Recently I got a studio quality desk mic and a pair of headphones on sale. The quality of both are great, but it being a desk mic has lead to a problem I was concerned about when buying it in the first place… Once I talk loud enough in teamspeak to activate the mic via voice activation, the clicks of my mouse and keyboard are picked up while talking. This is a major pet peeve I have when it comes to gaming. I want the audio I send to other people on Teamspeak to be as clear and noiseless as possible.
Is there some kind of audio software where I can perhaps have the mic record a range of sounds, like testing typing on a keyboard, and set the mic to not pic up and transmit these sounds while it is picking up other sounds?
The mic I have is the Samson Meteor desktop mic. It has noise reduction software… that doesn’t come with it for free… squints as Samson angrily
There should be a way to have it set in software where the frequency ranges that are problematic are less sensitive than the rest. Should be possible. Don't know how to go about it.
You mean in Teamspeak? There are some background noise cancellation and echo reduction stuff I forgot to have on while testing with somebody on Teamspeak with this new mic. I just turned them on and that might help. But I'd love to find a more specific way like I've described.
Like I said, I don't know how to go about doing it, but t here should be a pieceo f software out there which will allow you to filter the incoming audio before being passed to other software (think manycam putting its logo on things before passing it to other software). So you find the frequencies that your keyboard and mouse are making noises in and then turn those frequencies down. Again. No idea where to find this software, but I'd eat my hat if it didn't exist somewhere.
First of all make sure the mic is away from your computer, speakers, chargers and anything with static electricity. The problem is that you don't use a Noise Gate filter, which eliminates low dB sounds like keyboard typing, enviroment sounds and mouse clicking etc. The Noise Gate only allows the signal of a volume in a certain threshold (measuted in dB), so experiment with the audio recording software that you use and enable this feature. Also play around with Equalizer for additional voice clarity.
I just found something called FabFilter that looks like it mihgt do what I need. I started the installation and it was asking about stuff I have no clue about. Do you use FabFilter?
I haven't used VST for realtime audio before, but It's essential for you to own an audio interface since you own a professional Microphone. I have the Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 as my audio interface, it's incredibly powerful and comes with professional key-features essential for musicians and broadcasters. They also have exclusive applications that allow you to modify your sound.
Do you have any other suggestions for interfaces that I can try? I'll have to look at them tomorrow; I just realized how late it was getting. But I'll be sure to get back with more informed questions tomorrow after giving what you two have said so far the proper attention.
Ah, so you mean a physical device. I was thinking just a piece of software. It makes sense, though. For the time being I'll try testing Teamspeak settings tomorrow and see how bad it is. But I will need an inteface and/or some kind of noise gate software because I would like to solve this and other things as I'm using a mic more and more for different things.
Like I said, though, I'll have to get back with you in the next couple of days once I have more background information.
I suggested Audio Interface because you can choose it as an input device on many software like Skype. Mine by default has a microphone pre-amp feature and a gain knob to adjust microphone or instrument input level.
One: TeamSpeak has a noise gate built into it - its the function that only activates your microphone when your volume passes a certain level and you configure it during set up.
Secondly: You cant use VSTs like FabFilter in real time in TeamSpeak - they are designed for DAWs.
Regardless, whether you use a noisegate or push to talk - the sounds going off at the same time as your voice are going to get picked up - these solutions will only mute the audio between you speaking. The only real thing you can do about that is experiment with mic positions that lessen them - or get a boom arm the mic comes right up to your face and isn't on your desk at all.
What kind of microphone did you buy? Would be useful to know the pickup pattern.
I don't understand how anybody uses push to talk. If all you're doing is a Skype call, it's easy, albeit inconvenient. But in a game... yikes, that's a keybind thrown away just for voice chat and a finger you have to dedicate to holding or at least hitting that key if it will stay activated while you keep talking. Lets take Guild Wars 2, for example. My left hand handles both movement and skill activation through over 25 different hotkeys and hotkey combinations while my right hand handles directional movement, targeting, and positioning on a mouse with extra buttons. Push to talk simply isn't an option :D
Yes, Teamspeak does have that activation based noise gate and that helps do a degree. but what I was wanting to try and see if I can do is have a first layer software filter that cuts out different, select noises before that audio even gets sent to the Teamspeak program.
I got a Samson Meteor mic. That's literally all that it's called, there's just one model type.