

GiantWaffle didn't have that problem because he uses sound dampening materials in his studio, and keeps noisy stuff far away from his microphone.

All the running computers in the room, the air conditioning, pets running around, people talking across the room, people stomping around upstairs, you get the idea.

It turns out my house is super noisy, so the ST55 which is a condenser mic picked up crazy amounts of noise. I started with a Sterling Audio ST55, because GiantWaffle uses that and I think his stream sounds great. This dynamic mic sounds decent for a realllly low price: Pair the mixer/interface, whichever you go with, with an XLR microphone. Interfaces are supposed to have amazing analog-to-digital converters, meaning the sound they capture is more accurate, but I feed the "main out" from the mixer into a "line in" on my PC and I notice no appreciable difference. Right now I'm sporting a 14-channel mixer I picked up used for $125, and it has more options than I need. That small Mackie mixer, which is about half the price, lets you have one voice paired with two stereo channels. The Scarlett Solo is a beautiful device, I have one, but it's good for one voice optionally paired with one instrument, each on mono channels. I would recommend a mixer rather than an interface (such as a Scarlett Solo) because a mixer ultimately gives you more options. amp ie=UTF8& qid=1485752991& sr=1-4& keywords=Mackie+Compact+Mixer If you want to get into pro audio, which it sounds like you do, I would recommend you should opt for a small mixer, maybe something like this: Learn the difference between unidirectional, omnidirectional, and cardioid microphones. Get to know the basics like the difference between dynamic mics and condenser mics. If I had $200 and was just starting streaming, I would start small, and do a lot of research. Some people have $600 microphones and don't sound wonderful. Some great streamers get by with just a headset mic. What mic you need really depends on what you're doing. Also, the Mackie Mix8 would be better if you plan to use voice chat because you can use the aux send for voice chat. Most desktops have this already, not sure if laptops do if that is what you game on. Edit: Most of this post assumes you have a "line in" available on your computer.
