Can someone recommend a non-headphone microphone for raid leading?

[7h3C47]

Hi all,

I was wondering if any raid leaders out there who have a mic that isn't attached as part of a headset would recommend their item. I'd like to get into leading PUGs for some of my favorite raids, and feel that not having a mic is holding me back. I don't want a headset because I don't want to have to re-do my hair after every time I play this game--which is usually on weekends before I go out for the night, so it's really not convenient.

Happy raiding!

Elbineezercrooge

[Dadislotroguides]

I use the mic from my webcam and everyone says it is very clear. I also turn down the game sounds a lot when. Leading to prevent any feedback and to allow for them to hear me better.

[Anolus]

Zalman mic1 is cheap and good imho.

[Thurallor]

The main thing you need to worry about is not really the quality of the microphone (you won't notice much difference there). The main problem is echo.

With a headset, the game sound goes directly into your ears, and not much sound feeds back into the microphone. With a free-standing mic, the speech from other players comes out of your speakers, and quite a bit of it can feed back into the mic. This causes other people to hear themselves echoed back to them, or they may hear other sounds from the game being picked up by your mic. This is usually quite annoying.

You can eliminate that problem, without messing up your hair, by using earbuds.

[Gladnagl]

You might want to try a style of microphone called a "Lavalier microphone" aka "lapel mike". They are usually very clear and fairly directional, meaning you have little to any worry about echo from your speakers. If you have a little, you can usually fiddle with the microphone gain in your computer's microphone settings.

[StinkyGreene]

Funny that Lavalieres (9D: some microphones) was the word of the day on the Wednesday NYT crossword (according to Rex Parker), and was subsequently my last fill in the grid and a source of frustration for a while...

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

I don't want a headset because I don't want to have to re-do my hair after every time I play this game--which is usually on weekends before I go out for the night, so it's really not convenient.

Get a behind-the-head headset. Basically it just hangs over your ears. I find them more comfortable than normal headsets since they don't squeeze your ears and the band part of it is behind your neck/head.

[7h3C47]

Thanks to all for the much welcomed advice.

Because my rig is in a public spot in my apartment, I opted for a behind the ear headset instead of a standalone lav. The lav would have been my preference for comfort reasons, but I figured having the audio go to my ears is one less thing I have to worry about if we have company over, or one of the guys is watching TV, cooking, listening to music etc. I'll report back if the particular set I went with really delivers and I feel a true recommendation can be made.

Again, thanks to all who commented, and see you in game.

Elbineezerscrooge

[Arathaert]

Personally, I use a standalone Samson Meteor mic I got for recording a few other things. It's a USB mic, and is quite excellent. Also it looks cool:




Just a note though - make sure you plug in whatever mic you're using before you load up the game. Otherwise, the microphone select option in the audio options might not show it.