Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

mattstauffer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 131 posts

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#21

Post by dalore »

SuddsMcDuff wrote: post #6

I think the section on mics could be enhanced by explaining a little about the different pickup patterns available. A cardioid pickup is a lot more appropriate for these uses than an omni pickup would be. The author mentions the Yeti mic picking up a lot of background noise - I'd bet that that mic has an omni pick up pattern. Some mics even have a small switch which allows you to cycle between different pickup patter…

There is a switch on the Yet that gives you 4 different pickup patterns. https://www.bluedesigns.com/products/yeti/

  - cardioid
  - stereo
  - omni
  - bi

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#22

Post by davzie »

nickjj wrote: post #20
adamwathan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A noise gate does not remove hiss or static, it simply reduces the volume of the signal when it gets below a certain level. As a professional audio engineer in a past life, I can say the SM7B + Triton Fethead is a great recommendation. The SM7B has very good off-axis rejection characteristics and will pick up _much_ less room noise than most alternatives.

> A noise gate does not remove hiss or static, it simply reduces the volume of the signal when it gets below a certain level. But the end result is with a configured noise gate the audio coming out will not appear to have as much hiss or room noise. Check out the Youtube video I linked of his. It's super noticeable. With Sony MDR-V6 headphones, I hear a huge amount of hiss in his audio. To the point where it's distra…

A more directional and less sensitive mic like the NTG-2 may work better with some dampening on the walls or by adding a carpet. Additionally if you can't fix the room you can use a plugin to help reduce noise in dialog, something like Izotope RX7 will do a good job of doing this, but fixing the room should always be the first step.

I've used both the SM7B and the NTG-2 and I would record vocals all day with the SM7B if the room was in a good condition to do so or I was recording actual singing vocals. Otherwise I'd just use the NTG-2 which with it's highly directional nature is pretty good at removing a lot of other background noise.

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#23

Post by ghaff »

kh_hk wrote: post #16

To be honest, investing in a whole studio setup for remote work seems to go against one of the biggest perks of remote work itself: freedom. Stock is usually good enough. That money is better invested on a pair of comfortable headphones, and also some good on-the-go light headphones with micro to hold remote calls outside of a quiet environment.

It mostly seems unnecessary even if I'm doing calls from my office, as opposed to when I'm traveling or otherwise not at home. I have a dedicated office with decent lighting (and not backlit) and a good Logitech webcam. That's more than a lot of people I work with have. Anything more would really be overkill and probably not even noticeable on a typical video call.

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#24

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Sholmesy wrote: post #17

Somewhat off topic, but I've thought this would be quite a useful thing to do just for helping my focus while working, kind of like having a permanant rubber duck. Has anyone ever had experience of "live coding" at a company, and if so, how do you manage things like, not broadcasting a database secret, etc. Are there any examples of companies letting people record their work? I remember a lot of videos floating aroun…

Re: secrets, I'd say never work on production while streaming. Don't keep production credentials on your local machine either. Keep a local .env.development file with local credentials ONLY.

If you work in the cloud, usually database secrets and the like will be obscured as well in password fields. Same as in password managers, e.g. 1password has a 'copy' button, and displaying it is an explicit button you have to press.

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#25

Post by mrdonbrown »

Sholmesy wrote: post #17

Somewhat off topic, but I've thought this would be quite a useful thing to do just for helping my focus while working, kind of like having a permanant rubber duck. Has anyone ever had experience of "live coding" at a company, and if so, how do you manage things like, not broadcasting a database secret, etc. Are there any examples of companies letting people record their work? I remember a lot of videos floating aroun…

Actually, I just started doing this yesterday. I had streamed a handful of times on Twitch (channel the same name as my username here) for side projects before, but I just joined a startup as a co-founder and decided to try streaming during work hours.

A couple tips:

  - Use multiple monitors - this is almost a hard requirement
  - Separate secrets into their own files.
  - Exclude secret files from your IDE/editor search
  - Make the second monitor the main monitor so notifications and what not go there
  - On that second (or third monitor), put everything that isn't your editor
Be prepared for few to no viewers. Remember the point is to help keep you focused, not get attention.

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#26

Post by ericbarnes »

kh_hk wrote: post #16

To be honest, investing in a whole studio setup for remote work seems to go against one of the biggest perks of remote work itself: freedom. Stock is usually good enough. That money is better invested on a pair of comfortable headphones, and also some good on-the-go light headphones with micro to hold remote calls outside of a quiet environment.

It seems like you are forgetting freedom means different things to different people. Look at the world outside your lens.

For me, freedom is not driving in rush hour and being home when my kids get home from school. Having a dedicated setup makes complete sense.

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#27

Post by whitehouse3 »

kwerk wrote: post #19
whitehouse3 wrote: post #7

It’s disappointing to see the Shure SM7B recommended so widely for use in residential environments. While Shure’s classic offering is popular among 2020 media creators (Joe Rogan, Bret Weinstein, and streamers like Tfue or SypherPK) it is still cruel and unforgiving of poor microphone technique, audio reflection, and background noise. Considering its high noise floor when driven by all but the nicest preamps, other o…

What would you recommend?

Shure's SM58 and SM57 have the same capsule as the SM7B for 1/3 the price and fuss.

Like the Rolex Submariner, the SM58 has been cloned at lower and lower prices since its introduction. The design is solid regardless of the price point. Imitations from Pyle and Audio Technica sound great and cost less, but aren't as rugged.

If you _want_ to spend money for more pleasing tone the Beta 87A from Shure is outstanding. As are similar cardioid microphones from Electro Voice and Neumann

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#28

Post by numpad0 »

nickjj wrote: post #10

You can spend $700+ on his high end audio recommendations but 90% of home office style recording environments (even with acoustic panels) are going to have a noticeable amount of background hiss (computer fans, etc.) get picked up and his set up doesn't account for that. If you goto the OP's Youtube channel and listen to his recordings, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh0sTxLs9VA , there is a HUGE amount…

Partly as a reminder to self: how hard could it be to build a noise cancelling/phased array setup for streaming?

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#29

Post by nickjj »

numpad0 wrote: post #28
nickjj wrote: post #10

You can spend $700+ on his high end audio recommendations but 90% of home office style recording environments (even with acoustic panels) are going to have a noticeable amount of background hiss (computer fans, etc.) get picked up and his set up doesn't account for that. If you goto the OP's Youtube channel and listen to his recordings, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh0sTxLs9VA , there is a HUGE amount…

Partly as a reminder to self: how hard could it be to build a noise cancelling/phased array setup for streaming?

If you're only concerned about OBS, it's trivial. You can use a VST (software plugin) without needing hardware or anything fancy.

Re: Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming

#30

Post by zebrafish »

One item that the author didn't touch on was internet connection. I would imagine that streaming with a 4k camera, even with codecs and compression and stuff that i know little about, would both take a decent sized upload pipe as well as no capping on uploaded data.

Does anyone have more info about this piece of the set up?

Post reply on HN