I have a Blue Microphone Yeti connected by USB to my MacBookPro. It's plugged directly into the Mac, not through a USB hub.
I'm getting some distortion, especially on S sounds. Listen here:
http://deconstructingcomics.com/podcast/150615_voiceover_A.mp3
I'm using a pop guard, although the problem occurs whether I use it or not. I'm baffled as to how to remedy this. Any ideas?
I wouldn't have described the result as actually distorted - there is a sligh edge on the sound which might be a very small amount of harmonic distortion, but it's no worse than you often hear with capacitor mics. It's fairly toppy, so there is quite a bit of sibilance, but no actual 'spashing' of the sort you get when the sibilance is overloading the input. Are you sure the problem isn't with your speakers? Try a pair of headphones and don't drive them too loudly.
I am using headphones. Just tried it with the Mac's built-in speakers, but I'm hearing the same thing. And it only happens on recordings made with that mic. The sound from the person I'm talking to on Skype doesn't have that issue.
The effect I'm referring to especially noticeable at the beginning when I say "discuss" and "Sithra". I don't know what to call the effect I'm hearing. It sounds sort of like if you hold a larger flat object in front of your face and move it toward/away/toward your face as you say "shhhhh". That's the effect I'm trying to get rid of here.
I've listened to it on very high quality hifi speakers and I wouldn't say there was distortion as such. The sibilance is a bit excessive, though it doesn't show up particularly on a spectrum analyzer. If you can tone-control the sound a bit it might help. I've had a go at it by pitting a 9dB notch in at 9kHz - there's still a bit of an audible peak on the sibilance but reducing it any further will make the voice sound a bit muffled. I'm afraid that the probably cause is that the microphone is designed with this toppy sound because a lot of people think it's good - though I don't. Your best bet is to see if you can use a graphic equalizer program or plug-in and see if you can get the sound to your liking.
You can download my revised version at http://rfwilmut.net/share/voiceover.mp3
<This link is a direct download>
As a check on your speakers etc. you might like to listen to a bit of my podcast at http://rfwilmut.net/podcasts/podcast30.html - this is fairly good speech quality from a cheap Beyer moving-coil microphone in lounge, slightly sibilant but nothing like as much as yours.
I can't seem to find any such software. Can anyone recommend anything? I have a Mac.
Preferably one that can be used while I'm recording, rather than to edit the file afterward.
You may already have the Apple Audio Units installed - these include a graphic equalizer. They can be accessed from many audio recording programs including GarageBand (at least it used to - not sure about the recent versions) and Amadeus Pro (which I use and it works well). In most cases you will have to post process - whether it's possible to record through the setting depends on how the program is designed.
There are also a number of third-party units, though VST ones may not run on recent Macs (sometimes only if you revert to 32-but).
A good place to ask for more details about this is in the GarageBand forum.
Yeti mic distortion
