How to Reduce Keyboard and Mouse Clicks

Question

When i record with my headset mic it picks up my keyboard and mouse clicks without remorse, so I need to know, How do i reduce that? Gaming channels like Markiplier and PewDiePie when they play they have almost no keyboard or mouse noise. I was thinking of getting a dynamic mic but i cant have the mic right in front of me.

Answer 1

There are two simple approaches that I can think of:

1. Get a mic that doesn't pick up as much noise
2. Get a keyboard that doesn't make as much noise

The first one I don't know too much about, but something to look into is the pickup pattern. If you use a mic with a cardioid pickup pattern and can position it so the keyboard is to the rear of the mic, the mic will pick up very little of its sound. If, however, it's to the side of the mic, it'll pick up a fair bit of the sound, and if it's on the back of the mic, it'll pick up all of it. But I don't have a ton of actual experience to go on here, so I'll leave it at that.

The second option is an interesting one, because generally, gamers really like mechanical keyboards, which are typically thought of as being quite loud. Even quieter switches like Cherry's Red and Brown switches are generally a bit louder than a lot of decent, new-ish membrane keyboards. However, if you throw on some o-rings, that will reduce the noise of bottoming out the keys a lot, which is most of the noise from those keyboards anyway. And on top of that, Cherry has recently come out with a new MX Silent switch, which has the linear feel of the Red switch but some extra design elements to get it to make less noise. Currently, it's only available on the Corsair Strafe RGB, but I'd expect a lot of keyboard makers to offer it once Corsair's year-long exclusivity contract expires. Of course, another approach would be to just go with a decent membrane or chiclet keyboard that is on the quieter side.

So those are my two ideas. I'm sure there are other ways of approaching this, and others who have more experience can give you more information, but hopefully my little tidbit helps you out!

Answer 2

The clicking of the keyboard is called "Haptic" feedback, to emulate how a standard keyboard would sound and feel. On smart phones this feature can be turned of. I have mine off, as it is an annoying sound. I would check to see if your keyboard has an 'OFF' option for that effect.

You can add low cost software or a separate noise gate for your mic that can stop the click sound, but your voice must be loud enough to trip the noise gate so your voice comes though.

The first answer by Stephen Kendall is worth looking into as well, because reducing the original sources of noise helps other noise-cancelling tricks work better.