New acoustic setup volume

When you added the foam, it cut down on the reverb a lot, which was great, but it also attenuated the high end, which is not. The bass was never the problem, at least not for me - it's the loss of high end. With the foam you now sound very muddy to me and I find myself straining to hear what you're saying. The reverb is unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as the lack of treble. I don't know what you can do to fix this, aside from post-processing the audio or running the mic through an equalizer. For what it's worth, I'm either listening with Bluetooth headphones or on my TV through a proper 5.1 stereo setup.

Circuitmike

I think it's just too much foam. Perhaps strips, or a checkerboard, but not the large panels you have now. The effect is too harsh on boosting bass at the expense of everything else. I have a hard time understanding your words without the mids and highs present.

Mike Cowen

What’s wrong with Ralphy❓

Cerity

I've opted for a Rode cable and a custom mic.

Big Clive

I think that affected others too, so I've spent the evening experimenting with an external microphone. I'll post a test video for comparison.

Big Clive

I'd have to stay away from saying better or worse. Applying acoustic foam isn't an all or nothing proposition. My guess is less foam would have sounded better. 90 degree walls are going to echo but you don't have to cover them all to find a good balance. My guess is the Moto is too omnidirectional and foam just killed a lot of the volume. Bouncing some back of what you lost is definitely the answer the keep it simple. If you do play with a new microphone with polar adjustments I think the cardioid pattern would bring your natural voice back.

Jim

Can confirm. I regularly go into ones big enough to run tests of RF gear installed on helicopters. Still feels small. Or like your sinuses have filled up.

Jeremy Impson

Have become accustomed to the regular sound, the padding has definitely changed things. Prefer the old sound, the fix has partially De-Clived you, mess too much and you'll become Ralfy.

Ian James

I think it sounded clearer just allot of the volume was gone and my laptop was on 110% volume.

Mike Hanley

I slightly preferred the sound with the foam but was listening on a budget Black view A60 Pro which has quite a tinny sound through the speaker. It's also not the loudest but I didn't find the volume too low. Thanks for doing the live streams always great fun!

It's sad that we have all those modern technologies existing like software filtering and equalizers. But the trend to dumb down software to a minimum forces us to fall back to all kinds of stupid bodging.

MrTridac

I found the volume to be too quiet even with it turned up to maximum on this laptop.

These are the things I love to experiment with and address. I have seen you try stuff on past streams and hope this turns out to your satisfaction!

Michael Thompson

I found that I had to turn my headphones up a notch or two without compromising my PC audio settings, it was more for vocal clarity purposes than to compensate for volume reduction. Which might be age related, but there again my hearing has always been very sharp.

Andrew Donaldson

Have you ever been in a proper anechoic chamber? I have, at Newcastle University in 1987. It's a seriously disturbing experience. With no reverberation your instincts tell you that you're in a tiny place - in bed with your head under the blankets, say.

Stephen King

If you're after another mic, I can send you a Rode VideoMic Me: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1186598-REG/rode_videomic_me_directional_mic.html

Pixscotland

Well said sir.

Personally I like mine with a bit more tin. As people grow older certain frequencies are lost in your hearing. The older you get, the more difficult it is to pick out the higher ones (so I was told on my last hearing test) It also greatly depends on what your listening to it on. For the live stream, I watch it in bed on a clapped out 42" no brand TV through a Freesat box. Others might be listening to it on their phones, pcs, laptops, tablets etc you'll never please everyone. I really wouldn't put so much time and effort into something that everyone will experience in their own way. You have sorted the crackles and pops. Leave the end user to sort out how they like to hear you.

Neil Tonks

That is what they said about new coke.... everyone hated it! 😂

Lostngone

You are going to find 50% of people like the 'all new' Clive sound and guess what? 50% will prefer the old you. Frankly, if left as it is, in 2 weeks nobody will really notice. If you prefer it, then keep as is. I'm more interested in what you have to say than whether it is 'boomy' (I think some people are just splitting hairs) or tinny.

The tongue-click test is freaky. Pointing away from the area there's a lot of acoustic wall sound. In the foam area it's just one well defined click.

Big Clive

Yes, with all those damping things voice will be different, no more echo and bounce, a solid and fast fade out. If you don't want too complex just use some software EQ to reduce the frequency of below100Hz to -15dB or even larger value, try and error thing.

Johnson Lam

I bet it is quite there now, i would have to have a radio, tv, or my phone playing something if i was working around that foam. I can only work in silence for a few hours and i start to drive myself crazy.

Play no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Lostngone