Sterile_Technique

Nursing student here. I record lectures so review them at high playback speeds, and to share with classmates who aren't able to make it to class.

I've been using the small clip-on battery powered mics made for doing interviews, but last semester revealed a few weaknesses: The profs don't like to actually wear them, so I just clip them onto the lecture podium - works fine while they're standing at it, but they don't have good range, and most of the profs move around a lot as they lecture, so the volume of the recording is all over the place or completely silent if they stray too far away. Also 99% of the time a student asks a question, the mic doesn't capture it at all, so I just get a few seconds of silence followed by some random info with no context. The battery is also only enough to get through about 2/3 of a class period - fine if I remember to swap them out during a break, but not ideal.

Going forward, I'm hoping to find an option I can just plug into my laptop, sit near the front, and record. A normal desktop conferencing style mic stands out as a decent option, but thinking of the range issue I'm having with the portable mics, I suspect a conferencing type product will have the same issue since it's made to record sound coming from like two feet away from the mic.

I've seen like giant fuzzy mics used on movie sets - should I look for something like that?

And are there specific product recommendations you'd make that are on the less expensive end of the spectrum?

Thanks all!

Edit-

Thanks for all the feedback folks! Time to dig through reviews.

Skip to the tldr if you don't want the novel explaining the reasoning.

A friend gifted me their old Razer Kraken headset a while ago. The leather Razer uses is some CHEAP shit, so the couple years in a closet leading up to it landing on my noggin left it in a state of deterioration that would sprinkle my head and ears with little bits of black leather.

The speakers are good though, and free is free, so no complaints: I hit it with some duct tape and peeled it off repeatedly until all the leather bits were freed up - the cloth layer underneath the leather is now the outermost layer, and no more black sprinkles all over, so yay.

Unfortunately the tape pulling on the ear cushions was a bit too much for whatever adhesive Razer uses to stick em on to their mounting plate, and they pretty much just pulled off. Also no biggie - replacements are pretty cheap on Amazon, so I got a set and lived happily ever after...

...but now I've got the old mounting plates (minus the cushions) and an idea.

So... I do a lot of gaming, wife watches a lot of TV. We do this in the same room, so I pretty much always have my headset on, which blocks most TV noises from getting to me, and most gaming noises from getting to her. Works great until she says something, and all I hear is muffled gibberish until I lift a speaker off my ear and hit her with "What?".

-----------TLDR---------------

My idea is to put... idk... something... on the mounting plate of the side facing her that's stable enough to keep the headphone in the correct position (and not pressing directly on my ear) but basically leaves the space completely open to the environment so that external sound coming from that side isn't muffled.

I'm thinking something like a plastic spiral hair tie, but with an inner diameter large enough to encircle my ear, and the spiral diameter roughly the same as the cussion, at least when its under tension against my head.

something like this:

...but ofc not just a cylindrical spring, but a donut shape. I kinda suck at photoshop, but you get the gist.

The spiral hair tie is the closest actual product I can think of to what I'm picturing, but those are far too small... ideas?

I've heard of things like Nair that make it fall out... if that was a one-and-done solution I'd be all for it, but I'm hoping for something that slows or stops it from growing.

I go clean shaven, but I get the '5 o-clock' shadow the second I put the razor down, and look homeless if I skip a day or two.

Tried growing a beard - looked alright, but the amount of product and effort I shoved into that thing was ridiculous. And it was maddeningly itchy the entire time (lasted about a year putting up with it).

I've spent the last couple years with the conclusion that hair is just annoying, and I want it gone with as little effort and expense as possible.

Kinda partial to keeping the eyebrows and lashes cuz they keep shit out of my eyes, but honestly if losing them is the cost of getting rid of the rest of it, I'd call that a fair trade.

Some initial searching shows there is a market for hair growth suppressants, but chewbaccoids like myself might not be among the target audience lol.

Anyone got a recommendation or cautionary tale?

I played WoW a bit after its initial release through the first couple xpacs. Getting the MMO itch again, but I know the WoW I grew up with doesn't really exist anymore, so now I'm pretty out of touch.

For those of you playing / recently played an MMO, which one? How's the community? How's the lore? Gameplay in pve/pvp/rvr?