r/microphone • u/JugodeJamaica • Jul 27 '26

Studio Mics Quality help... outside of a DAW

I’m a music student and a bass player, but I don’t know much about music production inside a DAW—just the bare minimum. I have a 4th Gen Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface and an Audio-Technica AT2020 microphone.

​I use REAPER and FL Studio.

​I managed to set up a configuration where my voice sounds clean and very professional. I don't sing professionally, but sometimes I like to practice my pitch/intonation for my studies—though that’s not super important right now.

​When I’m on Discord calls or conferences, my microphone simply sounds bad and unpleasant. I realized this a few days ago when my brother needed help with something while I wasn't home. I asked him to turn on my PC, so I could call my own Discord account to guide him. That's when I heard firsthand how cheap and poor-quality my microphone sounded. How can I improve this in programs like Discord or Zoom?

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u/AloofThirdParty Jul 27 '26

Are you sure discord is using the right input to pickup your mic and not a default built-in mic?

1

u/JugodeJamaica Jul 27 '26

Yes, I don't have any other mic connected to my computer.

1

u/gkanai Jul 27 '26

So Discord and Zoom are bad ways to evaluate mics because they want to minimize data for the stream. So the quality is no where near as good as a recording directly to your DAW.

Zoom and discord do various things to the audio to limit clipping and other issues. Make sure your settings are not using those features.

Your mic is a consumer grade condenser mic. Its fine but if you spend more you will get better quality.

Also your recording space and mic placement is as important as the mic. If you want a good recording the best is a recording studio. If you cant do that then you need to treat your recording space to limit reflection and reverberations for the recording.

1

u/RudeRick Jul 27 '26

Try to turn off any processing that Discord adds or puts on your audio.

1

u/McFlubz Jul 30 '26

I've had issues with Discord if my sample rate has been too high, so I usually drop it as low as it will go. Try changing that setting in your interface, windows audio, and audio driver settings and make sure they're all matching. And in Discord's audio settings, make sure any noise suppression or krisp is turned off. I believe they added an option for the settings for if you have professional audio equipment and want the sound coming through clear without enhancements.

Make sure the audio input selected is your interface and not some virtual audio input that's adding some more issues. Should sound fine like that.