When you say, “How do I sound,” most people are going to respond, “We can hear you fine”, thinking just as long as the volume is okay and there aren’t any barking dogs in the background, you are in the clear.
And that’s not necessarily BAD, it’s a common response.
However, what we often don’t think about or troubleshoot is how we can improve the sound quality.
One way to get better feedback on sound quality is to educate the person you want feedback from.
You’re not listening for volume, you’re listening for tonality (specifically, the ‘warmth’ that comes from better lower-frequency pickup). Try different positions of the microphone to balance “workable” with “sounds better.”
Another way is to fire up Zoom (or WebEx, or whatever platform you are using) and start a recording. Say something on the recording with one mic and pause the recording. Switch microphones, then unpause the recording and repeat what you said. Rinse, repeat, and then listen to the recording.
Here’s the awesome news. I’ve done this many, many times with a similar video that I created a couple years ago, and people are always STUNNED. Why? Because amateur ears don’t know what they’re listening for – but they can easily hear the difference when you let them know.
Check out our latest mic test video to see for yourself the difference in sound quality across multiple different mic devices.