> This setup is as minimal as I was able to get it: no big booms on my desk to move around, microphones blocking my video, etc. Yeah, I look like a pilot on calls, but the audio quality is amazing. Also, the mic being close to me blocks background noise, and isolates it from my desk. Sometimes my colleagues with podcaster-style mics have issues with mechanical transmission from their desk setups, while I have none.
I kind of went the other direction here.
AT2020 condenser mic into a focusrite scarlett. Mounted on an adjustable boom that's clamped to the far right end of my desk with a shock mount and pop filter (so I can get the thing fully out of my way). Sound comes out some bookshelf speakers sitting below my monitor.
My monitor's raised up a bit on an arm so about 20% of it is above eye level for me with the webcam sitting on top of that. It's a solid few feet away from me, so the angle isn't really noticeable to anyone I'm on a call with. But the angle does mean that I can pull the microphone right in front of my face, just below my mouth so I'm speaking over it, and it's not blocking my mouth or any of my face. (Visually it's in front of my shirt and on the edge of the frame anyway.)
It already does a fairly good job of isolating my voice by virtue of being a cardiod mic inches from my face, but further from that I have it set up (in software) with a noise gate opened by the microphone _in my webcam_. When I'm talking to people I'm generally looking at them so I'm speaking towards the monitor. This sets it up so sound directed towards the monitor opens the mic, but other sound generally does not.
I couldn't find a pair of over-ear headphones I could comfortably wear for long periods of time--they'd all push on the arms of my glasses and end up really sore after a couple hours of calls in a day (even non-contiguous). Instead of trying to solve that, I just steered hard into making the open setup work and sound as well as I could.
As far as visuals--I have a couple of LED light panels for my photography that are set at 45 degrees to either side of my camera, with one adjusted a bit cool and one a bit warm. Picked it up from some time spent doing stage lighting--if you evenly light a scene, it looks flat. (Think a photo taken with an on-camera flash.) A slightly warm and slightly cool wash from different angles can be lit fairly brightly while maintaining the depth and texture.
Different approach but same goal and outcome: I spend a lot of my day talking to people and trying to convey information. It's to my benefit that I'm clearly heard and easily understood. And, besides the practical concerns, professionalism. Frankly, I think it's silly _not_ to invest (to some extent, anyway) in this. In the remote work world, a huge part of everyone's interactions with and perception of you is actually their interaction with and perception of your audio and video setup. You don't need to overdo it, but don't be _bad_ at it.
I kind of went the other direction here.
AT2020 condenser mic into a focusrite scarlett. Mounted on an adjustable boom that's clamped to the far right end of my desk with a shock mount and pop filter (so I can get the thing fully out of my way). Sound comes out some bookshelf speakers sitting below my monitor.
My monitor's raised up a bit on an arm so about 20% of it is above eye level for me with the webcam sitting on top of that. It's a solid few feet away from me, so the angle isn't really noticeable to anyone I'm on a call with. But the angle does mean that I can pull the microphone right in front of my face, just below my mouth so I'm speaking over it, and it's not blocking my mouth or any of my face. (Visually it's in front of my shirt and on the edge of the frame anyway.)
It already does a fairly good job of isolating my voice by virtue of being a cardiod mic inches from my face, but further from that I have it set up (in software) with a noise gate opened by the microphone _in my webcam_. When I'm talking to people I'm generally looking at them so I'm speaking towards the monitor. This sets it up so sound directed towards the monitor opens the mic, but other sound generally does not.
I couldn't find a pair of over-ear headphones I could comfortably wear for long periods of time--they'd all push on the arms of my glasses and end up really sore after a couple hours of calls in a day (even non-contiguous). Instead of trying to solve that, I just steered hard into making the open setup work and sound as well as I could.
As far as visuals--I have a couple of LED light panels for my photography that are set at 45 degrees to either side of my camera, with one adjusted a bit cool and one a bit warm. Picked it up from some time spent doing stage lighting--if you evenly light a scene, it looks flat. (Think a photo taken with an on-camera flash.) A slightly warm and slightly cool wash from different angles can be lit fairly brightly while maintaining the depth and texture.
Different approach but same goal and outcome: I spend a lot of my day talking to people and trying to convey information. It's to my benefit that I'm clearly heard and easily understood. And, besides the practical concerns, professionalism. Frankly, I think it's silly _not_ to invest (to some extent, anyway) in this. In the remote work world, a huge part of everyone's interactions with and perception of you is actually their interaction with and perception of your audio and video setup. You don't need to overdo it, but don't be _bad_ at it.