I've been recording music and learning about it for 2 years and I haven't heard anyone say this. Best advice I've heard. Awesome advice

I always apreciate Tutorials on the Equalizer APO. People really need to become aware of this awesome software. But 9 Plugins! Well… you can do a lot of fine tuning on your microphone, but usually, exactly 2 Plugins will do 90% of the job on their own. Still, i apreciate the effort in explaining the rough whereabouts of certain frequencies. This makes getting into the process of EQing the microphone sound quite a bit easier for beginners.

That being said: I didn’t yet check if you have a tutorial on this as well, but nobody who stumbles across this video will do that anyways, so maybe they will see this comment for additional advice. 80% of good sound come down to two things you need to do before even doing any of the things in this video.

The first thing is using the microphone at the correct distance. This is physics and there is no way around it. You need the microphone close to your mouth. The closer you can get, the better the signal to noise ratio can be. The closer you are, the louder your voice is, compared to the ambient- and background-noise. But how close you should get for the best sound, depends on the microphone design. There are two major designs out there: Condenser and Dynamic microphones. Condenser Microphones are best suited for a certain distance between the microphone and the sound source. The best tradeoff between signal to noise ratio and sound quality can be achieved with a distance from 10cm to 15 cm (roughly 4 to 6 inches). This is where you get the best sound out of condensers, without sacrificing a lot of signal to noise ratio. Again, the closer you get, the higher the signal to noise ratio will be and the richer the bass response of your microphone to your voice will become. If you get even closer than 10 cm / 4 inches tho, the bass will become overpowering and muddy. My best bets in terms of sound are: 10 cm / 4 inches for a rich bass response, for a more broadcast-like sound. 15 cm / 6 inches for a rather clear sound with more top end. Dynamic microphones are best suited for a very close distance. This is why you can use a dynamic microphone as close as 5 cm / 2 inches. (This - and the fact that a dynamic microphone by design doesn’t pick up as much background- or ambient-noise - is the reason why dynamic microphones are somewhat better in terms of noise rejection.) 5 cm / 2 inches is the best bet for a rich bass response, at 7.5 cm / 3 inches gives you a clearer sound. Next, set the gain properly. The correct gain is set, if your signal strength hovers around -20dBFS while talking normally. You can monitor the signal in Voicemeeter, having the input and output both set to 0dBFS. You can also monitor it by simply read the input in OBS, with the source in OBS set to full loudness. (And all filters disabled, if you have any) As for the actual setting of the gain correctly, There are actually 3 ways of doing it. 1. If you have a USB Microphone without a microphone gain knob on the microphone itself, the gain can only set up in Windows. Open the Windows Control Center (not the Windows Settings) and open the sound settings in there. Inside the sound settings open the tab for the recording devices and look up the microphone and open its properties by doubleclicking it. Inside the properties, go to the level tab. The slider in here sets the gain for the microphone. If you set it to “0”, you get the base signal level. At “100” its raised quite a lot. Find the correct setting by talking and monitoring your signal level. 2. If you have USB microphone with a gain knob on the microphone itself, set the level I talked in 1. before, to “0” and use the gain knob to dial in the correct signal strength. Raise the level on the recording device of the USB microphone in Windows only, in case the gain knob cannot vice you the desired signal strength.
 3. If you have an audio interface and XLR microphones, set the level for the the audio interface’s recording device to 100 and leave it there at all times. For an audio interface, the level slider acts as a fader and does nothing to set up the signal strength correctly. You will only use the gain knob on the interface. If you followed these two steps, you will already have the best signal to noise ratio and a sufficient signal strength to begin with. Remember, when I wrote about two Plugins being enough for a basic setup of the microphone for streaming? All, I use without the EQ, are: ATK Expander and LoudMax, both of which are available on GitHub for download. The first Plugin in the Equalizer APO should be ATK Expander. Set its threshold to -40dBFS for to keep even whispering audible, or -36 dBFS, to demand normal talking, but removing more of the background noise. Don’t forget to set the slope as high as it can go without the value rising to 2. The second plugin in the Equalizer APO should be LoudMax. And LoudMax is ridiculously easy to set up. Set the first slider to -20dBFS to reach the highest volume possible. Set it to -22dBFS, if you want a certain level of compression. Don’t worry about clipping here. With the signal level from your microphone coming in at -20dB, there is no way, this will start to clip. Simply set he second slider to limit the signal. Either choose -4dBFS (for professional line level) or -10dBFS (for consumer line level).

If you want to modify the sound of the microphone, make sure, the ATK Expander is always the first plugin and LoudMax is always the last plugin in your vocal chain.

You were the end to my 4 hour long headache trying to set up my dual PC recording/streaming setup. I can rest easy no father, thank you

You are 20 minutes away from professional sound for the rest of your online life - thank this man...

Noticeable improvement on my BM800 + Behringer UMC22. Ive been using your old config but this is sounds so much more professional. Thanks!

Just got a standalone mic and this video helped me SO MUCH setting up the EQ levels that I was looking for. Thanks for this.

Thanks for the in depth look into how all of the plugins are working. I am still using your setup when you gave it to us in the earlier Mic setup video and its still rocking solid. Keep it up man, be well.

Wow, I must have asked 5 different questions before finalizing this comment. 🤣 I couldn't figure out what to download off of your Discord, so I just went with the latest mic setting text file. After looking at the various config files once I had saved some things, I realized how to just import your settings by copying the text file and, of course, installing replugs, too. I couldn't be happier! Thanks!

me casually already bought a umc202hd and a sm58 watching the videos intro

This is much smarter than having to do all of this in post every single time with audacity. This is a one and done setup that works everywhere not just in audacity.

Yoooooo! Thank you so much man, My hyeperX Quadcast sounds sick now. It sounded amazing already, but now it sounds super crisp!

Had bad settings for years and didnt know what to do with my blue snowball. I just wanted to start up streaming and found this video. Im pretty sure this saved me hours of research and videos to fix my settings. Thank you!

You look like a walmart brand PewDiePie, I mean that in the nicest possible way. I enjoy the helpful content man, thanks!

I tried all three presets and the Audio Doc Preset works best for me. Just had to add a little preamp and now my voice is loud and clear. Thank you!

I would recommend running reafir and reagate FIRST before any other plugins - this will remove the audio you don't need to be amplified BEFORE you get to smoothing things over with EQ and Compression. By working this way, your EQ and Comp plugins will not use as much CPU (working less due to less noise).

This video was such a lifesaver! I have been trying to figure out how to record audio without fan noise and how to make my microphone sound louder. Thank you so much!!

Thank you for this! I use to use voicemeeter banana for about 2 years and wanted to use a noise gate but recently it has been causing issues with discord and crashing for me. This Equalizer APO is a life saver!

Very helpful - the Presets on your discord are an awesome extra - plus the Medical Ninja's on your discord are very helpful!

Thank you Pewdewpie for this wonderful tutorial. I spent 7 hours straight tinkering my APO because I am a woman the settings are significantly different from yours but I got to it. I used the FIFINE usb mic.

I don't comment on many videos, but I have spent multiple hours looking for real ways to make my microphone sound better and have a live noise gate. I just gotta say thanks for having a no bs video that actual makes my mic sound good and helps keeps from picking up crazy amounts of background noise. Most other videos either did not work for me or ended up making me sound worse.

Just bought a 60$ mic and EQ APO... Now I sound like a radio-moderator, or really crisp and nice Ad-Voice ... Even way better than what you have on this video. Tonor TC 40 ... really good value for that price.

good stuff! i love audiphile tweaking of voice & audio

GREAT video, really was able to tune my Tonor TC-2030 to the sound quality i like and my mates can also listen too, thanks !!!

really helped me out, had some issues with blue snowball picking up background noise outside obs. Dropped a sub good work man

perfect format, with files to download, great advice and more important every single word is vaild and not 40 mins of gibberish

Thank you, I've been looking at ways to make my mic sound better :)

Do i enable audio enhancements on Windows Sound Settings?

I followed the instructions but don’t get how to download the vsts? I have them in the folder but when I move them to the APO config folder they aren’t .txt files so won’t work? Can someone help please thank you! 🙏🏽

4:00 that error is because APO defaults to your default *output* device, which you only have APO set to your *input* device. thats why you get the error

What about a preset for the Samson Q2U? It’s a budget friendly dynamic microphone, and I think that with some APO processing it could sound amazing.

Absolute legend

Can you do the fifine k669 USB mic?

I personally own a Rode NT-1 and a Scarlett Solo, I would agree that I shouldn't have bought it when I did about a year ago, if I had known about equalizer apo I would have just bought an at2020 and save a minimum of $200. So if anyone is just starting out, get something like Franswah (Blue snowball) and upgrade when or if it ever becomes necessary. One of the most popular people on this platform (Daily Dose of Internet) uses a snowball. Its not the tools, but how you apply them.

Bro really be blazing with APO crazy

Who is this guy with no beard I think its an IMPOSTER!!!!!!!! LOL Different look man I had to take a triple check just to make sure it was the right channel LOL

This is fantastic!!!! Thank you for this!

installed your presets off the discord and just says file not found for all the VST plugins in equalizer APO

ima just wait till the video gets released for the last plug in cause you're the only one i can understand explain it lol

simply put, you are a Rockstar. thank you!

This might be the best video ever. Thank you.

Finally sorted this out and now my mic sounds much better. Huuuge thanks to you, my dude!)) P.S. special thanks for the presets ;)

preset for the rode podmic would be GREATLY appreciated

Thanks for the tutorial, really helped out.

amazing presentations ! really worth 1,000,000 subscribers

the notification when you open up the editor pops up because you have selected your speakers as device in the top right corner

as far as i can see ive done it right but struggling to see if it is affecting the microphone

It appears the new variant of the CoolerMaster 725 headset, the MH650 is recognized during configuration but does not have the corresponding txt file. Even replacing the text within the file (as they are virtually the same headphones) still results in the "No device matched" errors and configuration essentially stops in its tracks. I think I might be better served with your more elegant solution using a slightly more upscale standalone mic. I've heard what the MH650 can do through Voicemeeter but from what I understand it takes some doing. I will consult your other equally thorough videos for insights there. Here's hoping. Much respect for the very thorough breakdown you've got here. I was hoping to get some richness to the headset's sound while waiting for a standalone mic upgrade. I'm not currently streaming but wanted some decent sound for game comms and network cals. I'll continue to monkey around with the hardware and VM Potato combination for the time being. I've spent far too long for it to -almost- work. Cheers, and Thanks again.

why does it say files not found after i press the open thing in the top left and press my mic

This is out of my league. I wish I'd understand this, but it's way too hard :(

Do any sort of headset mic. I have a Razer Nari Ultimate headset but you can do whatever because I'm guessing it will probably be much closer to my mic than a snowball.

The best tutorial for new people is that one, for sure! Thanks a lot for your time and effort on this video. , subbed!

I bought a Tenor Q-9. Would appreciate a preset for that mic, you vids have greatly helped in not only solving issues but also learning a few things.

Hi :) Does someone have settings for the fifine K669B USB Mic ? :)

This was a game changer. Thank you.

Noice! I have a ModMic 5 with the AntLion USB adapter

Great content - this is PERFECT.

You never mentioned which preset to download.. is it mymic?

🙋‍♂i missed all that. what was the first step i was suppose to do.. lol.. dear LORD ALL MIGHTY.. that was A LOT of info to take in.. (im hearing the old dial up sound and smelling smoke) i understood it for the most part, but dang. im not looking forward to goin down this settings rabbit hole.. but gotta learn and gotta be done... but thanks for the vid, it cleared up A LOT in my head about the different details on the filters and how to set them.

Also thank you, awesome video. EDIT: If I close the equalizer, it persists, correct? Dumb question, but just making sure.

vst plugins folder is empty XD

Great how to video but exacty where do I go to download the your VST preferences? Where is the link to your Discord Server? Keep up the great work.

I totally get where you're coming from with not shelling out money for a new mic but I really can't wait until you do a video with how to use the new Elgato Wave with Voicemeeter. From my understanding (watching HH's review on it), in order to get elgato's new Link software to work properly with OBS it has to be routed through something like Voicemeeter. Considering the mic both sounds really good, is relatively cheap, and comes with pretty robust software version of a GoXLR, I think it's very quickly going to become *the* beginners streaming mic. For my money you're the best Voicemeeter guy on youtube right now and it's be cool if you had a video showing how to set up this new mic with Voicemeeter.

Goated guide

Love your video's! So helpful! you deserve more views. You got my sub!

my mic actually sounds amazing now... thank you!!

Thank you for these tips! I ran into two issues: 1. Using APO, VU-meter of vst-plugins doens't show anything. Have you had this issue? Makes using compressors a bit difficult. 2. How do you monitor your mic audio while adjusting settings?

Awesome video, thanks

it works only in windows recorder, if i want to use that in google meet for example doesent change anything. Anyone knows why?

Thank you very much for creating this video and explaining this in detail. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the great video! A quick question: does equalizer apo work well with nvidia broadcast? If so, how? Thanks in advance!

bro i am not able to find your preset on your discord

if you think all these things are confusing, try to download obs denoiser as vst and just add it to your mic config and it will remove almost all noise/unwanted sound.

My mic starts screeching loudly every time i turn on the built in graphic equalizer... Any fixes?

yo this helped a ton thanks a bunch my g!

Crushing it!

how do I take it off? it didn't work for me and shows i cant use my mic now :/

where is the preset file you mean?i cant find it

so why u putting your discord plugging only in discord ?

You need to do a tutorial with peace plug in the new go to add on with apo

Hey, when i tried to change microphone settings, for example preamplification (works fine when changing settings on headphones), i get "error while writing configuration file: Access is denied. Coudnt fine anything about it on google, can you help with that?

Am I missing something or does this not have live feedback option? So you can respond to your talking, like a normal EQ?

Lovely thanks

so this thing isnt noticing my blue snowball when im trying to select a device on the set up part, please help.

Awesome video but I can't find your preset

Is this worth doing even if you do not plan on streaming on Twitch?

If I change the snowball settings, would stay the changes using it on my ps5? Great video

how would i use the mic settings as an input for discord etc.

Can't get EqualizerAPO to work on my mic for some reason. Amazing video though!

MAKASIH BANYAK (Thank you very much in indonesia) its really helpfull

Bro, in the old video, you had luscious golden locks. What happened? (I say this in the most respectful way possible.)

i only had 7 plug ins?

do these settings still apply to the mic if you're using streamlabs or do the settings still need to be tweaked through Streamlabs?

I Installed APO to my capture devices and it will not register that it is installed to my mic. It was working in the past and I'm not sure what changed. I don't hear a change at all when turning on APO with all of my reap plugins

The reaper plugin download files from the video that are on the reaper website have been maliciously tampered with; do not download the reaper plugins.

omg thank you i thought my mic was a lost cause, turns out im just dumb

there is a noise should i use a noise fillter??

Nice tutorial but all the VST u can use from Reaper and sent signal to Virtual Cable

I downloaded this and its working on my mic for the EQ but there is a horrid static in the background that is so loud my voice cant even be heard. This mic doesnt sound like this when Im not using this app, what could the problem be?

i downloaded the VST plugins but i dont understand its not showing up when in the folder like when i put VST plugins and then click open the VST folder is empty i really need help

Why does some of the plugins says "library doesn't contain needed function"? Can someone please help?