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Comment by dzohrob | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the feedback— the setup we have is less than ideal. We’re both using a Blue Snowball mic, and I’m recording in the supply closet of my shared office (finding quiet space in NYC is hard, especially with kids at home!)

Going to try switching to a dynamic mic with a tighter pickup pattern, but the one I tried on Amazon from CAD was faulty (crazy buzzing around 1khz), so waiting for the next delivery...

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For what you're doing, a dynamic is a good call--they'll eat the bounce off the walls. Don't worry about a tight pickup pattern so long as it is generally cardioid; with dynamic mics' general falloff, a wide cardioid pattern is not going to hurt you much. Consider the AT2005USB or ATR2100USB; both microphones are USB/XLR so later on you don't have to dump them if you want to get fancier and they sound very good for the price.

Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like to chat about this; I do a little bit of audio wizardry on the side (and I'm building an open-source podcast serving platform at the moment, as it happens, so I've spent time in the weeds--maybe it'd be a good option for your hosting).

Thanks for the detailed comment! I just ordered the ATR2100USB and will give it a shot. I'll follow up with you re: hosting... it's something we're interested in and don't know that much about. Thanks again!

I suggest, if you are having echo problems and are recording in a closet with a bunch of reflective surfaces to take a bed sheet in with you and drape it over your head and mic (like a ghost!). Back before I had a better recording space it greatly reduced the amount of echo I got in my recordings.

Thanks for the suggestion! I put some towels up on the walls but I haven't tried the blanket trick yet...

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