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Keyboard Sound Tests And Room Treatment

Jan 6, 202568 VIEWS

Old Picture Of Mics I Used To Have/had Access To A While Back

"Which mic should I buy to record my keyboard sound tests? Do I have to sound-treat my room to make my recordings better? Should I not have my mic attached to the desk I’m typing on to avoid picking up desk noise?"

Whether you’ve had one of these questions or all of these questions (just like me when I first started), I’m hoping that this article will give you sufficient answers to the questions we think about when recording our sound tests. Like with the majority of my content, these are just my thoughts, and I encourage you to continue to research your questions by watching videos or reading other articles. Just because I give my opinions in this article doesn’t mean that other people’s opinions are wrong, or that you should just listen to me. I'm not an expert at any of this stuff, and I'm just scratching the surface of audio. There is so much that goes into mixing and recording that to pretend that I know everything or that I'm right about everything is foolish. Also, just like all my other content where I go over informational and instructional materials, I can only explain what I, personally, have experienced and know. Audiophiles, musicians, and people who work with acoustics, sound, and mixing have way more experience when it comes to microphones and sound treatment. While I do play and record instruments and vocals, either my own stuff or doing so with friends, it’s always been low-key and with a hobbyist’s mind. I’m not a professional when it comes to any of this.

A Few Instruments That My Friends And I Play

Why am I telling you all this? Well, it’s because I’m not going to pretend I know the science of sound or acoustics. Will I touch upon some topics that deal with that science? Sure, but don’t take this article as a professional’s guide to microphones and sound treatment strategies. I’m just a simple dude who enjoys keyboards and creating content, and I don’t pretend or claim to be someone I’m not or know something that I don’t know. With that being said, let’s start with going over microphones! Microphones

“Does buying a more expensive microphone result in better keyboard sound tests?”

In my opinion, that question should be changed to, “Is buying a more expensive or new microphone worth it for me when it comes to keyboard sound tests?” Let me explain what I mean. I covered this a bit in my “3 tips to avoid going bankrupt in our mechanical keyboard hobby” video, but we (I included) sometimes tend to think “Oh, my favorite streamer or content creator uses this mic, and I want my sound tests to sound like theirs” or “if I just buy a more expensive and/or new mic, that’ll drastically improve my sound tests” and believe that buying a new or expensive mic to replace your old one will solve all your problems.

Rode NT1 Signature Series - Something My Friend Bought Because She Saw Her Favorite Streamer Use It

My own preferences come from wanting to do the best with what I have currently and mastering the tools I have right now. I hesitate to “upgrade” or “side grade” equipment, especially because this is just a hobby for me, and I’m not getting paid or making a living to create keyboard content or keyboard sound tests. If you ARE getting paid, or making a living to create keyboard content or keyboard sound tests, then it may be worth it to upgrade your gear, especially your mic. However, even in those situations, I’d recommend you continue researching and really understand if it’s a mic issue, or if it’s something that you can fix either by understanding how your mic works and getting the most out of your current mic, or my proper mic placement, and, eventually later on in this article, sound treatment of your recording space. There are exceptions to this, just like everything, but I would not recommend just buying a new mic because you think your sound tests will be better. Why? There are many different factors that impact not only your sound tests but also how the actual board sounds. I’m not talking about switches, plates, keycaps, the material of the board, and so on, because we all know that those factors do determine how a board sounds, but I’m talking about your surroundings and factors that aren’t the board itself. If you’re getting a lot of desk noise and rumbling in your sound tests, maybe it’s because your mic is sitting on your typing surface, either on a boom arm or on its own microphone stand. Could the stand or boom arm absorb and dampen desk noise? Sure, but generally, you want your microphone to not be attached or touching your typing surface at all. A new and/or more expensive mic may still end up picking up that same desk noise and rumbling as your old mic. It could even be how your board’s feet are implemented that gives off that sound, or a design choice, which a new mic probably isn’t going to fix. It could also be the type of microphone you have and the polar pattern of that microphone. If you have a microphone with a cardioid polar pattern, which means that it’s most sensitive and picks up noise in front of the mic as opposed to the sides or back of the mic and you don’t realize this, you might have been pointing your microphone in the wrong direction, resulting in muted or muddy sounds.

Cardioid Polar Pattern By Popular Science

If you have a microphone with an omnidirectional polar pattern, and you don’t understand why the microphone is picking up your breathing behind the mic as you’re typing, it’s because omnidirectional polar patterns pick up sounds all around themselves. If you have a ribbon mic with a figure-8 polar pattern (not all do of course, but it’s somewhat synonymous with ribbon mics), you might not realize you’re pointing the mic the wrong way, or that it captures sound in front and behind.

Omnidirectional Polar Pattern By Popular Science

Figure-8 Polar Pattern By Popular Science

Different polar patterns are useful for different scenarios. You might not have to buy a new mic! You may just be pointing the microphone in the wrong direction, or picking up interference or background noise that you do not want, and your old mic is just fine once you figure out its polar pattern. It also could be the type of microphone you have. Dynamic mics, small diaphragm condensers, large diaphragm condensers, and ribbon mics, all are useful in their own ways, and not all dynamics are the same just like not all condenser mics are the same. It could also be your audio interface if you’re using an XLR cable. If you don’t use the right settings, you may get less-than-ideal sound (given that the audio interface isn’t broken or anything like that). Some audio interfaces have high self-noise, or if you increase the gain too far, it can actually negatively impact your recordings. It could be your mic placement! You might be placing your microphone too close to your keyboard or placing your microphone too far from your keyboard. Perhaps it’s an issue with how you’re rendering or compressing your audio files, resulting in artifacts or issues with downsampling, which is what happened with my latest sound test videos of the K-III proto and what had me troubleshoot and eventually come up with a solution using ffmpeg. You might experience microphone phasing if you use multiple mics and don’t place them correctly (following the 3:1 rule), resulting in audio distortions. This is something that I also had encountered for the first time recently, even though I’ve been using multiple mics for a long time.

To Prevent Phasing Issues, When Using Multiple Mics, Be Sure To Have The Distance Between The Mics At Least Three Times The Distance From Each Mic To The Sound Source That’s Being Picked Up By Shure

It could be all, or even more factors. What I’m trying to say is that it all depends on the combination of polar pattern, type of microphone, your overall surroundings, your mic placement, and more. Keep in mind that some microphones tend to be “brighter,” meaning they emphasize higher frequencies and are “trebly.” The Lewitt 040 mics that I used sound brighter than my Line Audio CM4s for example, and my AT2020 that I used to have bordered on the harsh/bright line. Other mics tend to be muffled or “dark”/”warm,” making sounds seem more bassy and accentuating lower frequencies. My MXL144 ribbon mic and many ribbon mics in general give off a warm sound for example. Mics can be so different, that you may hear a sound test of a board sound slightly different depending on what mic is used. For example, one of my recent sound tests. You don’t have to watch the entire video but skip to the different mics to hear what I’m talking about.

Check Pinned Comment For Full Timestamps

It’s not always a clear answer as to whether buying a new or expensive mic will improve your sound tests because there are so many factors when it comes to mics. If you know your space and know how to use your mic, you can probably make your $50 mic work as opposed to getting a $500 mic. Especially when it comes to capturing keyboard sounds. When it comes to capturing vocals or instruments, there are more factors in determining what’s the best mic for you, but in our hobby, if you learn how to work with the mic you have, your sound tests should be just fine. Unless you are a professional and are able to sink a lot of time and/or money in capturing as accurate a sound test as possible, for us hobbyists in general, our current mics are, generally, just fine. It all comes down to the question we talked about at the beginning of this section.

“Is buying a more expensive or new microphone worth it for me when it comes to keyboard sound tests?”

Everyone’s situations are different, whether it be a lack of space, not wanting to spend money to buy a stand, or suspending your mic in a way that it’s not attached to your desk. That’s fine! My older sound test videos with the Rode NT1 5th gen, Audio Technica AT2020, Samson Q2U, and Samson Q9U are all attached to boom arms that are attached to my typing surface, which is my desk. Is that ideal? No. But due to my own space limitations at that time as well as not wanting to buy more C-Stands, and the fact that I don’t market my sound tests as “professional-grade,” I’m fine with this.

An Example Of An Older Sound Test That Had Multiple Mics Attached To My Typing Surface

Nowadays, I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to move things around, and I now have all my mics on stands that aren’t touching or in contact with the typing surface (my desk), but back then, that wasn’t a possibility for me. I am not a “professional” keyboard content creator, someone who relies on content creation to make money or to support my family, or someone who has fine-tuned their set-up to be as accurate as possible (maybe someday when we finish our basement, but I understand that my recording setup is nowhere near perfect). This is why I have disclaimers on all my videos in the description. I make sound tests not to perfectly depict how the keyboard sounds (although the CM4s, in my opinion, do an almost perfect job of this), and I put this in my disclaimers. And think about this. Imagine that you capture what your keyboard sounds like perfectly with your mic. Even if you do so, that keeb is not going to sound exactly the same if placed on someone else’s desk or typing environment, and it’s not going to sound exactly the same to someone else’s ears. Everyone uses their keebs in different typing environments, and everyone’s ears are different. Does that mean you shouldn’t be aware of your current recording environment and that you should purposely record with your fan on full blast, your windows open to pick up the noise of construction workers outside, or you yelling at your mom to make you some pizza rolls as you’re in the middle of your typing test? No. What I’m saying is that after taking care of any unwanted noise to the best of your ability and perfecting your mic etiquette, the sounds that you capture when typing on your board may not be the sounds that someone else gets if they use the same exact board in their environment, because they may have a thinner desk that accentuates sounds that you didn’t get in your sound test, may have a bare room without any decorations or furnishings that result in the sound being amplified, or their ears simply don’t pick up (or even pick up things you didn’t realize) things that your ears do. Even if you do the best that you can with your setup and do things to the best of your ability, your sound test may not be accurate for someone else. That doesn’t mean that the pursuit of recording accurate keyboard sound tests is not worthwhile. What I’m saying is that there are factors outside your control, so don’t feel like you have to spend your time and money being perfect if you don’t want to. Do the best with what you currently have, and don’t feel like you’re letting anyone down by not producing high-quality keyboard sound tests or content. You control what you can control, and let the chips fall as they may, especially if you’re just a hobbyist like me and don’t make a living off of content creation.

A Pair Of Cans Can Be Helpful To Troubleshoot Your Audio Issues. My HD 6xx Headphones I Use While At The Computer And When Editing My Sound Tests. Keep An Eye Out For Sales On Drop’s Website If You’re Looking Into Buying Headphones

If your mic is broken and you need to get a new one, or you’ve already been researching for a while on upgrading your mic (or you need to get a better one due to work, because your friends over your Discord voice call say you sound like you’re underwater and so on), then sure, buying a new mic is fine. I would caution against buying a new mic if yours currently has no issues just because you think it’ll make your sound tests better though. At least, until you’ve thought about changing other factors that affect sound. If you’ve done your research, I’m not stopping you since it’s your money at the end of the day. If you find an insane deal on a mic that retails for way more, and if you’ve researched and adjusted other sound factors as much as possible, then buying a new mic might be a good move. What I’m advising is to be cautious and don’t spend money without looking at all your options. Maybe you can get a bit more out of your mic if you adjust other aspects of your sound environment. There’s a difference between an educated purchase versus an impulse buy, and I’m a huge advocate for financial health and making smart purchasing decisions. Let’s move on to the next part of this article, sound treatment. Sound Treatment

Photo by Pixabay

Let’s talk about the overall idea of purposely installing or placing items, foams, and materials to improve the acoustics of your room. Unless you are sitting in a room with literally nothing in it besides a laptop on the floor and that’s it, chances are, your room is already somewhat treated. From wall posters to picture frames to your bed, your dresser, your computer monitor, and so on, sound is already being affected. Again, similar to my “3 tips to avoid going bankrupt” and similar to the points I touched on in the microphone portion of this article, a less-than-deal set-up should never prevent you from creating content, especially when it comes to keyboard sound tests. Do I know that I don’t have the most optimal set-up when it comes to recording sound tests? 1000%. Does that stop me from creating content or enjoying myself? No! And neither should you. It may be something that I’ll be interested in investing both in terms of money and time down the road, but as long as this is just a hobby for me, I’m happy making content in suboptimal environments. For the average hobbyist who doesn’t have a background in recording music or mixing, chances are, your room is perfectly fine for what you’re trying to do. If you’re a professional or are being paid to create content or decide to pursue making keyboard-related content to the point where it’s an important aspect of your life, then sure, paying close attention to how your room is acoustically is important. So, what is sound treating? Simply put, it’s a way to eliminate “bad” noises, or at the very least, help reduce the amount of factors that can negatively impact your recordings. Maybe the way that sound is reflected in your room results in your keyboard sound tests having a lot of echo, or the way your room really accentuates some unwanted noise from your sound test.

Examples Of Sounds From DesigningBuildings

Treating your room acoustically could be beneficial. By the way, I’m assuming you already have all other sound factors dialed in. Mic etiquette, not turning up the volume on your TV to watch your favorite football team while you’re doing your sound test picking up the voice of the commentators, and so on. I’m only going to talk about sound treating your room as if you’ve already done the best you can with all other factors. And keep in mind, I’m only talking about keyboard sound tests. Of course, treating your room will be beneficial when it comes to mixing and listening, but since that’s not my area of expertise or a hobby that I’m interested in, I’m not going to pretend to know anything about those things. Anyways, what can you do to improve your sound test set-up? If you pick up a lot of reverb or echoing while you’re typing on your keyboard during your sound test, you could mount some sound panels like those foam squares or other items to effectively “absorb” those echoes and reverberations. Certain frequencies will be absorbed, and overall sound can be improved. Foam panels, sound blankets, insulation, and so on can be used, although you don’t necessarily need to cover your entire room and all your walls with absorbing material, since that may just give off a dead and muted sound and sound test altogether. Sound dampening is a strategy of sound treatment, but too much dampening isn't ideal. You don’t want to be in a room for hours and days that’s “deadened,” because you could go crazy! Watch one of those YouTube videos where someone goes crazy being in a room that absorbs all or almost all sound. And remember, furniture and other items in your room already act as sound absorbers, so chances are, you really don’t have to go overboard (or even at all) unless your room is literally empty.

DIY Sound Treatment From zZounds

You also have to factor in your room itself. Different sizes of rooms, what’s already in said room, and the material of your room (concrete, brick, and so on) all determine how much echoing you may experience with your room. Each room may need varying levels of sound treatment. And hey, in the end, after experimenting with sound treatments, you may just decide that because your room is where you spend the majority of your time, you’ll just keep it as is! Generally, when it comes to sound tests for keyboards, as long as you do your best to reduce any “unwanted” noise such as turning off your fan, closing your windows or doors when you record, and so on, it’s totally fine. You want to capture the sound of your keyboard, but most of us usually have a fan or AC running, we listen to music, and usually, there are noises going on all around us to the point where trying to eliminate EVERY source of noise that isn’t a keyboard could very well just be a fool’s errand. Does that mean you shouldn’t have proper etiquette and record sound tests when your wife is vacuuming the house? Of course not. I’m just saying not to get too discouraged if you can’t sound treat your recording environment or have some sort of background sound like your computer or AC running. Control what you can control, and don’t think that you have to record sound tests in a sound booth or spend money and time to upgrade your set-up. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting cheaply and coming up with alternatives when it comes to sound treatment, but similar to just impulse buying a mic thinking that’ll solve all your problems, treating your room is undoubtedly beneficial, but is it worth it for you? I encourage you to see what you can do with the things you have right now, or find affordable low-cost alternatives before you splurge and create a recording studio for your sound tests. But if you do, hey, it’s your money, and I won’t stop you. There’s nothing inherently bad about sound treating your room, and most of the time, it’ll be beneficial no matter what you do. But it’s up to you to determine if it’s worth it for you at this current stage when it comes to keyboard sound tests. The majority of us don’t use keyboards in an environment that is as treated as a recording studio, and most of us already have some sort of sound treatment in the form of furniture and other things in our rooms. A little treatment may be useful, but you don’t want to go overboard. Just like how many of us listen to music or watch videos on our phones for example. We don’t always have or use optimal setups to watch, listen, or record, and we make do with what we have. My Set-Up So what is my set-up, and what is my thought process on what mics I use and why I do what I do? I have kids, a wife, a full-time job, and numerous other hobbies and things that I spend my day doing or dabbling in. At this moment in my life, making “professional-grade” keyboard content and sound tests is not as important as those other things in my life. That doesn’t mean that I just half-ass my videos or sound tests. It just means that I enjoy this hobby and content creation for what it is. A low-stress and chill way to enjoy keyboards and keyboard-related items as well as help out others. I am still looking to improve and make better content, which will be a never-ending process for me, and if I spend more time and effort into making better content, would my content quality increase? Without a doubt. But right now, I’m happy learning and improving at my own pace without dedicating my entire life to this hobby or making content. I’m not speedrunning this hobby or content creation, because I don’t feel the need to, and I don’t depend on the hobby or content creation to make a living. There’s also the argument between actual gear issues and skill issues. I am a firm believer in getting the most with what I have currently. Could I go out and upgrade my entire setup to have state-of-the-art microphones, a better computer, awesome cameras, and so on? Absolutely. But until I get the most out of what I currently have and learn how to improve my set-up on a budget, I’m not going to just keep buying gear. I’m going to learn and improve my skills with what I have. My current recording space is my home office. I have a bunch of shelves, books, posters, pictures, and furniture in the room. If there’s a blank portion of a wall, it’s either super high up and close to the ceiling, or purposely blank as my wife likes to decorate and change what the room looks like every now and then.

My Old Set Up Where I Was Doing Many Things Wrong In Terms Of Mic Placement. I Have A Lot Of Personal Information Spread Around My Current Home Office, So I Decided To Just Use This Old Pic Of My Old Office

For me, I don’t have any sort of foam or sound panels, because my furniture and pictures and whatnot do more than enough for me when it comes to eliminating any sort of “bad” noise or echoes. If we ever renovate or buy a new house in the future, it would be cool to set up a sound booth or a recording studio so my friends and I can record our band sessions at my house, but for the time being, I’m happy with my current set-up and happy with how my sound tests sound like. When it comes to current mics, I only own a few and borrow some from my friend and neighbor. I own the two Line Audio CM4 small diaphragm condensers, a Shure SM57 that I use when I rock out with my friends, both for instruments and vocals, and that’s it. The Audio Technica AT897, Rode NT1, and the Lewitt 040 mics (that I gave back to my friend). I’m happy with my janky setup when it comes to content creation and recording sound tests. I believe I’ve spent an appropriate amount of time and money given the importance of content creation currently in my life. So, if you’re like me and keyboards and sound tests are just fun things to do, and you don’t have the most optimal set-up, that’s totally fine! As long as you’re enjoying yourself and continue to learn and improve, I’d say that your set-up is just right, and you don’t need to go overboard with buying mics or setting up a perfect sound test environment. You can work towards those things, and if you decide you want to invest money and time to do so, you absolutely can. What I’m suggesting is not to have a mindset of needing the latest and greatest piece of equipment and doing the best with what you have depending on how important this hobby is in your life, and that you balance time and money when compared to the rest of your life. We can get so addicted to the hobby that the rest of our life suffers, or that we burn out (see my 5 Tips On How To Enjoy The Keyboard Hobby article) and no longer enjoy the hobby, so it’s important to have balance.

My "5 Tips" Article

Whether my thoughts are applicable to your own lives, that’s for you to decide. Understand that you only have a limited time on this Earth, and appropriate your time and money wisely. Personally, I have no dreams of becoming a full-time content creator or sustaining myself solely with keyboard content. So, I’m fine that my setup isn’t the most optimal. I’m perfectly happy with the time and effort I’ve allocated and continue to allocate to this hobby. Conclusion Well, there you have it. I hope that this article was helpful, and I really do appreciate all of you! Whether you read the whole article, parts of it, or skipped to the end, your time is valuable, and I appreciate it. If you’ve skipped to the end or just want a refresher on what this article was about, yes, sound treating your room may be beneficial for keyboard sound tests, but chances are unless you have echoing in your recordings or have zero furnishings whatsoever, the amount of treatment that you’ll need to do to get your room to a point that’s adequate is probably minimal. When it comes to microphones, unless you were already planning on getting a new microphone for work or something else, your current microphone is broken, or, you’ve done your research and have decided on making an educated purchase after understanding that there’s more to sound tests than just your microphone, chances are your current microphone is just fine and playing with your set-up and/or really mastering your microphone and working with what you have may be the better option, especially when it comes to recording keyboard sound tests. As always, these are just my opinions. You, yourself are in control of your own money, and you decide what to spend your money on. As long as you’ve done your research and make sure you aren’t impulse buying, that’s all I can ask for. Let me know what you think, either in the comments section or reach out to me on Discord (HubertTheMad#0073). As always, thanks for reading, I love you all, and see you next time!

(Edited)

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Jan 10, 2025

That mic on the far left looks familiar 👀

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Jan 10, 2025

spookeycapsOh wow small world! 😁

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