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Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

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Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#211

Post by andrewzah »

greenwich26 wrote: post #4

The audio quality of the inbuilt microphone on my laptop is much worse in Linux, than on Windows. I've tried some fixes on StackExchange but it doesn't really help. Has anyone encountered this? And if I buy an external microphone: how do I know it won't have the same problem? Has anyone had good experiences with microphones on Linux (specifically Ubuntu 20.10?) Is it some sort of driver/firmware problem? Nowadays I h…

"Has anyone had good experiences with microphones on Linux"

I've not had any issues with external mics and usb interfaces. Onboard mics aren't really that good to begin with; you'll want to get some sort of external lavalier mic, or a condenser or cardioid dynamic. Onboard mics and other omnidirectional mics aren't great because they pick up sounds from all over. A cardioid polar pattern helps a lot with cutting down on sound.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#212

Post by etblg »

jakebasile wrote: post #196

I have no evidence to back this up, but I strongly believe that video quality would have similar effects. I am a hobbyist photographer and began using my gear to improve my video quality on calls 6-8 months ago and people have continually commented on it, from executives to regular schmucks like me. We're a visual species and having a better view of the person you are talking with will help form connections. It doesn…

Even just better lighting alone is a big step up. I started using this cheap desk-mounted mini ring light (with a slightly warm light) for calls, lighting the shade side of my face, and it makes your video look a lot more professional and flattering.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#213

Post by pablodavila »

benkuhn wrote: post #13

It's also really easy to have high quality audio! The author recommends a "podcasting" microphone, but a $35 standalone headset mic[1] is almost as good and much easier to use. If you want to hear a comparison, I got kind of obsessed with this problem at one point and took some comparison recordings here[2]. (You need a standalone mic since most headsets, even really nice ones, have really bad mics because most heads…

Related to your open back headphones comment: I hate using closed back/ noise canceling headphones while talking in calls. Fortunately, I don't have anyone around me so I don't need them but I can't imagine having to use them and listening to my own voice through my skull.

I'm currently using the HD58X but I might look into getting the SHPs as a "beater" pair with the VModa mic.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#214

Post by riskable »

FirstLvR wrote: post #147
nicbou wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was an excellent writeup. There's only one thing I would add: put the camera closer to where people's faces are. It feels like you're looking directly at them, and it makes a big difference. I made a habit of looking directly into the camera now.

the camera thing is really an issue in my company, we mostly work on software development so we share our screen constantly in our meetings... no one cares on turning on the camera and this has become regular behavior the problem is that you dont know if the other people are actually paying attention and human interactions need that feedback

Honestly though, seeing people's faces/active backgrounds is super distracting. If I'm actually paying attention on a call I'm usually looking down off to the side of the screen so I can focus.

I recently setup a camera pointing down at my keyboard/mouse instead of my face for demonstrating a keyboard that I built (analog hall effect--from scratch!) and I think that's good enough to let people know, "I'm here" without being super distracting (assuming I turn off the LEDs and the gigantic LED matrix display haha).

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#215

Post by numpad0 »

criddell wrote: post #115
jtbayly wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bluetooth is wrong because it is almost always low quality. You need a wired mic.

Is the audio quality recorded from a Bluetooth microphone worse than audio played through Bluetooth headphones? (ie is recording worse than playback?) If not, then that's okay because Bluetooth headphones sound fine. A wired mic isn't really an option in the environment I want to film in but I want something better than the on-camera mic because I'm occasionally pretty far away from the camera. I also don't want the…

Worse, far worse, just forget Bluetooth.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#216

Post by tnzm »

Mauricebranagh wrote: post #104
tnzm wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>windows really needs a native way of doing this like sound flower. https://vb-audio.com/Cable/ might interest you.

I know I have tried that just so poorly documented I gave up lifes to short.

It literally shows up as an audio device in Windows sound settings, and "just works" - what prompted you to reach for documentation?

Unless you tried one of their more advanced offerings, like Voicemeeter - which also looks pretty intuitive judging from the screenshots. (Never tried it, on Linux I get this capability via JACK.)

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#217

Post by Someone1234 »

ahelwer wrote: post #63
stephvd wrote: post #8

What are some decently good mics that don't break the bank but do the work?

I have a Samson Q2U and have had a few people tell me I sound like a podcaster.

I, too, have the Q2U.

The great thing about the setup, aside from the microphone being solid, is that it gives you an upgrade path but works right out of the box fully (mic, stand, pop-filter, USB or XLR).

Phase 1: Plug it in via USB, use the included stand. GO!

Phase 2: Upgrade the stand to a desk-isolating one (e.g. arm/freestanding, etc).

Phase 3: Upgrade to XLR instead of USB (e.g. buy an audio interface/mixer).

Phase 4: Upgrade the microphone at some point.

You can literally buy it and stop at Phase 1 forever, but if you wish you can use it as a jumping off point to a higher end setup and won't have to buy it all at once (easily $300 or more total, for arm/audio interface/pro grade microphone).

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#218

Post by squeaky-clean »

paulpauper wrote: post #27

why are so many people so cost conscious about mics and other consumer goods but have no hesitation about putting tons of money in the stock market , which sometimes drops 30% or more, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more of losses. Psychologically, it seems people are much more unnerved about overpaying $100 on a mic or laptop, versus potentially much larger losses on investments such as stocks or real e…

I really doubt there are more individual investors in the stock market than there are individuals buying webcams and microphones, but even assuming this is true

> which sometimes drops 30% or more, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more of losses.

1) This is entirely ignoring the fact that the stock market goes up more often than it goes down. Similarly, tech almost only decreases in value. A $100 webcam might be a nice upgrade, but it will never transform into a $200 webcam.

2) A dip in stock price isn't the same as actually losing money. If you're gambling your money on meme stocks, sure, unsafe bets exist. But otherwise, a 30% dip one day is meaningless without context. The S&P500 dipped 30% over the last week of March 2020. If you put in money in February 2020, watched it crash, held through to today, you would still be up 25% from your initial investment.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#219

Post by kingsuper20 »

diarrhea wrote: post #2

People vastly undervalue good audio quality. It also often makes the difference (given equal visuals) between great amateur and pro in e.g. the YouTube scene. I didn't have data to back this up before, but I bought a good microphone specifically for this purpose. People will simply like the audio, and by extension what I am saying and also me as a person, better. Meanwhile, my ears will continue to bleed from the awf…

"People vastly undervalue good audio quality."

Absodamnlutely. Perhaps I'm over sensitive to video and audio quality issues due to my work life, but I absolutely can't believe how poor audio quality can be in the wild.

Lack of full duplex, latency on phones and conference gizmos are bad enough, but I'm always blown away by the shite quality you run into for recorded university lectures and speeches. It makes you want to shake people like a rag.

Also, people don't appreciate how much more important audio quality is then video. You can get away with a lot in video, it's true to the extent that audio data flow is used as the master clock.

note to self: I wonder how far we are from improving recorded lectures/speeches via speech->text followed by text->speech as opposed to post-processing the audio. By passing through timing information you could even keep the cadence of the talking.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#220

Post by hctaw »

criddell wrote: post #115
jtbayly wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bluetooth is wrong because it is almost always low quality. You need a wired mic.

Is the audio quality recorded from a Bluetooth microphone worse than audio played through Bluetooth headphones? (ie is recording worse than playback?) If not, then that's okay because Bluetooth headphones sound fine. A wired mic isn't really an option in the environment I want to film in but I want something better than the on-camera mic because I'm occasionally pretty far away from the camera. I also don't want the…

Using a separate recorder here has the best price to performance for you, I think.

Sennheiser has several wireless systems designed for your needs: https://en-us.sennheiser.com/wireless-systems

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