Question What would I need to accomplish this?

[James Fullard]

First off, I hope this is the correct message board for this.

SO this is what I want to do, Myself and my four friends (a group of 40+ years old nerds lol) are big Dungeons & Dragons players. We want to start streaming our games. What I want to do is set up 5 condenser mics w/ mic stands for each of us so we have quality mic sounds. I assume I need a mixer to run all of the mics through. What I am asking is if someone could drop links to what mics and mixer I would need for this. If you are not sure what I mean I want to do something similar to how these guys do what they have set up
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWHYmDFR84I&t=1538s
only I am sure mine will not be as high tech as what they have but you get the idea.

Myself & 5 players. I want 5 mics and a way to connect them all together so each person has a mic and pipe it all into my PC.

 

[tennis2]

In the youtube video you linked, you can see their singular mic sitting in the middle of the table. Probably best to start simple with 1 mic, unless you plan on wanting/needing to mix separate vocal tracks for some reason.

 

[James Fullard]

In the youtube video you linked, you can see their singular mic sitting in the middle of the table. Probably best to start simple with 1 mic, unless you plan on wanting/needing to mix separate vocal tracks for some reason.

Well when I start off things I want the sound quality to be on point and clear. One mic will not cut it, we have a large table and are far enough apart that we will all need our own mics. SO naturally I cannot afford what those guy do but I do have money to spend so yea I want to find out which 5 mics are solid and if it is a mixer that is needed then which mixer to use to plug into my PC and make all 5 mics work as 5 different mics capturing each person.

 

[tennis2]

That's fine. I just wanted to point out that the youtube vid is using 3 cameras and 1 omnidirectional mic.

If you want individual audio tracks for each person, you can do that. That's your 5 mics (consider directional so they don't pick up other player's voices) and associated cables and stands to hide from the camera. This is obviously the highest vocal quality because room acoustics will be minimized in the feed. Gonna look a little daunting for your group members.

You could do 2 or 3 omni mics feeding to the same track to just give better coverage of the space. The sound will be a little less "pure" since room acoustics will come into play to a certain degree. But can still provide a decent result if done right.

The more devices (mics and cameras) you add to the setup, the more involved it will be for you to edit. Also set-up and tear-down.

What's your budget for the mics, stands, cables, and [potential] audio interface?

 

[James Fullard]

That's fine. I just wanted to point out that the youtube vid is using 3 cameras and 1 omnidirectional mic.

If you want individual audio tracks for each person, you can do that. That's your 5 mics (now they'll have to be directional so they don't pick up other player's voices) and associated cables and stands to hide from the camera. Gonna look a little daunting for your group members.

You could do 2 or 3 omni mics feeding to the same track to just give better coverage of the space.

What's your budget for the mics, stands, cables, and [potential] audio interface?

Well I figure for the entire set up I plan to create I will sink 2-3 thousand into. I didnt know they only use 1 omnidirectional mic . I must be blind haha where do you see they are only using 1 omnidirectional mic and 3 cameras ? Where does it list that at, I must have missed it.

edit: Actually I did some digging and found they use the following . . .

• 3x Blackmagic HD Studio Cameras
• Blackmagic production camera 4k EF
• Blackmagic Pocket Cam
• Blackmagic ATEM TV Studio Switcher
• ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel
• Blackmagic Decklink Mini Recorder
• HyperDeck Studio
• HyperDeck Shuttle

Naturally I am not on this kind of budget haha

 

[tennis2]

I mean....they do have nearly 2 million subscribers.

First glance, it assumed the mic was visible on the top feed in front of the woman wearing the white shirt. Now I'm thinking the mic(s) are either low on the table out of the camera view or overhead.

I'm picturing something a little more along the lines of Viva La Dirt League:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BbrKv9z1PA
They're clearly using 1-2 mics as you can hear the room acoustics more.

A setup like Critical Role is probably something you'd want to build into over time, not on first implementation.

 

[James Fullard]

I mean....they do have nearly 2 million subscribers.

First glance, it assumed the mic was visible on the top feed in front of the woman wearing the white shirt. Now I'm thinking the mic(s) are either low on the table out of the camera view or overhead.

So lets bring it down to earth where us mortal people live haha. I need a more civilized setup for audio and video so back to taking suggestions from the pro's here

 

[James Fullard]

I mean....they do have nearly 2 million subscribers.

First glance, it assumed the mic was visible on the top feed in front of the woman wearing the white shirt. Now I'm thinking the mic(s) are either low on the table out of the camera view or overhead.

I'm picturing something a little more along the lines of Viva La Dirt League:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BbrKv9z1PA
They're clearly using 1-2 mics as you can hear the room acoustics more.

A setup like Critical Role is probably something you'd want to build into over time, not on first implementation.

Possibly but I do not know what they use for the stream they do. I'll have to do some digging.

 

[tennis2]

Possibly but I do not know what they use for the stream they do.

I haven't looked up their setup, no.

So with your stated budget, that's probably fine. Figuring $500-700 for an audio interface, $500-$700 in mics, couple hundred for cables and stands.

 

[James Fullard]

I haven't looked up their setup, no.

So with your stated budget, that's probably fine. Figuring $500-700 for an audio interface, $500-$700 in mics, couple hundred for cables and stands.

As far as trying to create a pro set up, no thats not anytime soon I just want a normal setup that will give my streams quality audio/video I assume 4 cameras or webcams will be used.

2 players on one side of the table
2 players on one side of the table
1 for me (the Dungeon Master)
1 to point down to the battlemap on the table

As for audio, I find it hard to believe that a single mic in the middle of a full sized table will pick up 5 people aroiund the table and it all be clear. I have never done it before so I don't know what it will sound like which is why I came here. You guys have always pointed me in the right direction on any tech questions I have had in the past.

 

[tennis2]

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/OctaCapture--roland-octa-capture-usb-audio-interface
This is a solid unit with USB that also has some niceties like a coax input if you want to pipe background music into it. It supplies 48V phantom power for the condenser mics. The "auto sensitivity" feature is helpful.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/M5MP--rode-m5-matched-pair-compact-condenser-microphones

Cables and stands are going to be a little dependent (length) on your setup. Something like a 25ft cable should cost around $30.

 

[James Fullard]

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/OctaCapture--roland-octa-capture-usb-audio-interface
This is a solid unit with USB that also has some niceties like a coax input if you want to pipe background music into it. It supplies 48V phantom power for the condenser mics. The "auto sensitivity" feature is helpful.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/M5MP--rode-m5-matched-pair-compact-condenser-microphones

Cables and stands are going to be a little dependent (length) on your setup. Something like a 25ft cable should cost around $30.

I appreciate the info and will save this for when I start looking at purchasing items. thank you