I work from home with my SO and for the same company. We work side by side, I’d say we’re like 2-3 meters apart.
We’re often in the same video-calls together and unfortunately my microphone picks up her voice quite a bit (and vice-versa, of course). I’ve tried reducing the microphone volume, noise suppression, noise canceling but nothing seems to really work. It’s very annoying because she hears herself when she’s talking and has to ask me to mute myself. Then, I forget I’m muted and talk for a while before I notice it. it’s very distracting.
I’m currently using a BoomPro X Microphone which doesn’t solve my problem.
I’ve thought about those desk microphones like the Blue Yeti or something, but I’m quite ignorant about the matter and I’m afraid it will pick up a lot of keyboard noise or not solve the problem at all. I just don’t want those gamer/streamer arms where mic has to be super close to my mouth, I want something that I can use at work!
I’d say my budget is around 100 euros, flexible. Thanks a bunch!
First off, do not buy a blue yeti, ever. They are microphones specifically marketed towards streamers with disposable income and are, all told, Not Great.
Unfortunately, the fact you don’t want a microphone right in front of your mouth, your budget, and your needs are at odds, so you’ll have to compromise on one element. You’re already compromising on the needs, so that’s out, and you have 2 options:
a condenser microphone is the search term you’re looking for, but they require being quite close to your mouth if you want to avoid ambient noise. They generally require an external amplificator to connect to a PC, and that’s costly, but I think you could fit both in $100. A condenser mic that claims to not need an external amp is probably not really a condenser mic (though they exist, they’re expensive)
the alternative is a shotgun mic. These don’t need to be right in front of your mouth due to wave dynamics engineered to only capture sound in front of them. They’re frequently used on cameras, to capture the sound in front of it but not behind. They’re also really expensive and will definitely need external amplification.
Unfortunately for you, this exact problem is of particular interest to pretty much only people who have “a Sony a7 is an amateur camera” money, so all solutions are quite expensive.