I run a small podcast, and it seems like every time I get a new mic, or try to add headphones or something, I end up doing 30 hours of work to putz my way through fixing it.
So, I run the basic version of VoiceMeeter with Audacity. I’ve watched all the videos and was able to run this without the virtual cable at any point.
Its almost like my main mic is picking up my voice, just fine, but then the 2nd mic on the opposite side of the table isn’t picking up, and the Guest or Co-Host is being picked up through my mic, and so the they sound quiet and far away.
The headphones give good feedback, and the meter on VoiceMeeter shows movement, sometimes even spiking.
I’ve gone into the sound controls in Windows, I feel like I’ve enable and disabled and enabled everything, I’m at a complete loss for what to do just to get these 2 mic’s to work together. Am I missing some hidden setting that’s causing all my grief?
We can only deal with the Audacity side of your setup as we don’t have VoiceMeeter experts here.
Audacity can record from one device at a time.
To record from multiple devices (such as two USB mics), you need to combine them in some way so that Audacity sees them as one device. That’s where VoiceMeeter (or VAC, or similar) comes in. VoiceMeeter (or similar 3rd party app) acts as a go between, so that Audacity sees one virtual device. It is the job of that 3rd party app to combine the real input devices and present them as one device.
Select the recording device for Audacity to use in the Device Toolbar.
I end up doing 30 hours of work to putz my way through fixing it.
As Steve above, that’s not a natural task. You’re forcing your computer to do it.
You could do it on two separate computers. Combine the sound files later.
I know everybody’s looking sat me like I just insulted their mother, but that does work, and it has almost no aggravation value.
OK, you do have to match up the sound files. Have you seen people clapping at the beginning of their podcasts? Matching is a simple time shift in Audacity. Now compare that with VoiceMeeter Setup. How’s it going so far? Should I make coffee?
You should get over that “everybody knows” thing. If you have computer troubles recording your audiobook, stop recording your book on a computer.
There’s more than one way to do this stuff, but IMO - One USB mic can be super-convenient. More than one USB microphone can be super inconvenient and possibly less reliable, if you can get it to work at all.
Reliability is important if you have invited guests who won’t want to sit around while you work out your technical problems and they probably won’t want to repeat the interview if there’s a recording problem the 1st time…
Analog mics are used for radio/TV/movies and with for lots of podcasts. With two analog mics* and an audio interface you can record one mic on the left and one on the right, and mix later.
Or you can use a mixer with a USB port, or a mixer along with a USB audio interface. A mixer is also a good solution for more than 2-mics but if the show gets too complex somebody has to “run the mixer” and it’s best if that person a dedicated “engineer” rather than one of the talent.
A “little USB mixer” is about the same price as a 2-channel audio interface it makes monitoring easier. And mixing in real time is more convenient than mixing in post-production.
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Mixers & audio interfaces work with stage/studio mics. They are not compatible with “computer microphones”.
