This is information I should have posted ten months ago, but in case people are interested, here is some advice on how to sound better on a Zoom call or when recording yourself.
Gear
I’ll keep this quick: get a handheld dynamic microphone and a small stand. There are lots of really cheap options, starting around $20. A dynamic mic is what you want, unless your office is a sound treated recording studio. If you for instance buy a Blue Yeti, which is a condenser mic, you’ll pick up a lot more ambient room noise and reverberation, which makes your voice sound hollow.
Going dynamic, you face one more choice: USB or XLR? The pro of USB is that you just need the mic and a USB cable — plug it into your computer and you’re good to go. The pro of XLR is that it can be cheaper (for the mic itself) and generally sounds better since the audio won’t be compressed going into the computer. The con of XLR is that you need an XLR cable and an audio interface. But luckily those are really cheap.
Option 1:
Dynamic USB mic. Good options:
Samson Q2U ($60) / Audio Technica ATR2100 ($80)
Option 2:
Dynamic XLR mic + interface. Good options:
Behringer XM8500 ($20) / Behringer Dynamic BA 85A ($25) + BEHRINGER Audio Interface 1x1 ($45)
To set up Option 2, you run the mic into the interface using the XLR cable, then run the interface into your computer using a USB cable. The interface will require free software that the company will give you via a download to make it work with Zoom. After you install the drivers, you’ll be able to select the interface from the audio options in Zoom.
Slightly more advanced stuff
Zoom fatigue can set in for a number of reasons, but one thing that helps is decoupling your audio input and output on Zoom. Basically, this means setting your audio input to one thing (maybe your audio interface) and your audio output to something else (maybe your bluetooth headphones). That way, you’ll avoid the weird high-pitched hissing feedback that happens when Zoom tries to let you monitor your own voice.
That brings me to self-monitoring. One cool thing with getting an external mic is that you can self-monitor: you can hear how your voice is sounding through the mic as you’re talking. USB mics often have a headphone jack that you can use for this purpose. And audio interfaces have headphone outs for this purpose. Nothing makes you feel more like a DJ than hearing your own voice through a dynamic mic (well, except being a DJ).
My setup
We record Cows in the Field using two Shure SM58s running into a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8. We record on Adobe Audition and have guests record themselves and send us the audio, which is very easy to match in post. This gives me an individual track for each person to EQ separately, as well as control over the volume of the final mix.