Setting Mic Level

[Roger Wilco Jr]

As I'm away from my computer, and it's been a while, this will be from memory - so it may not be completely accurate.

Anyway, I've had problems setting mic levels. I had the problem in Win 7 with my Sennheiser headset, and in Win 10 with my Rift. Essentially, the problem came down to the mic levels being way too high and picking up extraneous noises like my breathing, the TV at low levels, cars driving by, and etc. If I went into properties and clicked on the levels tab, there was a slider. If I adjusted the level down and hit apply, it would never take. Instead, I would have to go through some process of speaking very loudly into the mic to get the level to go down and stay there. Then, I'd make a recording and breath loudly or whisper, and then speak normally, and keep making adjustments until I could only hear the normal speaking. This process seemed to work well with voice comms with my Sennheiser, but I haven't tried in in game with my Rift yet.

So, any thought about what I'm doing wrong? Why can't I get the slider to work? Also, there was something about allowing "exclusive control". What does that mean and how does that affect ED and using TS or Discord, and etc.

Also, will Window save all these settings for different devices when you disconnect and switch things around? I may want to take off the Rift headphones and disable that mic, and go back to using my nice headset.

Thanks.

[evovi]

I've disconnected my rift ear phones and gone back to my headset, I've never let Windows set levels for recording I've always let the app I'm using set the level with its own sliders - it's never forgot anything - I only have one headset but it's set to default playback device so if I do plug it in and out, it always reverts back to that first

[Loriath]

What program are you using voice for? Is it set to auto adjust the volume levels (which is the default in most programs like discord)? If its the in game comms, there is a mic slider that will override whatever you have set in windows.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

I've only ever used voice comms and a few minutes in TS. I remember TS setup adjusted the levels. I did not realize ED had a slider for the mic. I imagine I'll be adding Discord at some point.

My old Plantronics headset worked great in Yahoo Messenger 10 years ago, but the mic was almost silent in ED. Now I wonder if the slider would have fixed that.

Anyway, I'm just trying to avoid push-to-talk as I don't really have the spare buttons, and I also don't want people bothered with my breathing or other ambient noises. And it's frustrating when the damn software has a slider that won't let you set it.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

OK, after triple checking this morning, I finally saw the player's voice comms slider - effing blind. I assume for this to work, you need to check to allow apps exclusive control of the mic in Windows? It's a little ambiguous. I take it "exclusive" refers to any changes they make apply only to their own app, not that they are the only one allowed to make changes? I think they could have worded that better.

Anyway, that doesn't change the fact that you should really manually adjust your mic level so it won't be too loud or pick up ambient noises in the first place. I always hear complaints about people hearing crap like eating or the tv or kids playing and etc, and they want people to use push-to-talk. But I don't think that is really necessary if your mic is set up properly. And I still can't manually set the mic level with the slider! I assume just lowering the voice volume in game won't necessarily mask out ambient noises - just make them quieter? Btw, I have the mic level set at about 65 for the Rift, and I believe it was about 35 or 40 for my Sennheiser headset.

[TorTorden]

Push to talk is the correct way.

There is no magical mic volume setting that would not be triggered by other sources.
Sure you can optimise, but you will never ever be able to set a level where no ambient noises would be picked up in a home environment.
And there are reasons why ALL sound studios are soundproofed.

It does not exist.
I suppose you can set the noise gate so high in settings that you would need to shout at the top of your lungs to trigger the mic but that's about it.

Or you can try for exceedingly directional mic's or even experiment with throat mics.
Now throat mics are immune to ambient noise, but they at the best make sound like darth vadere and Donald ducks love child.
People will still want you to use push to talk.

Cause magical microphones does not exist.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

I agree, there is no such thing as a magic microphone. But unless you are stuffing your face with Doritos, or have yappy kids or yappy dogs, or are also trying to hold conversations with the significant other, then voice activation should probably work just fine. No need to shout, as long as you have your mic sensitivity levels set properly. I just think most people probably have the sensitivity set too high, based on my experience with Windows. But you still need a push to mute button for coughs, and in my case, to silence my VA commands. I do miss the cable mounted, push to mute button on my old Plantronics headset, but they cheaped out on the Rift by not providing one (probably due to USB or HDMI vs dedicated mic line, but could maybe still be doable).