I am working from home lots recently and regularly doing voice and video calls. The mic on the webcam is pretty ordinary, I have a better quality mic on a boom but it picks up lots of noise (eg fan noise from my router).
I am looking for something to process the sound from the “good” mic on a raspberry pi and some searching brought me to MODEP. I was thinking a noise gate, compression and maybe some EQ and I wondered if any one here has some tips.
The mic itself needs phantom power and I can plug it into a small analog mixer or I have a yamaha mic to USB audio interface. Is there a clear benefit for one over the other.
I am not limiting myself to MODEP but it seems like it might fit the bill.
Hello there!
Of course you can use the MODEP plugins to process your mic, although many of them are tailored for instruments, you can find great “general purpose” effects.
But my 2 cents advice is to start with a better source of sound, instead. Since you use it mostly for video calls, I’d suggest to go for a lavalier microphone, in place of your boom… Nowadays you can find some for around € 50 and it will save you a lot of trouble. You can still post-process it, if you want, but starting with a clearer signal it’s always recommended.
1 Like
Cool thanks for the tips. The boom mic I have is a Rode and presumably much better quality than my webcam so I guess if its a small matter of software then I can start with it + voice processing then consider other mics. It is very sensitive but it is also quite directional.
You’ll probably also get some mileage out of treating the issues acoustically - a towel or blanket hung between the router and mic will cut down fan noise. You can improvise or build something that is application-specific (which might work better if it has to be on camera) There are various isolation shields you can buy as well that will isolate the mic from the room noises - you can probably find a design that will suit your needs, but it may be spendy (perhaps use the commercial products to inspire a DIY solution?)
My $0.02 (Canadian Tire)
John
Thanks, that is worth a try. It is not super noisy, I just notice with the boom mike it tends to pick up everything.
I have rearranged things a bit and the rode boom mic seems to give a better experience for listeners. The background noise is present but not too annoying for now.
I also realized pulse audio has some effects which might get me some improvement. I can at least experiment before deploying a raspberry pi.