OT: Web microphones with good sound

I'm on a webinar dry run with a colleague. Her talk content is great, but her sound quality includes strange sound artifacts (sounds like a lot of echos whenever she speaks) and mic "pops". It's horrible.

Can anyone give me an idea for or share experiences to obtain high-quality sound via a computer microphone (either usb or banana plugs). How can I get great sound?

Alternately, if you know of the cause of these mic pops and echos and it's not the mic, sharing this and any remedies you have would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

J

Well, popping comes from speech "plosives", which are large volumes of air expelled when saying P, B, etc. The easy cure is good mic technique -- not speaking with the mic directly in front of you, but rather with it listening off to the side. More directional mic patterns exacerbate this problem. Without knowing what you're using, I can't offer any more specific advice than to orient the mic at an angle to the speaker's lips, rather than directly in front of them. Adjust, record, listen and evaluate, repeat... then lock it down.

Hopefully, your webinar program includes some sort of (speech) echo-cancellation processing. (If not, look for one that does.) The processing should control both "repeated" echoes, and general room "boominess", or sounding like they're in a bucket. If you're locked in, then it would be best to work on improving the acoustic environment she's in, by placing acoustical treatment on things like large reflective surfaces, parallel walls, etc. Sometimes office cubicle partitions can improve things greatly.

You might consider a noise-cancelling headset mic, if she's in a really bad environment. Although clarity will increase, it's sometimes fatiguing to listen to for extended periods.

If you want to get fancy, use recording/pa mics, with a mixer and processing, before feeding the signal to the webinar broadcast software. This will give you the most control, and closer to "broadcast" sound, but it costs more, and requires more brain cells to optimize.

If you frequent webinars, ask some folks who "sound good" what they're using for equipment, and what their room is like. That'll get you on the right path.

Chip

Leo Laporte, he does a radio show about technology stuff, recommends the Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone.

Amazon.com: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone: Musical Instruments

The Tech Guy Labs - Leo Laporte, "The Tech Guy" on the Premiere Radio Networks


Tom

We have had good luck with an older version of this . . .
Amazon.com: Audio-Technica AT2020 USB Condenser USB Microphone: Musical Instruments

We use a video / voice editing software and this microphone (plugged into a USB port) and this seems to work well.

Example - scroll down on this page and we have a video . . .

News | Applied Motion Systems, Inc.

Chip has got it. It's not the mic, it's the mic position. The mic should be at about a 45 degree upward angle, just under the lower lip and probably 6" or so away. That should fix the issue.