I did it with obsessively designed wooden sticks. That’s one stick multiplied 28 times for a four-wall studio. They’re symmetrical. It doesn’t matter which way up.
One poster did it with plastic pipes from the Home Store. No glue, they just push together.
One caution with that. Light, airy and comfortable duvets/quilts don’t make particularly good soundproofing. Heavy is good.
In the meantime if you can get work out the door using the mosquito killer plugins go for it.
Exactly. Do the short form stuff right away and save the long-form book (if possible) for better kit. I’m a believer in hanging on with white knuckles if you get something working.
If you do get better equipment, you may find the Mastering different. If you cast off the USB microphone, you won’t need Mosquito-Killer any more. If you get rid of that background noise (the hiss, not the whine) you may not need quite as much Noise Reduction, etc.
Two makers have native mono, voice compliant interfaces. Behringer has the UM2 and the UMC22, and Focusrite has their Scarlett Solo.
The microphone is up to you. Asking about the microphone is like asking someone what kind of music they like. Get one of the interfaces first and then see if you can borrow a microphone. Do you know anybody in a band? Well enough to borrow a microphone?
You should know that although USB microphones are limited by the length of the USB cable (6’, 2M) an XLR microphone cable can be extended to 75 feet, 100 feet or more. If you’re not paying attention to the Audacity recording meters now, you can push the interface and computer out of the room.
Thank you all for the information. I’m going to apply all of this, and right this second, scramble to make the children’s book hopefully check. I’ll respond back in detail tomorrow!
Mastering 4 will always make a technically compliant sound clip except for noise. Noise is almost always traceable back to equipment or environment issues. The other tools are tinkering around the edges.
Again, I’m not entirely sure the integrity of the clip I’ve been inspecting. If you could shoot and post one of those 20 second tests that would be good.
It’s not hard. Pause and be very still for 2 seconds and then read anything in your normal voice for 18 seconds. Export WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit and post it. Do Not apply any filters, effects or corrections.
The first two seconds is supposed to be room noise only. This is what you sent:
Gasp, Shuffle Shuffle, Adjust Chair, Gasp, [Quiet] “Then the two girls…”
So no, there isn’t enough pure, clean room noise there to measure. You have to be there because your body affects the quality of the noise the microphone receives.
That specification for ACX Noise? Quieter than -60dB? In English, that’s noise a thousand times quieter than your voice.
There’s something else a little wacky about your sound clip. It’s high volume. Nobody does that, particularly with a USB microphone. It’s so loud (how loud is it?) it’s so loud you actually have tiny distortion on the word “Jasmine.” Is that just how the Meteor works? That’s Most unusual.
I’ll record another and make sure I keep completely still! Before I do, maybe I should make an another adjustment though.
That’s just how it records without touching any settings. Here’s where I lose audio knowledge, but maybe I can adjust the input, or gain, or actual recording settings or something? I’m definitely far away from the mic and it still spikes all the time, I just figured it was something meant to be fixed in post. Let me know and I’ll re record!
Audacity will be happy to tell you. If you look at the bouncing sound meter(s) while you record, we expect occasional bounces up to about -6dB to -10dB or so. If you have the blue waves set to display and update as you go, the tops of the blue waves should occasionally tick up about half-way. (50% and -6dB are the same thing measured differently.
I’m definitely far away from the mic and it still spikes all the time
Can you see the cartoon question mark over my head?
[To Self:] The microphone is too loud…
I need to go back over your postings and see if I missed anything. I should look up your microphone again.
Do you use Skype or other Chat app?
More importantly, do you leave any of them running in the background in case a call comes in?
Don’t do any more work until we resolve this. Skip the test clip for now.
during calls over programs like skype or discord. It tends to pick up a lot of background noise and really hums when I don’t talk for a little bit.
“Ding!” That’s the signature of Automatic Gain Control. One of your chat settings is taking control of your Meteor and setting volume without asking you.
So, which chat programs do you have? While you’re recording, which icons in your dock have little white, blue or black indicators on the bottom?
Oh no, I definitely I am not anymore. Those are just the default settings that came up when I imported the raw wav file I had into audacity again. I learned from that mistake and did the scratch test, that is definitely from the meteor.
What does that little microphone window say when you’re recording? If you have to keep repeatedly changing it, you should be able to change the default in:
Okay, back home, some more specific info. The microphone bar, when the mic is plugged in before opening Audacity, reads ‘Samson Meteor Mic’, only after I select it. I then get the option to change to stereo, but I stay in mono. “Core audio” is the only option on that tab. And the last one can be built in output or Samson Meteor Mic. I learned yesterday that if I use built in output, it will playback through my laptop BUT I can have zero latency recording hooking up my headphones to the jack in the meteor. On the Samson Meteor Mic setting for the right hand tab, I could not hear myself at all while recording, but the playback would be through my headphones.
I just went and did this, hopefully that will put it on default. I have had to switch it manually each time, and that’s definitely how I made the mistake that originally brought me here.
'Also, just wanted to say I’m not disregarding the fantastic info sent before on adjusting the room and mics! I’ll save my questions for later so we don’t get pulled in a million directions.
If you constantly plug and unplug the Meteor, that could explain why Audacity keeps forgetting it’s there. Still, if you plug and unplug while Audacity is off, it shouldn’t make any difference. We point out that Audacity checks for devices when it starts, or when you Transport > Rescan…, so it’s desirable to plug everything together, let it settle and then start Audacity.
There’s a trick to catch software working behind the scenes. Set up for normal announcing say a few words and then just stop. Automated systems hate that and they will slowly (30 seconds) increase the volume and make the background noises louder and louder.
Samson is proud that their microphones don’t need drivers or additional software, so we can’t lay the blame on that. Games? Do you like computer games? Multi-player games can affect how your microphone works.
And there is the possibility that Meteor’s just naturally work at high volume. But with no good, convenient way to set the volume, that doesn’t seem to be a good design decision.
I let it settle and plug everything in before opening audacity, exactly. And while I do have Steam for games, none use a microphone and I make sure nothing else is running when I record my sessions. I’ll do the test you suggested when I get home!
There is the volume control swivel on the microphone, but that just controls headphone volume, correct? Or have I been making a big mistake there?
Yes, that is the headphone volume control on the front. We assume you can’t adjust it while performing. Touching a microphone in mid performance Is Not Done.
Pending the results of your long pause test, I’m going to conclude the Meteor is just a high volume microphone. And yes, I’m perfectly clear how dangerous that is for a New User.
A simple Google search turns up page after page of low volume problems for the Blue microphones, but almost no mention of volume problems with the Meteor. Meteor complaints tend toward “It’s too small” and “I don’t like the color.”
I can live with that.
They do mention it has a sensitivity to “Yeti Curse” whine, as do many microphones in this series.
OK… Shoot the 20 second voice test. Hold your breath and don’t fidget for that two seconds. The rest of it is not high theater. Read the milk carton. “Hudson Valley milk is produced by contented cows…” The idea, past the room tone section, is to get many different words in there so to catch odd sound problems.
Of course I’d get the challenge And okay, will send asap but I can’t until later tonight. I really appreciate all the help as I do have several audiobooks I’m working on. Taking this time instead to go on full research mode with them while we sort this out.
And okay, will send asap but I can’t until later tonight. I really appreciate all the help as I do have several audiobooks I’m working on. Taking this time instead to go on full research mode with them while we sort this out.