[FStitanium]

Good day sc2seaians!

I'm planning on streaming my games soon. However, i would need to prepare the appropriate gear for a start. The end objective is for me to stream with music as well as involving my voice.

Hoping to save some money, i was thinking of getting a webcam with a built-in microphone. However I'm not sure how sensitive the device will detect the sound.

Or is there any other recommendation other than the usual gaming headset? For example Day9, he doesn't use a gaming headset, any knows his kind of set-up?

Hope to receive good advices, thank you!

Quick Comments

Cyanide:

day9 uses a tabletop mic iirc

[RicocheT]

Sup dude I'll give you some advice.
Don't be a tightarse. Buy a proper headset.
I've co-casted with a inbuilt laptop mic and with a webcam mic before and honestly I found headset to be 2x better in terms of clarity + volume

[Cordance]

A headset is the best "cheep" option for stream. Web cam mics unless they have improved significantly in recent years are ... poor (you could probably drop the R off that). A proper microphone is always going to be better than a headset one. However microphones are expensive especially when you start looking for quality. You can use the echo service on Skype or log into vent twice to get an idea of what the listeners will be dealing with.
Asking people who already have microphones your looking at too have a chat is a good way to get an idea for noise. Also keep in mind what kind of background noise they will pick up. A webcam mic is a long way from your face so its more likely to pick up room sounds (computer, animals, family wait I said animals). Good luck in your investigation often with a bit of tweaking a cheep mic can get similar sound quality to a reasonable mic, its only when you start moving to expensive stand alone mics you get a significant jump in quality. One last thing make sure you arnt going to need a separate amp if you ever get a stand alone mic.

Quick Comments

FLuX:

cheep cheep tweety bird

[FStitanium]

I see, but if i were to get a headset, the usb port part the one that plays the music from your pc and the mic jack just your voice right?

[Antel0pe]

Just my 2cents.

I found that if you get a very high end microphone like the Blue Yeti, it'll pick up weird sounds no matter what configuration it is at. This is due to it being a studio standard microphone, meaning it works best in a studio environment, where there is lots of sound proofing etc.

Headset microphones are quite good, you can always search up "Steelseries Siberia Microphone Test" or whatever headset on YouTube, and it'll usually come up with a good mic test.

[Flamga]

You can use a microphone like this but they are super sensitive and pickup everything in the room, so it works but probably not ideal. Best option is just to use a headset mic initially, and then if you decide you want one you can purchase a high quality microphone, i.e. a tabletop one.

[TidaL]

Headset is probably the easiest and best! - Cheapest too

[Cordance]

If your having issues with your microphone picking up the room you need to focus on a directional microphone of some kind. Most headsets use a directional microphone. This is easy to see if your microphone of your headset is on the inside of the boom arm. If you are really serious about getting a microphone go to a music shop and talk to them. Tell them what your doing and what sounds are around you dont want.
For those of you who already have awesome microphones that are picking up sounds you dont want from directions that you are not speaking from. A trick that can work depending on volume of unwanted sounds is a cloth (felt is good) curtain around the side of the microphone you want to be the dead side (and across the top) creating a optimal direction of use.

+ [More random info dump about screening microphones] +

As most people who use a microphone know it picks up sound waves which are pressure waves. The cloth curtain absorbs the pressure of these waves and depending on the cloth hopefully does not remit them on the other side. Things you need to be careful of is to make sure it doesnt create an echo from your optimal direction. Reflecting the sound is a useful material propriety and if you use it in combination with multi layers it can get you the result you are trying to get. The cloth cover is the trick they use to remove wind from outside recording (they use some highly optimized material but the basics are the same.) Multi layers with an air gap, is the best as each time the pressure has to transition between materials it will lose some of its energy. This is how sound proof windows work with their air gap in the middle. It is important to take note of how different materials around your mic will alter the sound. Sound waves are waves so they can go around corners but they are also quick so they cant really do tight corners..

The most important thing when buying a microphone look at where it is used and see if that will work for you.

[Meatex]

OBS (open broadcast software) and XSplit (though its buggy with most hardware) will take what you hear (any sound that comes out your speakers) and your mic sound and mix them together prior to sending out the data so you don't need to worry about that
And unless you have killer upload and can afford the bandwidth for high quality audio then having an expensive or good mic is moot as the downsampling will make it sound like a cheap mic.

I bought a clip on mic for $8 ages ago and it works great ^^

[FStitanium]

hmmm, alright guys, thanks alot for your advices, appreciate them alot. I think will get a webcam first and if doesn't work, i will get a clip on mic like meatex or maybe just whack my money on a headset ^^

[AxS.pinealan]

In my opinion Headset > Webcam
Most of the headset have better mic quality than webcams ( thats my experience ) so if you want a clear mic, you would want to get a headset. As a person who watches streams, I don't really care about the webcam. What I am looking for is your game play and what you have to say on it. Besides, headset allows yourself to get something out of your purchase (i.e. better game audio quality for you), where as for webcam, you not be benefited.
And, as most have said, headset is cheaper