Conference microphone for skype
February 3, 2014 8:56 AM   Subscribe

My Dungeons & Dragons group has one player who skypes in. What kind of tabletop microphone should we buy?

One of the players in my D&D group is from out of town and plays via skype or google Hangouts. We set up a Windows 8 laptop at one end of the table. This works fairly well with his character (a flighty elf who is disconnected from reality), but he is having too much trouble hearing us.

We're looking to buy a no-nonsense USB tabletop microphone. It has to be omnidirectional since we will be sitting on all sides of it, and it should cancel anything other than voices spoken within a few feet of it because there are often non-players doing things nearby. Our budget is $20-60.

I looked at some previous postings that seemed to recommend a Blue Snowball, but we'd like something a little more affordable if possible.
posted by hayvac to Technology (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is what our gaming group uses for exactly this situation. Unfortunately it is a lot more expensive than the Blue Snowball.
posted by jozxyqk at 9:52 AM on February 3, 2014


I use a Polycom Communicator for this, which has the advantage if being both a mic and a speaker with hardware echo cancelation -- if you get just the mic and have sound coming from other speakers then there is a higher chance of echo/feedback. Skype can handle some of that but using a combined device can help. It's a lot more money than a snowball, though.
posted by camcgee at 10:33 AM on February 3, 2014


Just to add another recommendation beyond your price range, we use the Jabra SPEAK 410 at my work and I can't recommend it highly enough. (Like camcgee's suggestion, this one is also a speaker with echo cancellation, which may factor into your consideration.)
posted by war wrath of wraith at 8:39 PM on February 3, 2014


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