Fame and fortune – most of us desire it – and for many their perceived pathway to success is through the digital social media avenues including YouTube and Twitch.
The actual pathway to success is hard to fathom – having charisma and tenacity to perservere to building and audience is likely essential but there are a few things that will make your pathway to your success goals harder to if you overlook them.
To help you on your way here are a few things you should probably consider addressing either before or soon after you begin your quest for fame and/or notoriety.
- Ignore Sound Quality
Sound quality is the very first thing that people will notice so before you start down this path focus on sound.
Your inbuilt smartphone and laptop computer screen will sound terrible – they are not designed for broadcasting. A headset microphone is better, but a dynamic USB dynamic microphone such as the Samsung Qu2 is better. If you don’t want the microphone to be on screen you will need to consider a shotgun microphone but these are typically much more expensive.
Rule 1: You can make a good recording sound bad but its impossible to make a poor quality recording good – don’t believe the marketing hype of software and plugin companies.
- Don’t address Echo….Echo….Echo (Reverb)
Have you ever heard an echo when you have listened to audio? If not, go a clap your hands in your tiled bathroom. That sound you hear is the echo of the original sound reverberating around the room and back into the microphone. You can address this to a degree by having the microphone closer to your mouth but its more effective to use soft furnishings and blankets to absorb the sound. Furniture blankets are a popular option.
When selecting where to place noise absorbing material focus on the walls first, then the floor (if you are on a tiled or concrete floor) and ceiling last. Most noise travels across the room and then back and not up and down. Don’t forget the wall behind your computer monitor that’s the first place the noise goes after you speak when watching a screen.
If you still aren’t sure what reverb sounds like you can hear in it in the Down with D&D Podcast episode about Traps when the very talented Teos Abadia speaks in a room which sounds like has blank walls and a tiled floor making the perfect echo chamber.
- Buy a Shure SM7B Because You Think It Must be the Best
This is a prolific internet microphone – the Shure SM7B is a classic microphone with its dark tones doing wonders for many voices. But it is expensive to own, and to make it work you have to shove if up in your face which if you are streaming video really ensures that your audience can’t see you – like this guy.
A microphone should be selected for the tone it provides your voice, the application you intend to use it for, the budget you have and the quality of the end user device.
A Shure SM7B is a great microphone but most videos are watched on a smartphone or tablet and neither will provide the audio quality of the recording and there is a good chance that the compression used by your streaming service will take the edge of your beautiful mix as well.
- Talk into the top of a Blue Yeti Microphone
Yes. You need need help. Go check out this episode of Podcaststage for all you want to learn about Microphones and this YouTuble Video by Curtis Judd on selecting a microphone for streaming.
All the best finding fame and fortune!
