Welcome to Podcast Answers! This episode explores Elgato's new beta virtual Stream Deck software. Unlockable if you own a physical Stream Deck, it lets you create a customizable virtual deck. Ideal for keys you don't want accidentally hit, it offers dynamic display and profiles. While not physical, it adds useful extra keys, great for travel with smaller units.

Next, we focus on optimal podcast sound quality, stressing consistency. Elements cover microphone technique and room acoustics. Mic technique includes: Maintain consistent distance (6-12 inches, 3-4 fingers), use a 45-degree angle to avoid plosives, use a stand, avoid noise, control breathing, and use a pop filter. Room acoustics: Address reflections from hard surfaces. A treated space using soft materials creates a desirable "dead" environment. Managing mic gain minimizes room noise.

Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast,

answering any podcasting questions along the way.

Wow. Today we have an exciting episode. We are going to be talking today a little bit about

mic technique that's essential when it comes to your show. And when it's essential when it comes

to what you're doing, so people actually want to listen to your show. You've heard shows,

you've heard people that don't have great mic technique, and I'm here to help you have that

great mic technique. We're going to be talking about that, and we're also going to be talking

a little bit about Stream Deck's new beta virtual software. So let's actually kick it off with that

one. So Stream Deck announced, or Elgato, announced the other day that they are coming out with a

beta version of the software. So beta just means people testing it out. May not be 100% great,

but we're going to try it out. So they came out with this software that allows you to

allows you to have a virtual Stream Deck. And now we've had one of those before. We've had

virtual Stream Decks on the iPhone and the iPad, things like that. We've had virtual Stream Decks

before, meaning you can have your iPad, your iPhone standing up, and it has the virtual keys on it.

And it works. I've done a chat on that on this channel before, and it works great. It's nice.

It's a little bit different than the physical Stream Deck. If you've never used a Stream Deck,

it's a keypad thing, and it allows you to push buttons and do things. That's how I'm switching

scenes in this. I have these buttons on the side. I don't know if I can hold it up to my camera.

There. It's this thing here. The Stream Deck has physical buttons, and it allows you to

do things on your computer, do things on your stream, do things as you're recording.

And they came out with this new virtual Stream Deck. And so what I've been doing is I've been playing

around with it a little bit. And so Randy says here, the virtual Stream Deck looks interesting,

but what is the real purpose? I have the MK2 and the Excel and can do whatever I need with

multiple pages. I don't see the need for a virtual one. I'm going to talk a little bit about that.

That was one of the things that I had at first and one of the things that I was kind of thinking,

okay, do I need one too? Do I need one? And I found some good things for it that I would need.

So essentially here, here is the the rundown here. It is. Let me go ahead and switch over to my screen

share. So if you're watching live with us, you can see on the screen share. So essentially what it

does is it allows you to come up with a come up with a create a virtual Stream Deck, right? So I went

ahead and you go into your drop down where you see all of your stream decks. Yes, don't judge. I have

quite a bit of them. And you say add a virtual device. And once you do that, you can configure it,

you can say, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to take it and I'm going to, I want it to be four rows or eight

rows or whatever, eight columns, whatever. And you can hide empty keys and things like that. And so let me just

show you here, I've set up a couple buttons. So what I've done is, is this is it. So I'm hiding the buttons.

I'm only seeing what I'm showing. So again, as you can see here, I've got these kind of configured in a row of two,

a blank one and a number of two is it kind of creates this little Z thing. I'm not necessarily sold on hiding

those. It's okay. But if you don't do it, then you see all of the whole Stream Deck. And so what's nice

about it is again, to answer your question, Randy, it, I can find some things like this where I don't

necessarily want to have end meeting and recording and things like that on my physical Stream Deck that

I actually accidentally push. And then, and then, but I can go to it by just hitting a button and then it

shows up on my screen. So, so one of the settings in here is dynamic, which I like for display. So fix,

essentially just says, okay, wherever you drag it, it's going to show up there. And if you hide it,

it's going to show back up there dynamic. What it does is it shows up wherever you whenever,

wherever your mouse is at. So if my mouse is over here and I click it, it shows up here.

If it's over here, click it and hit here. So it's easy, quick way. I like that because it's easy to

quick to get to no matter where you're at on your screen. And then you can also, the cool thing about

it is let me switch over to my Stream Deck here, you can set an action, they have a new action in here,

and it is called the VSD toggle. And so essentially what it does is it's the virtual Stream Deck and

you can tell it which device if you have multiple virtual Stream Decks. But what I like about it too,

is you can also then do different profiles. So you can open up different profiles on it,

depending which Stream Deck button you push. So I only have one and I have the default key. And so

it's going to pop that up right now. But so when I press this key on my Stream Deck,

that virtual one pops up and it works just the same as a physical one. I can click on the buttons and it

will do things. I don't want to click on those buttons right now because I'm actually streaming

and I'm actually live. But but that's that's where it comes in. And what I like about it is I like the fact

that you can have this virtual one and put some non use keys on it. Randy, I agree with you that I have

a couple of Stream Decks and so I find that I have a lot of buttons and I like the physical buttons

because I don't have to look down on them. I can push it. But what I find is that the virtual one is

nice for those. It's nice for those things where you don't want things always showing you don't want to

accidentally hit them, but you just need a few more keys. I can think of something that would be good

for this to like if you had, let's say an app or something playing sound effects, it would be really

easy to get your sound effects wherever you had them and push them from there. So it's not the same

as as having it's not this. It is not the same as having a physical stream deck. I do like the

stream deck because I like the fact that you can have your hand on that physical tactile buttons.

You can physically push those buttons and you can it's easy to know where you're at without actually

looking down at the buttons. But the virtual stream deck is nice because it allows you to have some

extra buttons that you don't necessarily want to have on your stream every day. So that's that's the

virtual stream deck. I like it. It's it's something that I'm playing around with now again. I've had the

the virtual one for the iPhone and the iPad and it's nice for some things. It's nice that if I'm taking,

you know, I went to a conference one time and I was doing some video, but I didn't want to take my

physical stream deck. So I took the the virtual one and it works. I can push the buttons I need to have

and it's it's nice, but it's not it is not the same as having a physical stream. Hear me that.

Now, the other thing that you have to take into consideration is the virtual stream deck is locked.

The new virtual stream deck for your computer is locked based on the fact that if you have a physical

stream deck, so you have to have a physical stream deck in order to unlock those keys. Otherwise,

you won't have that extra physical stream deck or this. Sorry, the extra virtual stream deck

with you because you have to physically have one of the physical ones plugged in in order for

for Elgato to unlock that and allow you to use those virtual ones. So again, it's in my back pocket.

It's a tool that I have. Am I going to use it a lot? I don't know, but I'm not having to pay for it

extra because I already have one of the physical stream decks. So it's unlocked that. So that's the nice

thing about it because it allows me to be able to to to go on the run and still use it, have some extra

keys. And I've got the six key one I can bring with me if I just need to unlock it. And that's another

thing that comes into handy. It let's say I have a 15 key or a or a six key one, one of the smaller

stream decks. You can now have a physical or a virtual one of up to 32 keys. And so you have actually,

you can do more than that because you can do eight by eight. And so you can use it. You can use it

since it's if you want to have it with you have something on the run where one of the smaller ones

fit in your backpack, but you need some extra keys. It's not the same. It's not the physical one,

but it works. So that's that. If you want to check it out, go to Elgato. Just Google

Elgato Stream Deck Virtual and you'll come up with the beta. It's a free beta. You just have to load the

stream deck software and it works great. Now we're talking a little bit about today about mic

technique, microphone technique, and you want to have a good sounding podcast. And so

here are a few things that you need to consider when you are having your doing mic technique and recording

your podcast. Be consistent, aim for a consistent distance of six to 12 inches from your mouth to

the microphone. So for me, mine's about five or six inches from my mouth. And I do also position that

like at a 45 degree angle, slightly off center. I'm not just talking right into it because then when I do that,

I talk and you're going to have what's called plosives, you're going to pick up those unwanted

peas and and things like that. So if you if you angle it slightly backwards, slightly to a 45 degree

angle, you're going to the wind is going to go straight and it's going to it's going to go past

the microphone instead of into the microphone, causing those unwanted sounds that you don't want

because you don't want those popping peas, those plosives, loud sounds. So keep it consistent.

Part of keeping it consistent is being able to not hold your microphone. I have I did this for one of

my episodes. I had my my pod mic USB that I was holding in my hand and I was so afraid that I was

going to pick up handling noise. Now, it did it did a pretty good job on it. I did not have

any issues on that episode and I really I really it came out sounding OK. But if you can have a

mic stand, then it's going to be great. I'm using a spring armed thing here and those and that allows

you to keep it consistent. So I'm sitting in a chair. I have it on a arm and I'm basically just

talking straight here and it doesn't I stay within my distance of that that six to 12 inches.

Now, Randy actually did bring up a good point here. He said he goes with a three to four finger rule

at the mic lined up at about 10 o'clock. That is a great that's a great suggestion. Three to four fingers.

I've got actually minus minus four right now. So there we go.

Four four fingers away from my mouth. And that's a good a good distance away from my mouth.

I don't like I said, I don't I would go away, stay away from from holding on to your mic because

you're going to hear the handling sounds of your mic. Same thing as far as their table.

You don't want to tap on your table. You don't want to put things down loud. I do have a

a noise gate on my roadcaster set up right now. So I think if I'm quiet.

You don't hear my room noise, the noise gate shuts that off. However, if I start tapping on my table,

it's going to be loud enough. It's going to even with my mic boom arm, I'm going to be able to hear

that because I'm you're going to it's going to be picking up that noise. So avoid tapping either the mic

or the table or putting things down loud. Like if you have a water bottle that you're drinking out of.

Put it down. Don't don't slam it down. Put it somewhere else.

So you don't you don't cause those unwanted sounds that that are going to be in in your podcast.

You don't want that. It's really annoying, especially because podcasts.

Most of the time people are listening with their earbuds in and they don't want to hear

things slamming down. Or the other thing is your that you need to can do it. Control is your breathing.

Take deep control breaths before, during, after recording or speaking, because this allows you to

not take shallow breaths. You want to breathe through your mouth, not your nose, because sometimes your nose

creates the whistling sound and things that you just you don't want in your podcast because

you don't want to hear that people don't want to hear that in their earbuds or in the in their ears,

in their car. They don't want to hear the sides of your mouth making a dry sound. So drink lots of water.

That's another good thing to to be able to have good sound is is is not is not having a dry mouth, but

breathing through your mouth. But have lots of water. Be be hydrated. That way you don't you don't make

those weird sounds that you don't want to hear and you hate that it bothers when you hear it. Some other tips.

Use a pop filter to minimize the plosives to I'm using one that comes with my Shure SM7B.

It allows me to it allows me to to keep those plosives away. It's a nice thick foam

that you're not going to hear any wind noise. You can also again use a microphone stand for your thing.

That way you can keep a consistent height consistency away from you. And then also be be aware of your your

sound level. Be aware of the proximity effect and adjust your mic distance for different volume levels.

So if I get really close to my microphone, it's going to be a big and boomy.

If I'm farther back, it's going to be a little bit less boomy, but it's going to be more consistent.

So try to to speak consistently in your your levels. You can also have a noise gate or not a noise gate,

but a compression that way it kind of keeps your noise levels consistent. Again, that's not microphone

technique, but it's just something that you may want to take into consideration when you're when you're

using your mic. Now, I again, Randy, you're beating me to all of my things. Randy did say treated space

is the key. And in my notes, I have room acoustics. Consider the acoustics of the room to minimize

unwanted reflections. And that that is definitely key. Your room acoustics are key. Hard walls are going to

create a bouncing sound, especially if you're a louder person like I am. If you have a hard walls,

they're going to they're going to create all these sound reflections and you don't want that.

But if you listen to a podcast, you can sometimes tell what kind of room they're in because you can

hear you hear the noise. You can hear the echo. You can hear things come come back. And so that's,

again, why proper mic technique is is key, because if you have your your mic gain too loud on your on your

your input, your mixer or whatever, if you have the gain set too loud, you're going to pick up a lot more

of that room noise and and it's just going to sound a little bit more echoey. So if you can gain

that down a little bit and make it so it's not picking up quite so much, you can get closer to

your mic and you hear less of my room noise now because I'm closer to the mic. I don't have to speak

as loud now. Yeah. So treat your room. You can buy a pack of small foam.

noise canceling, not noise canceling sound treatment panels and stick them to your wall.

You can put rugs if you're in a hardwood floor. That's going to bounce more of those reflections

up and around. So just think about the room that you're in. Try to get soft things. Try to get

things that are going to be not going to bounce your sound waves around, but it's going to it's

going to absorb that. And so it's going to make the room a whole lot more dead. If you go into a room

that has room treatment in it, you're going to notice the difference because you're going to be able to

feel like you're going to almost feel the difference if you go into a room that's treated versus not. You talk

into a treated room and you just dead. There's no sound reflections. You can't hear back. And for

recording, that's a great that's a great thing. That's what you want. You don't want those things.

So do you have mic techniques? I would love to hear what your technique is for your mics.

Or if you've also, you know, how do you get sound good sound treatment in your in your place? Let me

know. I would love to hear what you are, what you're thinking, how you're working with your mic.

If you're giving this podcast or this right, this virtual stream deck a try. Let me know. Contact me

over at podcast answers.com slash contact. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what you

are doing. Also, if you would love to support this podcast, we would love to have your support.

If you go to podcast answers.com slash buy me a coffee, you can support us for a small monthly fee,

small one off fee. It means a lot to us. Thanks, guys. Have a great week and keep podcasting.