Good Microphone (Over the ear preferrably) for Console and PC streaming?

Hey All,

I've been going back and forth on replacing my current streaming microphone, but can't really find one that fits the bill.

The Setup

I have a corner desk, where the center monitor sits on a raised platform. The platform has shelves on each side of it that come up and connect over the raised platform as another platform. On that platform, my TV sits.

On the platforms above each shelf, my left and right channel sit from my home theater system. My center channel sits directly in front and slightly below the monitor.

I currently stream with a USB single-ear headset with a noise cancelling directional microphone. Audio quality is fine, but the headset itself is dying. My mouth sits about 3.5 feet away from the center channel.

I have no use for the earpiece, as I do not put game audio through it.

What I'm looking for

What I'm looking for is an over the ear microphone, that will be either USB or 3.5mm, that will not pick up audio from the center channel. My current headset does not have any issues ignoring the center channel, but I'd really rather get rid of a headset.

However, everything I can find is omnidirectional, which would obviously pick up the center channel like nobody's business (as far as I understand). I don't know enough about Cardiod microphones to know if a Blue Snowball would accomplish what I'm looking for, as I'd have to place it slightly off to the side aimed at me?

Any and all input or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

(I stream mostly for friends and people that have randomly wandered upon the stream, not any sort of stream popularity but that's still no reason to have a ton of crosstalk/feedback)

A proper headset mic will be fine and not pick up center channel or sides unless said channel is too loud, same goes for lavalier mics, but to get "proper" attributes on a mic so that it can manage your situation you either need to spend a good bit on true tried quality or get a "channel-strip" (amplifier, compressor, more for mic and/or instrument) to tune the bad things away. Can't help you on headset/earsets or what channel-strips are available new and at affordable prices, all of my audio equipment comes from mad luck and miraculous deals ($450 RRP mic for $25 from a studio sale).

What I can say is that equipment from Blue is marked up a bit and sells via word of mouth. To get something like the Snowball or any other condenser mic working in your situation you'd need to tune the gain and volume on the mic until it picks up your voice only and never the center channel, and make sure it has a cardoid pickup pattern engaged so it only picks up audio going into its front. You would also have to be close to it, a good solution would be a desk-stand (with a multi-jointed arm) or mic-stand with a boom arm to angle and bring closer towards you, provided the Snowball or similar could be given a mic-cradle to hang around in.

(Remember to run soundchecks by means of recordings rather than trying to listen to yourself in real-time. I'd suggest stores to look at but I live in Europe)

I think I saw a bunch of tweets yesterday about the Snowball being on sale this weekend for about $60, lots of people swear by it being a great mic. I think Patrick uses it for all his home streams.

@jesus_phish: I bought a Snowball the last time Amazon had them on sale and couldn't be happier with it.

The caveat here is that I don't do much streaming.

@jesus_phish: @dave_tacitus: Thanks. Looking at the Blue Snowball now.

To place it down somewhere, my mouth would be about 2 feet from the microphone, would it be able to pick me up still?

Final update on this. I got the Blue Snowball, and while it has great quality, it seems my concern about distance was founded.

After some testing, due to the distance, it's not picking up most of the bass and some of the treble in my voice, likely as it is having to do a lot more to ignore other sounds?

Still unsure if I'm going to return it to Amazon or not. I've looked into articulating arms, because if I can get it slightly over me or to my side, it might eliminate the entire problem.