Whether you are strategizing with your teammate or streaming gameplay on the twitch platform, you need to have the best microphones for your gaming session. So, Are Omnidirectional Microphones Good For Gaming? Let’s discuss it!
What is the Omnidirectional microphone?
From the name, you can understand that the omnidirectional microphone picks up sound from every side of the mic. It means that the speaker can speak to the microphone from every direction.
This technology has comprehensive advantages for gamers. Also, a person who deals with recording can use the omnidirectional microphone to get numerous vocals from different locations or directions.
Are Omnidirectional Microphones Good For Gaming? Explained
Microphones are one of the essential elements that you require while gaming. The best part is that nowadays, there are various features available in microphones that enhance your gaming session.
It can give you one real-life experience while you are on the virtual battlefield. Whenever you are on an intense gaming episode, you must ensure that your teammates hear your voice well.
A stand-alone and dedicated microphone would be the best to do this job. Moreover, the gaming headset’s mics improved immensely over the years. But they cannot hold any candle to the wind.
It is the situation when you pluck in a full-sized microphone. Hence you need to understand the importance of using the best omnidirectional microphone for gaming.
The importance of omnidirectional microphones
Microphones are not just crucial for gaming. It can be helpful for you in various other ways. Whether venturing into the cosmos of the music recording or broadcasting, you need a good microphone.
And for gaming individuals, it is a must for gaming equipment. You would not want to lose a game because you cannot coordinate well with your team members. Moreover, if you know that the microphone’s polar pattern plays a significant role in providing the output.
A polar pattern can be defined as the area where it picks up the noise. Some of the gaming microphones offer various polar patterns, while some of them come with only one. The cardioid polar pattern is one of the common ones.
You can use this to record one vocal at a time. The cardioid mic creates a narrower cone around one of the sides of the microphone.
So, it only captures the selected areas while blocking out the rest noises. You may get a variety of variations in cardioid mics, including the hyper-cardioid and the super-cardioid. The narrower polar pattern of this mic offers audio pickup from the thinnest area.
However, the bi-directional or figure 8 mics come with two fields of polarity. It is ideal for two vocal recordings at the same time. One of the mics on each side records the two vocals simultaneously.
Thus, you can think of it as using two hyper-cardioid mics together while facing them in the two opposite ways.
But for the information, the best gaming microphone can be omnidirectional microphones. These microphones have polarity on the opposite end of their spectrum.
It can listen to all the directions and from every angle possible. You can also get decent sound, even from the microphone’s back and front side. It is best for capturing ambient sound and room noise. You can get the crowd chatter or drum kit or any reverb from high instruments.
In your gaming environment, it can be one helpful gaming microphone. Also, you can use omnidirectional mics to record vocals in more than one of the nearby areas.
Watch this video Best Omnidirectional Microphone in 2022
Why you should choose omnidirectional microphones?
One can have numerous reasons for choosing omnidirectional microphones. These are:
It offers less wind noise
The missing rear acoustic ports are responsible for this. On every unidirectional microphone, you will experience a lot of wind noise because of the rear acoustic ports. The wind blowing on the port can create a lot of turbulence that causes a wind-like noise.
The proximity effect avoids the bass build-up.
You can be sure that the omnidirectional microphone does not exhibit the build-up of boominess even when you take your microphone closer to your mouth while speaking. It eliminates every kind of noise; hence you experience a negligible proximity effect.
Less vibration noise and handling noise
Most of the vibration noise and handling noise is of low frequencies. Hence due to the lack of proximity effect on the omnidirectional microphones, it equates to less noise.
Less popping from the close sounds
The darn rear ports are the reason for the plosives like ‘B,’ ‘T,’ and ‘P’ sounds. It occurs when you speak a little closer to the omnidirectional mic. But the omnidirectional mic is more resistant than any unidirectional one.
No chance of speaking away from the polar pattern
Many of us pay very little attention to the microphone’s location on the lectern. So while speaking on the microphone, they often wandered away from the front part of the mic.
Moreover, they do it without any realization of the sonic consequences. Speaking into the sides or rear of the unidirectional microphone would produce a deficient level of audio quality.
It can also provide muffled audio quality. Though this is not a problem with the omnidirectional mic, a person who does not know this fact may not get the best result.
You can use it both ways
The omnidirectional mic captures all the noise in every direction, whether you use it upside down or right side up. You can also use the microphone in an upside-down direction as these microphones come with a handheld design. You can get a tiny clip-on attached to the mic to help you use the device as a handheld device.
Features to look for while considering a gaming microphone
One can be highly overwhelmed by the choice of their microphone, especially if you have started with your first recording. Once you enter the world of recording your gaming sessions, you need to understand that omnidirectional microphones play a significant role.
Thankfully, you need to remember a few things while buying one microphone for your gaming:
A content type that you want to record
The first thing while choosing your omnidirectional mic would be the type of content you want to create with this mike.
If you’re going to record human voices, then the best mic for you would be the condenser ones. But for group recording, the omnidirectional mics are the best.
The polar patterns of omnidirectional mics are dedicated to doing their job efficiently. But you can get omnidirectional models in the condenser and dynamic forms. Most of us would utilize the condenser capsule since this type of microphone is configured like lavalier clip-on ones.
This configuration can offer you a greater degree of freedom while you are recording any single vocal track. But in the case of omnidirectional models, it can capture the tabletop sounds and round the table environmental sounds.
Type of mics
There are three kinds of mics available for gaming:
- The condenser mic
- Dynamic mic
- Omnidirectional mic.
The condenser mic comes with a higher degree of sensitivity and captures natural sounds, including human voice.
Due to oversensitivity, these kinds of mics also include various unwanted noise and vibrations. Moreover, the dynamic mics are less sensitive, and it does not create any distorted signals. They can often be used as handheld microphones.
Moreover, the Omni-directional mics are beneficial when you are using them in any group setting. If you have to capture various sounds from multiple directions, then these mics are instrumental.
An added advantage of using this mic is that you do not have to focus on the positioning of the mic, as it can capture sounds evenly from every direction possible.
The environment where you are recording
Your environment plays a notable role in your content. If you are recording in any studio environment, make sure that you invest in various acoustic treatments of your studio’s ceiling, floor, and walls to reduce the reflection of sounds.
But if you are recording in any live environment, make sure that you pay attention to various environmental noises like a breeze and other noise related to weather.
Budget can be one crucial factor
Budget is one major deciding factor when you are choosing a microphone. Everyone tends to save money while choosing a microphone. But you need to understand that expensive choices can provide you with various features. But a budget product would be the one that can offer you the top features without breaking your bank.
How many types of mics are available for gaming?
There are three types of mics available for gaming:
1. The condenser mic
2. Dynamic mic
3. Omnidirectional mic.
Conclusion: Are Omnidirectional Microphones Good For Gaming?
No matter what kind of microphone you choose for your gaming sessions, it is pretty clear that a headset or microphone is necessary for every gamer. A microphone helps to record your gameplay.
It can do the recording task to its optimum. Also, reiterating that you need not have to focus on the products’ price when choosing the suitable device. If you buy an expensive product, it can offer you various features and the best quality.
You may get plenty of microphones available in the market. But the best microphone would come within your budget and cater to all your needs and wants. Some of these models are also easier to use and project a straightforward design.
