7 Ways To Make Your Mic Sound Better

You don’t have to improve to a dearer mic to sound higher. With the correct acoustic remedy, instruments like a pop filter, a increase arm, and my skilled ideas, you’ll be capable to create knowledgeable recording at residence very quickly.

These ideas will cowl all the things from how to place your microphone to using instruments like equalizer and compressor for the ultimate mixing.

Let’s focus on!

Record in a Quiet Room with Proper Acoustics

You clearly want a quiet room that doesn’t get a lot disturbance from the surface. But you additionally should deal with it for a correct acoustic surroundings.

As the topic of Acoustic Treatment could be very imprecise, I’ll simply discuss concerning the fundamentals. But if you wish to study more, you’ll discover tons of sources on the web.

The partitions and corners of the room mirror your voice to the microphone. Since there’s a delay between your unique sound and the sound from the reflections, the echoes will mess up your recording. 

So, you’ll be using sound absorbers or diffusers to limit echo and reverberation in your recording. Here’s what you should know:

• The most cost-effective choice is to make use of acoustic foam panels in your partitions to soak up the sound. However, it’ll principally solely take in high-frequency sounds. Your recording should get affected as a consequence of low-frequency noises.
• It is more practical to make use of panels made from fiberglass, rock wool, and so forth., as a substitute.
• You may get diffuser panels, however they’ll be dearer. Unlike absorbers that dampen the sound, diffusers unfold it round in all instructions to create a more pure sound.
• As for the place you should place the panels, it’s okay solely to deal with the corners and the primary reflection factors.
• The corners the place the partitions meet with one another and the ceiling/flooring are literally the best supply of low-frequency noise. Purchase and use bass traps on the corners. You may create DIY panels and place these there whereas forsaking an air hole.
• The air gaps additionally assist dampen the sound. So you’ll discover most studios use thick wooden panels to create an acoustic false ceiling that has an air hole with the actual ceiling.
• The first reflection factors are the areas on the aspect partitions, flooring, and ceiling the place the sound mirrored out of your voice immediately goes to the microphone. Use acoustic panels in these areas, as mentioned above.
• To search for these factors, place a mirror on the partitions, ceiling, or flooring, and wherever the mirror immediately displays, the mic is the reflection level.
• If you should place furnishings like sofas or beds within the studio, you should utilize them as a substitute of the panels. Mattresses are literally fairly good sound absorbers.
• Use diffusers on the rear wall for a more pure recording. But you should utilize absorbers as nicely. You could have to work more on the blending or post-processing in such instances, although.

It’s additionally best to make use of directional mics to remove high-frequency feels like keyboard and mic clicks. 

However, these mics will seize low-frequency noises from all instructions anyway. So you’ll should depend on your room acoustics, and the post-processing to account for them.

Understand the Type of Your Mic

Different varieties of mics are suited to totally different positioning whereas recording. One of an important points you should take note of is the polar sample (directivity) of your microphone.

This sample describes the instructions from the place the mic picks up the sound. Some widespread examples are:

• A cardioid mic picks up sound from the entrance however suppresses sound from the back.
• A Figure 8 mic picks up sound from the entrance and the back however suppresses sound from the perimeters.
• An omnidirectional mic picks up sound equally from all sides.

You ought to all the time communicate or report from the correct aspect. Also, ensure that to maintain all unmanageable sources of background noises on the suppressed aspect.

Other than the polar sample, totally different mics have totally different tackle varieties. Top-address mics are more delicate to the course they’re pointed at, and side-address mics are more delicate to the sound from the perimeters. 

You can discover out the polar sample and tackle kind of mic from its official supply. If not, take a look at out your microphone by recording at totally different orientations and instructions accordingly.

Speak at a Proper Distance

Each microphone has a great vary to talk to.

If you communicate too shut, it’ll find yourself exaggerating the low-frequency sounds as a consequence of a phenomenon known as the proximity impact. So, the low-frequency sounds will seem louder in comparison with the high-frequency sounds.

This could also be factor in particular situations. But for probably the most part, you need the mic to seize high-frequency sounds higher or seize each frequencies more evenly.

On the opposite hand, talking at a farther distance will make the recorded sound too tender with out boosting it quite a bit. And all of the indecipherable noises may very well change into more noticeable throughout the enhance.

So, earlier than truly using your mic for recording or streaming, ensure that to experiment with the correct talking distance.

Start at a foot or 12 inches (30 cm) and keep coming barely nearer after every take a look at. If you’ve gotten a loud voice, you can begin at 14 inches as a substitute.

I’ve bought some good outcomes on the following distances for several types of mics:

• Cardioid Mics – 4 – 12 inches
• Dynamic Mics – 2 – 6 inches
• Figure 8 Mics – 4 – 12 inches
• Omnidirectional Mics – 2 – 12 inches

Apart from the kind of mic, the perfect distance is dependent upon the acoustics and reflectivity of the room and the kind of your voice.

It’s higher to get nearer to a more sound-reflective room and farther away from a sound-absorbing one.

Similarly, keep additional away for a low deep voice and nearer for a excessive skinny voice. And as you’d anticipate, a tender speaker ought to all the time get nearer in comparison with a loud one.

Also, for many mics, it’s higher to not transfer round too whereas recording. Doing so could cause bizarre fluctuations in quantity and sound high quality.

You’ll discover this impact more on low-quality, cheaper mics, nevertheless it’s all the time higher to talk at a constant distance and course.

Control the Microphone’s Gain, Input Levels and Format

The microphone’s achieve, enter stage, and format additionally have an effect on the standard of the recording. 

The enter stage and achieve signify the mic’s sensitivity, and it’s best to set it comparatively low (about 70 – 80%) to scale back background noises.

The format is mainly the standard of the recording, so all the time set it to the very best attainable worth.

Here’s how to alter these settings on Windows:

1. Open Run.
2. Type mmsys.cpl and press Enter.
3. Go to the Recording tab and double-click on the microphone device.
4. Go to the Advanced tab and set the Default Format to the very best high quality. Click Apply.
5. Now, go to the Levels tab.
6. Start by setting the Microphone enter stage to 75 and click on Apply.
7. Test out the impact by recording an audio. 
8. Increase or lower this stage and verify the impact. Finally, set the optimum enter stage to your setup.
9. If your Microphone comes with a Microphone Boost choice, change it accordingly as nicely.

You also needs to take a look at out and specify a correct achieve stage on the microphone, your audio interface, and your recording app.

Use Pop Filter

As I’ve defined above, most mics sound higher at a more in-depth distance. However, it additionally signifies that the mic might be choosing up popping noise because the air by way of your mouth hits the microphone. 

You can scale back undesirable noise through the use of windshields like useless cats or pop filters. I personally desire using a pop filter because it additionally prevents our saliva from hitting the microphone.

Use Boom Arm and Shock Mount

Using a mic with a tripod could not permit for the perfect positioning. You’ll should lean ahead or transfer the precise stand a lot nearer.

Instead, simply use a increase arm, because it means that you can get the supreme placement to your mic.

If you employ a shock mount with the increase arm, it’ll additionally assist remove noise as a consequence of vibrations on the mounting floor. 

Your different actions whereas recording, like inserting your arm or different objects on the desk, clicking in your keyboard and mouse, and so forth., trigger slight vibration on the desk.

The shock mount will forestall such vibrations from touring as much as the microphone.

Use Other Tools like an Equalizer or Compressor

Now that I’ve defined all of the pre-mixing tweaks and strategies you should utilize, let’s transfer on to the blending.

Even with the perfect setup, your voice will not be clear or constant, and there could also be slight background noises within the recording.

This is why it’s all the time really helpful to make use of totally different instruments like compressor, equalizer, noise gate, reverb, and so forth., to get the perfect recording attainable. Here’s what these instruments can do:

• Equalization: It boosts or cuts a sure frequency vary and is an important instrument you’ll want. You ought to use it to suppress sure varieties of sounds within the recording and enhance the sounds you need. I normally simply minimize round 2500 – 3500 Hz to get a more fuller sound.
• Preamplification: It boosts the sound picked up by the microphone to usable ranges. Most audio interfaces or mixers have built-in preamps, so you might not want a separate one.
• Compression: It suppresses the loud sounds and raises the softer low-frequency sounds. It compensates for quantity fluctuations within the recording and produces an excellent, more pure audio.
• Noise Gate: It eliminates all sounds beneath a sure frequency. You can use it to take away room reverb, breaths, and different varieties of noises. You may use separate noise cancellation software program if you’re streaming, however it could not create a constant sound.
• Reverb: Artificially including reverb makes the sound supply seem far-off. It may masks slight imperfections within the recording. Whether you should use it or not is dependent upon your recording.

You can use devoted {hardware} instruments for this objective. If not, many recording and mixing functions include such instruments.

Even for different apps, you might be able to obtain further plugins so as to add these functionalities.

The steps you should carry out will differ relying on the device and the app. I like to recommend checking tutorials to your personal device/app to get higher at it.

However, it’s only a matter of enjoying round with these instruments, experimenting with an audio clip and finalizing a nicely produced recording.

You may even use AI sound fixers out there on the web. But remember that you received’t have a lot management over the output and it could not fulfill your wants.