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J
Johnabruzzi
Participating Frequently
April 4, 2020
Question

Mic bleed and recording with two USB microphones

  • April 4, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 1965 views

i don't know if this is possible, but is there anyway that while using two USB microphones I can somehow use them both to pick up recording for the two different speakers in the podcast. I haven't been able do what I mentioned above so I did it in another format so I just used my apple device  for one way to record and my laptop for voice recorder for another. But this process is quite time consuming and hopefully there is a way (or close to a way) that you could help me resolve this issue. Secondly, in terms of mic bleed I have a large issue with that in addition. Which also leads to finally, I don't know how you can accurately line up the clips so they play together In unison and have no delay. Hopefully this is enough detail for my request but I will put it into simple:

 

q1- how to record on audition with two usb mics (using a laptop and no audio interface) (laptop has 3 usb slots)

q2- Mic bleed (and how to solve even when two people talk at same time)

q3- how to line up the clips in unison (from previously when I would have had to manually import them from other devices)

 

With the limited equipment I have I don't expect for all of these questions to be answered)

 

 

 

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1 reply

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
Community Expert
April 4, 2020

You haven't said whether this is a PC or a Mac. On a PC, you have to use the ASIO4ALL driver (it's free) to create an aggregated sound source of both mics, and because their digitising clocks aren't synchronised, ASIO4ALL has to resample one of them to synchronise it with the other. It works, but it's an almighty kludge, quite frankly, and isn't to be recommended. Generally two normal mics and a small mixer will give you altogether better results. As for what happens on a  Mac, I'm not sure. It aggregates all available audio sources anyway, but I don't know how or whether it can cope with two USB mics.

 

If you have two mics in the same room, and it hasn't been treated to take account of this (ie, it's not a purpose-designed studio) then bleed between them is inevitable - it's caused by both mics picking up sound bounced back from the walls from both contributors.

 

As far as lining up results goes, you're back to the two USB mic problem - the apple device (whatever that is) and the laptop aren't synchronised, so you will inevitably find that even if the starts are lined up, over time they will drift out of sync anyway. You might get away with lining both tracks up in Multitrack view, synchronising the start, and then dragging the end of one of the clips (turn stretch on in Properties) so that it lines up with the sound from the other. Because there's more latitude than most people realise in clock specifications (which is entirely what this is about), they often seem surprised when over an hour, the whole thing has drifted out by a couple of seconds - but I can assure you that this is quite normal.

 

So in summary, the answers to your questions amount to this: sell the USB mics and get a couple of normal ones and a small mixer with an interface, and do some acoustic treatment in the room you're using. It's not for nothing that this is how normal radio studios operate... 😉

 

 

 

J
JohnabruzziAuthor
Participating Frequently
April 5, 2020

Thank you very much, and in terms of using an audio interface, if I ever use one, I don't know what settings or levels I should use to decrease mic bleed. Could you maybe recommend Any not too expensive but good quality audio interfaces? And if so when I record in my windows laptop how will I monitor the settings to change the channels to the two microphones?

 

thanks, JohnAbruzzi

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
Community Expert
April 5, 2020

At present, the bargain mixer with a USB interface to go for is the Behringer Xenyx Q1202USB. It has four mic inputs, but don't let that bother you - it's still available at a very cheap price. The only way you will decrease the level of bleed is to get people closer to the mics, talking more quietly, and keep the mic levels appropriately lower. The issue here really doesn't have anything to do with equipment settings - it's purely down to the acoustics, and the aim of getting closer is to increase the level of direct sound from the voice relative to what's coming back from the room. If you don't fix the room acoustics though, then there's a very distinct limit to what you can achieve.

 

Setting up the mixer is relatively straightforward - you plug headphones into it, and you'll soon find out whether it's balanced correctly. But in a way it doesn't matter - you have two mics, you pan one hard left and the other hard right, and sort the absolute levels out afterwards.

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