HowTo Network emblem How To: Gaming THE HOW TO CO. — EDITION 10
Over-ear headphones hanging from a hook at the left edge of a desk, a boom microphone behind them.

SLOT 06 / 08 · AUDIO

The station you never look at.

Slot 06 sits at the far left of the desk and decides more fights than anything on the screen.

Three ways sound moves.

THREE WAYS IN

This station is not one object, it is three, and they answer different questions. The cans put the room inside your head and let you hear a footstep behind you. The capsule sends your voice out, and most of what makes it sound good is where it sits rather than what it cost. The cones fill the actual room, which is wonderful right up until somebody else is trying to sleep in it.

01 THE CANS The room, inside your head 02 THE CAPSULE Placement beats price 03 THE CONES The whole room hears these
Macro on a headphone earcup, the pad compressed where it rests, stitching and foam sharp.

01

Headsets

A gaming headset is usually a mediocre headphone with a mediocre microphone attached. There is a better way to spend the same money.

  • Open versus closed, and which one your room can actually take
  • Why positional audio depends more on fit than on features
  • Headphones plus a separate mic: the same budget, much better

SOON · IN THE WORKSHOP

A large-diaphragm microphone in a shock mount on a boom arm, a pop filter in front.

02

Microphones

Nobody can hear how much your mic cost. Everybody can hear how far away it is and what your walls are made of.

  • Where to put it, which is most of the improvement available
  • Dynamic or condenser, decided by your room and not your budget
  • Gain, plosives and the two-minute test recording that finds both

SOON · IN THE WORKSHOP

A pair of small desktop speakers either side of a monitor base, one cone lit from the side.

03

Speakers & Sound

Two small speakers placed properly beat a large system placed badly, and they beat it by a lot.

  • The triangle: where they go relative to your head, and why
  • What a subwoofer actually adds, and what it adds through walls
  • Getting decent sound at a volume other people can live with

SOON · IN THE WORKSHOP

A headphone cable plugged into an interface front panel, the gain knob turned partway.

The cheapest upgrade in audio is moving something six inches.

SLOT 06 · AUDIO
A wide desk-left scene at night: headphones, mic arm, an audio interface and a coiled cable.

FROM THE CURATOR

Your room is the equipment

People buy a four-hundred-pound microphone to fix a sound problem that is actually a bare wall two feet behind them. A duvet on a stand, a bookcase with books in it, a rug — these change a recording more than any upgrade at that price. Fix the room first. Then, if you still want the microphone, at least you will be able to hear what it is doing.

BY POPPY — CLASS: CURATOR · THEPINKPIPER.GG

You are here.

SLOT 06 / 08 · AUDIO

01 PC BUILDING 02 KEYBOARDS & MICE 03 CONTROLLERS 04 CONSOLES 05 MONITORS & DISPLAYS 06 AUDIO 07 DESKS & CHAIRS 08 STREAMING

Every station in this room has its own chapter. This one is 06. Back to the room to walk to another.