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Hi everyone,

As a continuation of my post on online teaching audio equipment, I was wondering if there’re any recommendations for a USB mic that I can use for both (which is important) talking and playing? Perhaps a USB mic with a built-in compressor? I tried Blue Yeti and it did not work well for both talking and playing. I use a grand piano. So either my talking was too soft while piano playing volume was fine, or the other way around. I would not want to purchase XLR mics with an additional USB audio interface. if the mic has a built-in stand, that would be a plus. For example, I have also tried the AKG Lyra. While the stand was good, it did not have a compressor so sometimes the audio clips.

Thanks

AKG Lyra is probably best USB Mic on the market available today. However, as placement is crucial so for one mic you have to compromise or piano or voice quality.

If you do not want to buy XLR route, what I would suggest is to buy some cheap mike and set it on separate stand close to your head and put properly another mic for piano, or just use one near the music stand.

Josh Wright in one of his videos was showing how Blue Yeti works for him as only mike, before he get his studio seriously upgraded.

FWIW --

I've heard Blue Yeti's over Zoom, and via YouTube -- they're very good microphones. Given the limits of Zoom sound, IMHO it's pointless to use anything more expensive. Since you own one (I think), let's start there.


(a) Presumably, you had the mic close to your mouth for "voice too loud", and close to the piano for "piano too loud":

. . . Why don't you position it in between those two positions ?

The Yeti lets you use a standard floor-mounted "boom mic stand" -- get one, and position the mic so that voice and piano are balanced nicely. The Yeti has a "figure 8" pattern -- that might give you the best results.

(b) That's a fine goal, _if_ you can do what you want to do, and keep yourself in "USB land". There are USB mics that have built-in compressors, but you might be better off using a software compressor _running on the computer_, between the USB mic input port, and the Zoom input.

The Blue Mic website talks about "Blue Voice", a computer-based "vocal chain", which includes a compressor. I don't know if it's free, but it could save you a lot of grief if it's tailored to Blue mic's.

Adding a second mic and compressor would be easy, if you were using XLR analog mic's and a mixer with built-in compressor and USB adapter. But you don't want to do that (and if you own the Yeti already, it will be costly to switch).

(c) Don't futz around with "built-in" mic stands. Get a floor-mounted boom stand, they're cheap enough.

This problem has been solved before, in several ways. There are several YouTube videos on setting up for Zoom lessons by Hugh Sung, put up by Cunningham Pianos. Worth watching.

PS -- Forgive me if I've suggested things that you've already ruled out, in previous posts.

Something else:

To get decent music quality, you should use Zoom's "Original Sound" setting.

If you use a loudspeaker, there's an excellent chance that you'll have severe feedback issues, when you switch to "Original Sound".

. . . Use headphones, or in-ear monitors, instead.

You may find a computer-based mixer / compressor (that is, a "virtual mixer") that lets you mix two USB mics into Zoom. That might be worth a try. I tried, and had latency problems, so I'm loathe to suggest it.

I will add only - and there are many videos on youtube - that for only a bit more XLR version of the same mic + interface (and if you will buy Behringer or Presonus it will cost you the same as UBS version) sounds thousands times better than USB. I also wanted to buy USB mic like lyra etc for my upright in order to save bit money and gear, but when I heard few times direct comparison it was all over.

However, for zoom lessons it maybe not as critical ;-)

I experimented with this some when I started online lessons a few years back and whenever I used one mic, either my voice was too quiet or the piano too loud, and it was annoying to fix it during a lesson. Ultimately I arrived at using two XLR mics with an interface (one mic for the piano, and one lavalier mic for my voice). When I want to play the piano, I just push a button on the interface to disable the lavalier mic. This approach allows me to get good levels on both mics and is easy to setup