After days and hours of researching I've decided to try my luck here in order to find some inspiration.
Currently, we are 5 Players and me as the DM. One of the players joins mostly online via Discord. Therefore me and the other 4 players always play "half online". Our current setup is 1 Rode Podcaster Mic for the people at the table and a regular Headset for the DM. Everything goes into my laptop via USB hub. But the audio quality is quite bad, there is much audio bleed and I'm looking for a better setup which is affordable and ""portable" (mostly we are playing at someone elses house). And this is the tricky thing: We are not planning to stream professionally but I want to improve the audio quality so the online player can hear everyone well. The budget is maxed out at 500 €/$.
So far I found two solutions:
a) Dynamic USB Mics such as the Rode Podcaster (https://rode.com/de/microphones/usb/podcaster) but with cheaper alternatives that sound okay (there are a couple affordable ones that have good quality). But: This would be 4 mics with each around 100 €/$ and these are not really "portable" with each mic on an arm. With an XLR version you would need an interface as well.
b) Lav mics for the 4 players. Wired versions are quite cheap, portable, have potentially good quality but require an audio interface to plug in and I assume this would be again around 100-200 €/$. The DM would get the Podcaster Mic. Has anyone experience with this kind of setup? What kind of audio interface do you need? Would an USB soundcard be enough?
b.2) Wireless lav mics are certainly the most elegant way but I found the options very pricey (e.g. Rode wireless Go, 2 mics 300 €/$)
Greetings from Germany!
PS.: Videoquality is fine for know with 2 1440p webcams. Laptop is an Alienware m15 R7.
I know it’s been a year, but I’m in a very similar situation, trying to figure out the best budget way of getting some good quality audio to my single online player.
I have been thinking multiple USB mics with a virtual audio mixer on a laptop to be able to get decent clarity for each player.
So far my group has just used the laptop mic and camera and it “works” but the player definitely has a hard time hearing. Especially if people ever talk over one another.
music is another issue to solve with it being picked up by the mic. I would hope closer mics would allow louder music for the in person players.
interesting discussion that I wish people added to here, so this might be to the void, but i got here from a google search so…
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Hi everyone!
After days and hours of researching I've decided to try my luck here in order to find some inspiration.
Currently, we are 5 Players and me as the DM. One of the players joins mostly online via Discord. Therefore me and the other 4 players always play "half online". Our current setup is 1 Rode Podcaster Mic for the people at the table and a regular Headset for the DM. Everything goes into my laptop via USB hub. But the audio quality is quite bad, there is much audio bleed and I'm looking for a better setup which is affordable and ""portable" (mostly we are playing at someone elses house). And this is the tricky thing: We are not planning to stream professionally but I want to improve the audio quality so the online player can hear everyone well. The budget is maxed out at 500 €/$.
So far I found two solutions:
a) Dynamic USB Mics such as the Rode Podcaster (https://rode.com/de/microphones/usb/podcaster) but with cheaper alternatives that sound okay (there are a couple affordable ones that have good quality). But: This would be 4 mics with each around 100 €/$ and these are not really "portable" with each mic on an arm. With an XLR version you would need an interface as well.
b) Lav mics for the 4 players. Wired versions are quite cheap, portable, have potentially good quality but require an audio interface to plug in and I assume this would be again around 100-200 €/$. The DM would get the Podcaster Mic. Has anyone experience with this kind of setup? What kind of audio interface do you need? Would an USB soundcard be enough?
b.2) Wireless lav mics are certainly the most elegant way but I found the options very pricey (e.g. Rode wireless Go, 2 mics 300 €/$)
Greetings from Germany!
PS.: Videoquality is fine for know with 2 1440p webcams. Laptop is an Alienware m15 R7.
I know it’s been a year, but I’m in a very similar situation, trying to figure out the best budget way of getting some good quality audio to my single online player.
I have been thinking multiple USB mics with a virtual audio mixer on a laptop to be able to get decent clarity for each player.
So far my group has just used the laptop mic and camera and it “works” but the player definitely has a hard time hearing. Especially if people ever talk over one another.
music is another issue to solve with it being picked up by the mic. I would hope closer mics would allow louder music for the in person players.
interesting discussion that I wish people added to here, so this might be to the void, but i got here from a google search so…