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Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

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Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#371

Post by oauea »

BurningFrog wrote: post #320
Cd00d wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It baffles me that some people don't seem to care about their audio quality on calls. The most obnoxious are those who use speakers and you get echo on all your talking, and despite telling them, they still never bother to get a decent mic. I see comments along these lines here all the time, and I don't get it. I'm on zoom a majority of my day, and have maybe two colleagues that don't just use the laptop mic/speake…

I care, but not enough to ask people to QA my setup. I don't know of a way to check how I sound without bothering anyone.

Just listen to your own audio? In windows there is a checkbox for this, and most call apps have a settings page where you can listen to your own mic.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#372

Post by bad_username »

pablodavila wrote: post #213
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.

Sony noise canceling headphones deliberately start passing some ambient sound through (including your own voice) when you are in a call of any kind.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#373

Post by MisterPea »

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…

Fantastic article, brb going to spend way too much on gadgets now

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#374

Post by gjm11 »

tootie wrote: post #238
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…

You can also try the best kept secret in radio: https://youtu.be/gPbQYmkyqaE

The video is excellent and I would encourage anyone reading this to watch it, but for the benefit of those who don't like clickbait the answer is: surround yourself with a quilt, jacket, pillow fort, or similar, because although it looks ridiculous it gets rid of background noise and muffles reflected sound.

(I haven't "saved you a click" because you should watch the video anyway. It's not just about how to get better sound when recording or broadcasting. About ten minutes.)

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#375

Post by justincormack »

slantyyz wrote: post #295
josephg wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any recommendations for cameras? I've been using a macbook camera all year because all the cheapo logitech webcams on the market are clunky and look awful . What do you recommend?

I'm using my retired Samsung A5 Android phone's rear facing camera connected via USB to my PC using DroidCam (costs a few bucks). DroidCam also does wifi, but I find USB to be better. The quality is pretty good from the A5, but if I need even better, I use my current phone's rear camera outputting to HDMI to an El Gato CamLink using Filmic (which outputs clean HDMI on Android or IOS, but isn't cheap as DroidCam). Fil…

I tried using Filmic with iphone and hdmi capture but the latency was terrible. Is it ok with Android?

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#376

Post by jononor »

spockz wrote: post #353
r1ch wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical mute switches can be worse for other listeners as it creates an audible pop every time you mute and unmute on a 3.5mm connection. Digital (USB) mute switches are better.

Why is this? It certainly doesn’t need to be so I suppose?

Analog microphone audio is one wire (and ground) having the AC signal of the audio, superimposed on a DC signal powering microphone capsula. The simplest way of making a killswitch is to either 1) short the signal to ground or 2) cut the signal between mic capsula and the soundcard input. Done with just a switch, both of these will impact the AC component as well as the DC component, and the DC offset change that causes the pop.

And yes, there are many ways to avoid this problem. I think adding a resistor and capacitor to form a high-pass filter for the shorting option would work fine. If there is already a PCB for the switch, adding these two components would cost practically nothing.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#377

Post by xiii1408 »

I was lucky enough to realize, a month into the pandemic, that I would be having all meetings on Zoom for at least 3-4 months. I did three things, which seemed a little excessive at the time, but turned out to be great investments, since I've been working for home for over a year since then.

1) I bought a reasonably nice Logitech C920 Webcam. At the time, it was a $100 on AliExpress, which seemed like a crazy markup over the MSRP of $70. This turned out to be a great investment, given how much higher the prices went. Most people will probably still be working from home for at least 3-5 months, and you can buy one now for $70!

2) I bought a cheap USB condenser mic with a boom arm. This was a $70 package deal, and from a cheap Chinese brand Fifine, but the audio quality is truly amazing, and having the mic close to your mouth makes a huge difference. Probably my best investment. Seriously. Go buy a podcast mic and a boom arm. Now. If you want something more portable, the same company also makes very decent lavalier mics (lapel mics) for ~$20. Those are more omnidirectional, so they pick up more background noise than condenser mics, but they are imminently more portable.

3) I wired my bedroom with Ethernet. This was a bit of a hassle, since I had to run the cable down the side of the house and then underneath, and it also required crimping my own cables. However, it was totally worth it, since I knew connection issues were never my problem. I don't understand how other people suffer through constant drops over WiFi. I guess they're just accustomed to dealing with it, and don't think of switching to Ethernet as an option.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#378

Post by jakebasile »

crazygringo wrote: post #278
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…

Honestly, a camera like that is super overkill. There are really only three things that matter for image in video calls: lighting, exposure, and background. Lighting is by far #1. Then some kind of exposure adjustment to lock it in during your call at the brightest level that won't blow out any areas of your face. As long as you've got those, there will then be zero difference between a cheap Logitech webcam and a fa…

Oh, it's definitely more than most people will need. I had the camera for photography and just decided to repurpose it.

That said, a webcam can only do so much even with proper lightning and a clean background. They're never going to be as sharp, or as bright, as a nice fast lens on a quality camera.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#379

Post by jakebasile »

jcims wrote: post #270
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…

I'm surprised nobody has released a reasonable quality USB camera that supports standard lens mounts. There are some out there but they seem to be suited more for computer vision projects than video conferencing.

All of the camera manufacturers tried to jump on the Zoom call train to some extent. Every one of them released some form of Webcam USB driver, where you don't need a video encoder you just plug the camera directly in via USB and it shows up as a webcam. The downside is it's not as high quality as you'd get with an encoder, and not every camera supports charging during use.

Canon at least released a couple "Webcam Accessories Starter Kits" that include a little tripod and an AC adapter to work around the USB charging limitation. I'm surprised the manufacturers didn't jump in even more but perhaps they were hampered by the pandemic. There have been significant supply chain disruptions in photography/videography industries for the past year.

Re: Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter

#380

Post by formerly_proven »

thescriptkiddie wrote: post #281
nvarsj wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ModMic is also excellent, and you can attach it to existing headphones [1]. I use this at home with my prized Sennheisers. It baffles me that some people don't seem to care about their audio quality on calls. The most obnoxious are those who use speakers and you get echo on all your talking, and despite telling them, they still never bother to get a decent mic. Another common offender are the Bose QC35s: they hav…

Has the modmic gotten better? I've had one for years and it has always sounded like garbage.

There are a bunch of different versions with different capsules. For example, the Modmic Uni doesn't sound very good, but since it's unidirectional (it's a 6mm cardioid electret I think) it is rather more resistant to ambient noise. The Omni has your usual run-of-the-mill 6mm capsule, these are all very similar in terms of sound and noise performance. The Uni is kinda good enough for pure communication, but you'd really wouldn't want to use it for content production.

Also, being electret capsules directly wired up to your soundcard, the soundcard has quite an influence on the quality of the audio (mostly in terms of noise and hiss). Meanwhile the digital versions don't suffer from bad microphone inputs.

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