How to sound better on Zoom calls & podcasts
News flash: your built-in laptop microphone sounds like crap.
We're all on a lot of Zoom calls and maybe even podcasts these days, and you sound SO much more professional with good audio. You are probably already subconsciously (if not consciously) judging people with bad video/audio and people are doing the same to you.
Maybe I'm particularly sensitive to it because I started a podcast recently and have been obsessing over audio quality, but there is really not much of an excuse these days to not have a decent mic.
I think this is justified for Zoom calls alone, but especially if you're a guest on podcasts, a decent microphone is worth the investment.
- The Samson Q2U is a great mic for $70 on Amazon.
- Get as close to the mic as you can, ideally it should be 6 inches from your mouth. This makes a bigger difference to audio quality than almost anything.
- To help with #2, a mic boom arm can be had for < $20, you don't need anything fancy, it just needs to get the mic closer to your face.
- If you are a guest on a podcast, record your audio locally with this. It's free. https://www.audacityteam.org/
Hope that helps some of you!
Something else completely unexpected: I have a good mic, but people were complaining of some "static". Turns out it was low frequency vibrations on my desk.
Mounting it to an arm solved it.
Solid tips. A little investment goes a long way for a quality bump. I've been recording on an old school AKG Perception 100 for close to 10 years now. In a quite room with a pop filter and close up, it can still sound wonderful.
A comparable version that's still in production is their P120.
But the Samson you mentioned is perfect too, especially if there's going to be potential background noises. (It's a dynamic mic so will be better when you can't get your room super quiet.)