Lapel vs Blue Yeti for Half Body Talking Head

I wanted to get people's opinions on the best microphone choice for a half body talking head video.

I have a blue yeti as well as a lavalier microphone.

I love my blue yeti, and have been using it exclusively. However I'm worried about it being too big and bulky in the shot. And if I move it out of the shot, I'm worried that I'll have to up the gain, which may result in picking up a lot of noise.

On the other hand, I don't know much about the lavalier, except that it seems like a condensor mic which also may have its noise picking issues.

Any recommendations or experience would be highly appreciated.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

MichaelPog

Anyone?

LiamDavin1

Hi @MichaelPog

Can you record both microphones at the same time? If you can, do so and experiment with the distance of the Yeti.

Listen back and see which works best - just be sure both microphone signals are at the same volume, so you can hear their quality difference, rather than being fooled by volume difference.

Having said that, I don't see anything majorly wrong with having the Yeti in shot. Position it 3 to 6 inches below your head, and far enough in front so that you can point it at your mouth.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Liam

MichaelPog

@LiamDavin1
that's a great idea to record both at the same time and compare.

I was just wondering about many others who don't seem to be using a lapel mic but I don't see the microphone in their shot at all. So their mic wherever it is it's definitely more than 6 inches away. So I wonder how people achieve such good audio quality with that.

LiamDavin1

Hi again @MichaelPog

They may be using a shotgun mic, which is designed to be used out of shot.

For my courses I usually use a condenser microphone (Audio Technica 4033 mostly) in this way. I position it 10-12 inches above my head and again far enough in front to point it at my mouth, but this can start to show up your room's acoustics. However I am a Sound Engineer/Audio Producer, so in addition I process the audio in Post Production afterwards.

Just out of curiosity, which lapel microphone do you have?

MichaelPog

Thanks @LiamDavin1
!

What I have is a BOYA Omnidirectional Condenser

I bought it 4 years ago and used it only once. It was picking up a lot of background, mainly static actually.

That didn't matter too much then because I used it for a promo video so the background music solved the problem.

It will matter now though.

Are all shotgun microphones condensers?

Or you can find a dynamic shotgun microphone as well?

I read that condenser mics are mainly good for sound proof studios. My room is fairly well insulated from outside noise but I think it may have some echo issues, which is normally not a problem with the Blue yeti close to my face.

LiamDavin1

Hi @MichaelPog

I haven't come across Dynamic shotgun microphones. On Amazon it says the Shure VP 89M shotgun mic IS Dynamic and then says it requires power.... which suggests it's a condenser mic.

I think it would be a good idea to deal with your acoustics/echo problem, which is not as difficult as you might think. In the video I've linked below, the guy does a great job of showing you how to make your own acoustic treatment pretty easily. Even if you're useless at DIY (like me!) maybe you could get someone to build them for you? How To Make Your Own Acoustic Panels - DIY Professional Acoustic Treatment for Home Studio - YouTube Stick around til the end of the video, where he does a before/after demo to show how effective they are.

I hope this helps,

Liam

By dealing with your acoustics, this will give you a bit more flexibility with your Blue Yeti distance-wise.