Whether you are streaming, podcasting, singing, or even just video calling, microphones are an essential tool, and Svive offers multiple options, both USB and XLR.
As any other condenser type mic, Svive microphones are very sensitive, making them great at capturing vocals and high frequencies.
They are brilliant at picking up delicate sounds, and therefore it’s important to have them set up properly to ensure good quality audio.
It only takes a few minutes to set up your mic to get clean, professional-sounding audio. And here we are giving you some tips to do this as well as mic test.
1. USE IN A ROOM WITHOUT MANY HARD SURFACES
Sound bounces off bare walls and hard floors, such as tile or wooden floors, which causes an echo or reverb. Therefore, choosing a smaller room with fewer hard surfaces prevents your voice from reflecting into the microphone.
Furniture, wall decorations, and closed curtains on the windows help reduce the echoing. If it’s not possible to record at a location with reflection-breaking objects, try hanging blankets around your setup to muffle the reverb.
2. TURN OFF ANYTHING NOISY IN THE BACKGROUND
Since microphones often pick up background noises, it is important to keep them at a minimum. Close your windows to ensure no outside noise is heard and close the room doors if you are living with other people.
Turning off your fans, AC, furnaces, phones, and other electronics helps reduce any background noises from being recorded as well.
3. CHECK IF YOU ARE USING THE CORRECT SIDE OF THE MICROPHONE
There can of course still be noisy electronics in your room that you simply can’t turn off, such as your computer or laptop. To minimize the amount of noise that gets picked up while recording, Svive external microphones feature a cardiod polar pattern (either by default or by selecting this pattern using a physical slider on Svive Leo).
This means that your microphone picks up sounds that come from its front while reducing those that come from behind.
Make sure your PC, keyboard, mouse, and other sources of background noise are behind your microphone. Additionally, check that you talk to the front of the microphone and not its back, top, or to the side to ensure a clear sound.
4. SPEAK NEAR THE MICROPHONE
Condenser microphones are sensitive enough to pick up your voice from the other end of the room. That however doesn´t mean you should keep it far from your face.
Don’t shy away from the microphone since too great of a distance might make you sound like you’re in a cave. Position it approximately 15-20 centimeters from your mouth and on a lower gain level to keep recording consistent, quality balanced audio.
Of course, if you have a deeper voice, then your recordings contain more bass, making the audio sound boomy if you are speaking too close to your microphone.
In this case, move a few more centimeters further from it to find that sweet spot where your vocals sound clear.
5. CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE GAIN LEVEL
Gain level of your mic determines how loud the input audio is, providing tone control. This means that the gain setting controls how sensitive your microphone is and with that, how clearly your voice will be recorded.
If you set your gain too high, your vocals on the recording will be too loud, making them distorted. To prevent that, you should set the gain at a lower, more appropriate level. The optimal gain level differs from microphone to microphone but setting it down to a maximum of 75% is recommended.
You can set the gain level of your microphone either in Windows System Settings or by turning the gain button on the device itself if you own the Svive Leo or the Svive Leo Studio Kit.
SET MICROPHONE LEVELS IN WINDOWS 10:
Open the Windows sound settings and make sure you have selected the correct microphone.
Open the Sound Control Panel and double click on your Svive microphone in the “Recording” tab.
In the “Advanced” tab, there is a drop-down box. Make sure you choose the higher number of Hz to increase your sound quality (CD/DVD quality).
6. USE A BOOM ARM AND SHOCK MOUNT
If you use the microphone to record podcasts or gaming streams, then adding a boom arm and a shock mount to your setup can make a big difference.
Any small movements you make on your desk, such as slams on your keyboard or lifting the mouse and putting it back down while gaming, get picked up by the microphone, resulting in loud noises to your viewers.
Placing your microphone on a boom arm and adding a shock mount to it helps you prevent that. The studio arm easily clamps on to your desk and allows you to position your mic in a way it fits you best while keeping away from your keyboard and mouse.
Clamping the boom arm on furniture next to your desk is also a great way of preventing any bumps on the desk to be heard on your recordings.
A shock mount helps you prevent any vibrations from being transferred from the environment surrounding you into the microphone, providing clean, rumble-free audio.
7. SET UP A POP FILTER
Speaking near the microphone can result in popping sounds in the recordings. Those are caused by fast-moving air blowing into the mic from plosives during talking or singing, mostly around letters t, d, k, g, p, b, that disrupts the sensitive components of the microphone.
The nylon of the pop filter diverts the air from your mouth away from the mic, which tremendously reduces the breathy and popping sounds from being picked up.
BONUS TIPS:
1. Install Nvidia RTX Voice
The GPU (graphics processing unit) developer Nvidia is offering a new and free plugin called Nvidia RTX Voice that can remove the background noise; even the loudest mouse and mechanical keyboard clicks.
It allows live streaming and video calls without having to worry about unwanted sounds distracting your viewers.
This feature is currently still limited to only certain GPU models, so make sure to check if it’s available for yours at RTX Voice Setup Guide.
2. Use OBS filters
OBS Studio is a free, open-source software, that is often used for video recording and streaming. It offers multiple useful filters for your audio.
Using the filter “Noise Suppression”, is a great way to minimize distracting background noise, such as keyboard clicks, from your recordings and streams.
The filter “Limiter” limits how loud you can be. It allows you to set the maximum loudness and even if you scream, it won’t rupture your viewer’s eardrums.
Activating the “Noise Gate” filter makes anything that isn’t a certain loudness not get transmitted through the microphone.