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Me and my girlfriend are side-by-side when playing video games, and we would like to stream the game, so the question of how to pick up the sound had to be brought up. I bought two cheap unidirectional shotgun microphones like this one in order to get the two voices differentiated (we are on a voice channel and it is important to know who talks, one microphone for the two doesn't make the job) but it obviously doesn't work and both microphones pick-up the sound from the other person...

Here is how it is done right now : (top view, the "------" are the screens, the "/" and "\" are the microphones) 

 \ ------    ------ /
    [me]      [gf]

I tried it this way, with the same result

  ------ / \ ------
   [me]       [gf]

Does anyone have a clue about how to tackle this problem ? Is it the wrong type of microphone, or only a positionning thing ?

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  • Go with solution 2 a bit more angle and a piece of sound Absorbent material or a thick surface like plexiglass dividing the 2 mics up to a certain point..
    – frcake
    Commented Feb 4, 2017 at 20:46
  • @frcake I'll try it whenever I manage to find some nice thing to separate the mics :) thank you
    – Magix
    Commented Feb 5, 2017 at 12:38
  • Also, make sure you don't have any reflective (hard, basically) surfaces directly behind you. Each mic is always going to pick up some of the other person, though. If you were doing this from scratch, i'd actually recommend a headset mic to get the best possible isolation. I've seen a few streamers use them and the sound quality isn't bad at all. You also wouldn't have to worry about moving your head and going off mic.
    – Roger Middenway
    Commented Feb 7, 2017 at 17:05
  • that's what I am doing right now, but the microphones are coming from the left ear and so my mic is picking up sound from my girlfriend as much as my voice... :/ I'll try different configurations and answer myself if I happen to find a solution
    – Magix
    Commented Feb 7, 2017 at 17:33

1 Answer 1

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Shotgun microphones, by definition, are very narrow directional microphones. Placing them on the side will give you a hard time because of that. Microphones should be placed in front of you, since I assume you are talking toward the TV, and aimed at your heads. Panning each microphone hard left and right should give you a good separation from each other.

Right now, since your are putting the microphone on the sides, you won't get much besides room tone and spill from both voices.

Of course you will get some spill, this is a reality that you can't change unless you sit in separate rooms.

Maybe headset mics could give better results. If you are filming yourselves, then you can put the microphones outside the camera field, but still in front of you, so you don't see the mics.

Give me some news!

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    And also, about headset mics. I cannot answer directly to Roger Middenway in the comments above, but to say that "the sound quality isn't bad at all" is based on not much. When it comes to microphones, it's like anything in the pro audio industry: you get what you pay for 90% of the time (not talking about consumer audio: that's another rant I will not get into). If you get a 20$ headset with 1/8" jacks at Best Buy, you will get a 20$ sound quality. If you get a Beta 54 from Shure, you'll have a 300$ sound quality and you can go all the way to a DPA 4088 for an 800$ sound quality.
    – BadgerBadger
    Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 17:53
  • I just tried it as I received my XLR-USB cables, and we still hear each other in our mics, even when they are placed right in front of us... I think the problem is I have a wall right behind the screens :(
    – Magix
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 18:23
  • The further away from the source, the more the mic will pickup background noise. Isolate the sources. The shotguns you first got were suited for that, but they have to be in front of you. Microphones are not smart, they just pickup sound pressure at different levels depending on their rejection patterns. That is why, in your case, directional headset mics would be the best since you are sitting side by side.
    – BadgerBadger
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 18:33

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