Recording Voice Chat: solo and group

[WolfWraith]

Okay lately this has been doing my head in. A friend and I have been trying to play co-op/online games while recording. Originally we were using Skype to chat but that become an issue as my friends mic is very sensitive, and he likes to move and drink randomly which is very hard to edit out as it's recorded as part of the game audio, whereas mine is automatically recorded seperately by capture card. We decided to try mumble as it allows me to record seperate channels, but the problem is every now and then we get random spikes that create a loud pop/click noise just as we're talking. Does anyone know what other gamers on youtube e.g. nanners and pewdie use to record voice chat in a group? It always sounds crystal clear. Also using audacity is not an option as I'm trying to find a method that is more convenient for my friends since the channel is my thing and I think it's unfair to force un-needed effort onto them.

Also for me, the thing I liked about mumble was the signal levels and how you could adjust it so it didn't pick up sounds below a certain level. This is beneficial for solo commentaries as well. Basically what I want is to have 2 settings, 1 setting is where I set a value that anything below is not recorded, 2nd setting is where I set a value that anything above is recorded. I've tried Audacity's sound detection mode but that only records if sound is detected and doesn't create a continuous file.

Sorry for the long post, this has been driving me nuts for a while as I want to be able to provide quality videos regardless of whether they are watched or not. The reason I ask for this though is that I can spend next to 7hrs sitting through 90mins of audio removing any background noise or mouth noises. I sometimes have to do this 2 times and it puts a lot of delays on videos I want to produce.

 

[OxterManHD]

Okay lately this has been doing my head in. A friend and I have been trying to play co-op/online games while recording. Originally we were using Skype to chat but that become an issue as my friends mic is very sensitive, and he likes to move and drink randomly which is very hard to edit out as it's recorded as part of the game audio, whereas mine is automatically recorded seperately by capture card. We decided to try mumble as it allows me to record seperate channels, but the problem is every now and then we get random spikes that create a loud pop/click noise just as we're talking. Does anyone know what other gamers on youtube e.g. nanners and pewdie use to record voice chat in a group? It always sounds crystal clear. Also using audacity is not an option as I'm trying to find a method that is more convenient for my friends since the channel is my thing and I think it's unfair to force un-needed effort onto them.

Also for me, the thing I liked about mumble was the signal levels and how you could adjust it so it didn't pick up sounds below a certain level. This is beneficial for solo commentaries as well. Basically what I want is to have 2 settings, 1 setting is where I set a value that anything below is not recorded, 2nd setting is where I set a value that anything above is recorded. I've tried Audacity's sound detection mode but that only records if sound is detected and doesn't create a continuous file.

Sorry for the long post, this has been driving me nuts for a while as I want to be able to provide quality videos regardless of whether they are watched or not. The reason I ask for this though is that I can spend next to 7hrs sitting through 90mins of audio removing any background noise or mouth noises. I sometimes have to do this 2 times and it puts a lot of delays on videos I want to produce.

That really sucks man Nanners and most YouTubers just use skype, they don't have to worry about problems like this because they all have really good mics. You can try teamspeak if you have a friend that has a server or just go on a free to use server, it seems to cause less lag than skype as well as only pickup voice and not backround noise.

 

[ZaphodX]

First, use Push To Talk mode. Gives you crystal clear silence when people aren't talking, this helps a lot.

Try playing with the room settings for the mumble room. You should be able to adjust the bandwidth allocation to use higher quality audio bitrate.

Do all the usual stuff - adjust microphone amplification, distance from mouth, pop filter. Also ask your friend to not clunk around, eat, cough etc.

 

[WolfWraith]

That really sucks man Nanners and most YouTubers just use skype, they don't have to worry about problems like this because they all have really good mics. You can try teamspeak if you have a friend that has a server or just go on a free to use server, it seems to cause less lag than skype as well as only pickup voice and not backround noise.

Damn, was hopping there would be a better solution, funny thing is we're contemplating going back to Skype. I just wanted a solution that didn't give my mates unnecessary work. >.> It's kind of funny as I constantly ask my mate to drink and eat before we start playing games now, he's done it over a few cutscenes to xD I wanted the channel be a natural as possible at 1 stage but I came to the decision that it would get bad if too much stuff was left in.

First, use Push To Talk mode. Gives you crystal clear silence when people aren't talking, this helps a lot.

Try playing with the room settings for the mumble room. You should be able to adjust the bandwidth allocation to use higher quality audio bitrate.

Do all the usual stuff - adjust microphone amplification, distance from mouth, pop filter. Also ask your friend to not clunk around, eat, cough etc.

Any advice for people who don't like to to take their fingers off WASD or mouse or forget to use PTT? lol I am currently waiting for a pop filter which will fix my issues with popping, that way I can have mic closer and reduce gain for less background noise. Only issue I'm having with mumble is that pop sound, it's not a pop from saying P or B words, actually it's more of a crack sound it's loud to, I can't even remove it in Audacity, tried using the pen tool to pinpoint it. We've also tried playing with quality, I've tried upping the bandwidth on murmur so hopefully that helps. Otherwise the audio quality in mumble is fairly good when there isn't that crackle sound.

Thanks for the info guys, I'll have to see what I can sort out.

 

[PixelAlchemist]

I would recommend you look up JackFrag's 'How to Record PC Games' on YouTube. I know not all of it may apply to you, but the Virtual Audio Cable bit is what I use to separate out game audio from collab partners audio. It makes a hell of a difference and makes your life that much easier. It means you can apply noise reduction and some detailed editting to your partner and you will be able to get rid of all of those 'drinking noises' etc.

It isn't free, but it's not a vast amount of money as I recall. Worth a go.

 

[WolfWraith]

I would recommend you look up JackFrag's 'How to Record PC Games' on YouTube. I know not all of it may apply to you, but the Virtual Audio Cable bit is what I use to separate out game audio from collab partners audio. It makes a hell of a difference and makes your life that much easier. It means you can apply noise reduction and some detailed editting to your partner and you will be able to get rid of all of those 'drinking noises' etc.

It isn't free, but it's not a vast amount of money as I recall. Worth a go.

Thanks, I downloaded a trial version of VAC a while back, but never got around to trying it. I will now though. This video also looks helpful, he might be using the same capture card as me, but sadly I'm upgrading since it's not a very console friendly capture card. I might keep both if it's more convenient and since the internal card allows higher bit rate.