People forgive a soft picture. Not this.

A soft picture buys you an hour of goodwill. Bad sound spends it in ninety seconds.

The dead zone, and what to put in it.

THE DETAIL

A cardioid microphone is loud in front, quieter at the sides, and very nearly deaf directly behind. That deaf spot is a free noise gate, and almost nobody uses it. Turn the microphone so the keyboard, the tower fan and the door all sit behind it rather than in front, and you remove more noise than any software will.

01THE DEAD ZONEA free noise gate, behind it
02THE AXISLoud in front, deaf behind
03THE DISTANCECloser is quieter, oddly

What we are writing.

5 PIECES · IN THE WORKSHOP

Five pieces about the half of a stream that people actually leave over.

How to aim a cardioid so the keyboard disappears

Using the dead zone properly, which is free and instant.

★★☆ · 5 MIN

How to separate game, chat and voice

Setting it up before you need it, rather than during.

★★★ · 9 MIN

Which noise suppression helps and which eats consonants

What each type actually does to a voice.

★★☆ · 6 MIN

How to set levels so you are not the quiet one

Gain, normalisation and what platforms do to your audio.

★★☆ · 6 MIN

How to check your stream sounds right before going live

The ninety-second test, and what to listen for.

★☆☆ · 4 MIN

A control pad with a grid of small square keys lit from within, keys blank of any symbol.

Turn the microphone. That is the whole fix.
SLOT 08 · STREAMING · WHAT THE MIC HEARS

A desk corner at night: a mic on an arm, an interface, headphones and a coiled cable.

FROM THE CURATOR

Turn the mic, move the lamp

The two changes that improved my stream most were free. I turned the microphone about thirty degrees so the keyboard sat in its dead spot, and I moved the light off the top of the monitor to forty-five degrees on my left. That was it. No purchase, one evening, and the difference is larger than anything I have bought since.

BY POPPY — CLASS: CURATOR · THEPINKPIPER.GG

THE REST OF THIS STATION

Cameras & Capture WHAT THE LENS SEES →Lighting WHAT THE LIGHT THROWS →

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SLOT 08 / 08 · STREAMING

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