia soundcard on a Dell Precision workstation.

My microphone is placed in front of the monitor, which I'm looking at when I'm creating videos. I'm guessing that there could be some bounceback and this is something that the pop screen may be able to help with.

Regarding background noise, this shouldn't be too much as my wife is away at the moment in Greece where she originates from, so there is only myself and the dog in the house! My desktop computer is on top of a bookcase next to my desk, but not touching, so there shouldn't be any vibration of any sort, although maybe the microphone is picking up a very quiet fan noise. I have the unit raised up, to avoid dust from the floor, etc.

Thank you so much for your detailed help, Richard. It's helping me gain a better understanding of how microphones work.

I was very pleased to endure the lesson!

All the best.

Roy😃

Hi Richard

I began noticing the compression effect with TV commercials in the 1960s; I just didn't really understand it back then. Fast forward to today and cable TV and streaming channels are still up to the same old tricks, except the compression is mainly done digitally. Lol

Now, we are facing a whole new problem with digital sound "compression." In addition to the traditional audio signal compression, digital sound is now compressed in file size, much like the way we compress image file size with WordPress plugins like Kraken and Smush.

This makes transmitting and receiving data by satellite more cost-effective. Audio can be file-size-compressed more than once as it is sent from one company to another before it reaches the consumer.

Most people buy soundbars for their TV to be able to more clearly understand the spoken dialogue, not for immersive sound. Put this cable and streamed audio through a high-end home theater multi-channel audio processor and it can come out sounding like a real nightmare! 😱

We virtually never watch movies on cable TV or streaming channels unless they are not available on DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K. The problem is that movies on disk are going away, but fortunately, we have purchased thousands of them over the years.

Frank 🎸

Hi Frank
sorry, it didn't occur to me to mention that the word compression is also used for file size compression, which has existed since the invention of CDs, followed later by digital audio formats like MP3, which preceded (as I understand it) image file size compression.
;-)
Richard

Hi Richard

Yes, standard-definition CD sound is sampled at 44,100 samples per second and file-sized compressed, but only once, not multiple times like cable TV and especially streamed content.

When DVDs appeared, the video and audio were combined into one VOB (Video Object) MPEG file, which also includes the subtitles, menus, and navigation.

I'm an "analog sound guy." I don't like sampled sound because I can hear the difference in things like compression, dynamics, and natural harmonics, which comes from not including the unsampled signal.

The "music on vinyl" craze is the worst of both worlds! All new commercially produced music is played on real instruments that produce analog sound (or, in some cases, electronic instruments that produce digital sound sent directly into a DAW), recorded digitally (usually with Pro Tools), and then converted back to analog to be pressed on vinyl. So, you get the pops and hiss of a record needle with the loss of sound quality of digital sampling.

Some guitar modeling amplifiers use high-definition tech that sounds so close to the real all-tube amps they model that over 90% of an audience cannot tell the difference. Still, a guitar plugged into a modeling amp changes the way the guitar's sound reacts to a musician's fingers, which can produce an unsatisfying playing experience or change the original intent of what the music was trying to convey.

I have hundreds of digital amp modeling plugins, but I always return to the actual all-tube amps they model. 😎

Frank 🎸

Good morning Stan,

I appreciate your feedback, as it's not a subject that I know huge amounts about.

I have heard lots of good things about the Blue Yeti Microphone, hence why I wanted to purchase it. However, over the last couple of years, I have noticed the Rode microphones becoming popular. I looked at the reviews and they both seemed similar. I wonder if a pop cover may help, possibly.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Roy

Are you getting popping sound coming from your mic? If so, a pop cover may be the helpful.

I wouldn't say really a popping sound, Stan; I would say it was just lacking that crystal clearness.

Roy

Then pop cover makes no difference.

That's interesting, Stan; some people are saying that it does, but also having something soft around the microphone also helps. I guess that every room is different, and it's a case of experimentation.

I did look at a slightly more expensive Rode microphone, which had good reviews, I may try that.

Thank you for your input and have a great day.

Roy

You are welcome, Roy. Yes, the environment, which is the room matters.

Although I know little about the subject, Stan, I believe that you are right. Listening to the advice on this platform, I believe that I need to experiment more with various techniques and adjustments, etc.

Thank you for your help and have a great day.

Roy

Good morning Bux,

It's good to hear from you, Bux. I hope that you are doing well.

That's good to hear, as I was disappointed with my experience. Maybe I have been spoilt by using the headset, which seems to give a crystal-clear sound.

After reading your comments, Bux, I have been looking at accessories for the Blue Yeti microphone. It looks like there are some furry muffs, (I'm not sure if they are for outside use rather than desktop use.) There is also a pop cover, which may do the same as the pillow, possibly, I'm not an expert!

I tried the microphone sitting in front of me, as I was carrying out a screen recording. So, in other words, the microphone was just in front of the monitor, maybe the accessories may help.

All is well at this end; thank you, Bux, thank you.

Have a great weekend.

Roy

Ow do Roy.
Yes, I use a pop filter as well. About 4 inches in front of the Yeti and then my mush is about 2 feet back from that.
The Yeti will pick up back reflections from any hard flat surface so use a pillow or blanket behind it. Once you understand it, it’s a good tool, but please send me details of your headset, I feel the time is right for a little experiment.
Back on the antibiotic treadmill again, but feeling good. They don’t get me that easily.
Take care
Bux

Hello Bux,

Thank you, that's really helpful. Maybe the pop filter would help as my voice is projecting towards the computer monitor, so I could have been receiving some kind of bounceback. I'm probably about 15 inches away from the microphone, Bux.

My headset is a Sennheiser SC165 USB (508317), they were purchased from Amazon, Bux. You should be able to see my 5-star review. I really purchased this headset for Dragon NaturallySpeaking, it's been very good. It's also good and crystal-clear sound for videos, etc.


I hope that you can quickly come off the antibiotics, but it's great that you are feeling good, Bux.

Roy

Great stuff Roy. I've checked this mic out on Amazon. I may get one and give it a whirl.
With microphones, it seems to me that a little bit of careful preparation does benefit the result.
If I sit at the desk, I put the lap top to one side and put a pillow against the wall. 15 inches seems a little too close by my own experience. Try and get 2 to 3 feet away.
And ... I don't use paper sheets for any pre-prepared speech. I convert the word document to a PDF and send it to my IPad. then I read it from my IPad. Otherwise, the Yeti will pick up the rustling of the paper as you turn the sheets.
Live and learn.
Tablets - another 3 days. Its better than the Magic Roundabout. It's not stopping me from getting out and about.
Look after yourself.
Bux

Good morning Bux,

If I remember rightly, Bux, my first Sennheiser headset, came from Amazon, I had to send it back as it wasn't working properly. A common complaint I hear in Amazon reviews is that some companies send out returns to customers, I believe this could have been the case. I ended up buying the replacement headset from a smaller outlet. The second headset works absolutely fine!

I think this is something that I need to experiment with,, Bux, regarding microphones, I have a lot to learn! I did look at the RØDE NT-USB+ Professional-Grade USB Microphone for Recording Exceptional Audio Directly to a Computer or Mobile Device on Amazon, it has good reviews and comes with a pop filter. So it's not going to work out that much more expensive.

I hear where you are coming from regarding your iPad, Bux; that makes a lot of sense. I have three monitors, so I normally put my notes in a Word document on the right-hand screen.

We certainly do live and learn!

That's good, Bux! I'm glad that tablets have nearly finished and I'm glad you're able to get out and about. Good news!

Have a great day and enjoy the bank holiday.

Roy