I’m pretty sure I know the answer already and I can foresee the other comments incoming already. (Eg; “Why are you recording in the living room in the first place? 🤪)
But here we go. My partner is recording audio occasionally while on the couch in the living room; while I work from home in an adjacent office. They are using a Blue Yeti on a cheapo $40 mic arm, bolted to a side table next to the couch.
Since we have hardwood floors in an ancient house, there’s some creaking being picked up in the recordings. Which is probably me adjusting my weight in my chair in the other room every now and then.
Question is, do we:
- Get a shock mount?
- Put carpet (or something) under the side table?
- Switch the mic stand to a sits on the desktop weighted one we also have and also put a pad o’ fabric or foam under that?
- All of the above?
- Additional crap?
Alright. Give us hell folks! Hehe.
Isolation is key for recording audio.
As lomg as the creaks are there, and the mic is nearby, the mic will pick them up.
They can try to lower the mic gain, maybe get lucky. dense pads or airfoams won't do anything as vibrations will travel straight through them, and won't make a difference for creaks traveling through the air.
The most effective thing will be you or them working in a different area.
The farthest room from your creaking is ideal with doors and walls in between. Getting comforters from the thrift store and hanging them around the mic will help mitigate ambient noise as well.
mics are built to be ultra-sensitive and pick up vibrations, so acoustic isolation is necessary for decent audio.
But the living room is so coooozy!
I mean sure I could move my work PC into the room upstairs but then it would be next to my personal computer for not work. Eww.
(But yeah… Yeah…. 🤪)
Thx!