If you watch many tutorials on video creation, one of the primary lessons you learn quickly is that audio makes or breaks your production. Low quality video is troublesome, but generally doesn’t chase away viewers (unless its really annoying). Low quality audio however rapidly chases them away. It is very easy to forgive poor lighting, low resolution, or even skipped frames, but it is nearly impossible to ignore cracking sounds, low volume, static, or any other audio issues. To this end, although the gear doesn’t need to be top quality, it is very important to consider your arrangement and processing for decent levels.
The first step is of course collection – where do you put the microphones for the best chance of pickup? In my case, we have 10 players and the GM, arranged around an 8 foot table. Some speak softly, some are loud speakers, so there is a lot of variation. For a microphone, you need to select the pickup pattern, to maximize what it hears, and not catch what you don’t want. Lots of issues to deal with, so after multiple trial and error attempts, I sorted out the following.
Using a set of 4 cardiod microphones, I have them arranged roughly equally along the table, two at the far end and two near the GM end. They are angled out to the players on either side, and wired into the H6 audio recorder. For the GM, I have a separate lavalier microphone, plugged in thru an independent wire to the recorder. With this arrangement, the players all have good options for pickup, and if there is a more soft spoken player, I can individually adjust the respective microphone for more sensitivity, or turn down the louder players – trying to balance the general volumes. The Zoom H6 brings in each microphone as a separate channel, but combines them all into a single output going to my capture computer, where I can then process the signal for OBS.
Within OBS is where the real adjustment comes into play. Again, thru trial and error, I have tuned it to a good quality. Originally (a few weeks ago), I had been making some design mistakes due to a lack of understanding. In an effort to hear all the players, I had the microphone gain set much higher than I should have (approximately 7.5 out of 10). Although this made everyone clear, it also recorded frequent hums are background noise from the electronics. My approach at the time was to introduce a noise gate, which would then automatically turn off the sound whenever someone wasn’t speaking, and back on when there was voice. It worked but ended up with the audio being rather choppy – it was obvious there was an off and on, similar to a radio transmission – which was not the intent.
Recently however, I came across a video posted by EposVox, which solved this issue. I refer you to his video for a far better explanation, but in effect I was underestimating the ability of my (cheap) microphones. Rather than turning up the gain, I wanted to turn it down most of the way (I ended up on 3 or 4 gain, depending on the specific microphone and players). With the gain down, the hum and noise were gone, but the voices could still be heard (though softly). From there, in OBS I apply a series of filters and effects to clean up the signal.
- Gain – I add 15 dB of gain to the H6 signal, to bring the vocals back to a comfortable level. On my meters in OBS, that places the audio roughly in the yellow range on the band, but your particular configuration will vary somewhat.
- Compressor – I add a compressor, which reduces the highs and raises the lows – basically stabilizing the general sound level. If someone speaks loudly, it mellows it out, if someone speaks softly it raises them up. In this case, the attack should be small (I have 2 ms), so it is quick to respond.
- Limiter – Finally, to avoid any particularly excited or loud players, we add a limiter, which automatically caps the audio volume. My is set for -3 dB, choose what makes sense for you. This makes it so that during a particularly exciting period, the audio doesn’t clip and distort due to the extra volume.
With these, my audio sounds actually very good. For a collection of inexpensive mics and a basic layout, the group is very clear and audible, and we have none of the prior background noises. Now my biggest challenge is honestly just remembering to turn on the H6, so that I actually pick up the sound.
