How can I avoid the sound from my computer speakers being picked up by my mic during Zoom calls?

Question

Just started using a Samson C01 condenser XLR microphone + Audient Evo 4 audio interface for sound on my Zoom calls. Headphones aren't very comfortable for me, so I use speakers to listen to the audio.

Realized that the C01 was picking up the sound coming from the computer speakers (when others were speaking) & causing an echo. Enabling Zoom's auto noise cancelling seemed to deal with the issue acceptably, but I'd prefer to do it without Zoom's auto-anything features.

Is there a solution to this? Using speakers for hearing the audio is non-negotiable.

Can I do a mix minus of the speaker sound (if I'm even using the correct terminology) using Evo 4?

Total noob here.

Update 1

Will using a dynamic mic (e.g., the Zoom ZDM-1) help with this issue? I'm thinking of the ZDM-1 primarily because it is cheap yet well-reviewed.

How much difference would cardioid vs. hyper/super cardioid (C01 & ZDM-1 both are not cardioid) polar pattern make?

Update 2

Will adding a noise gate solve this issue?

Answer 1

You won't do this with a regular mic. You'd need an array mic which can 'find' your voice & separate it from any extraneous background.

Expensive laptops have them, as do phones. You can buy 'conference' camera/mic combos that can do it too.

Noise cancellation by feeding an inverse-phase signal requires microscopically small distances & tolerances.

This is why people use headsets. Mic just can't 'hear' the speakers at all, simple fix.

Answer 2

A different way to do this is to use ducking. Ducking is using a noise gate or compressor with a side chain that is following the level of a separate signal. The noise gate would be inserted in your incoming zoom audio and the side chain would loop in the mic channel. When you are not talking the gate lets the zoom audio through but when you talk, your audio triggers the noise gate to mute (duck) the incoming zoom call. I suspect you can do this with either obs studio or audacity. Google "ducking" and your DAW and see what you find.

I was thinking you could use a "mix minus" which is the mix with your mic muted, but that won't work because your voice is in the zoom audio stream.

Answer 3

A noise gate will not work. Directional microphones are not precise enough to really suppress echoes of sound that is audible from a distance. In particular. Dynamic microphones for singers work for avoiding feedback better than condenser ones, but they are held quite more closely than you can comfortably (and non-ridiculously) do in a conference call.

Here are the options you have:

a) headphones or earphones b) a limited frequency range directional headset microphone right next to your mouth. That will at least have significant gain difference compared to low-volume ambient sound. It won't be perfect. c) computational echo cancellation/ducking. And there is little enough reason not to use the options built into Zoom for that since they at least know about their latency and can compensate such that video and audio are in synch.

Of course you can combine option b) and c) for better results.

The C01 will not work with external speakers at reasonable quality/latency. It's just not the right ballpark. And it will not handle overly well even with headphones since you then need to maintain a rather constant distance and position to it, and doing that without being able to listen in to yourself does not work well. You'll need some monitoring mix.