Bad mic/sound card

[killercow]

Whenever I'm on teamspeak everyone says there's tons of background noise. There is a tv, furnace, and a dog in the same room but even when none of them are on they still can't hear me. I have a cheap GE headset speaker/mic combo and my soundcard is onboard my mobo. If I were to change sound cards would there be a difference? If I were to change mics would there be a differencec? Which mics are good, and if possible headsets.

thanks

[malcore]

Have you tried turning down the recording volume for the microphone in Sounds and Audio Properties?

If I remember correctly, you have an nforce2 mobo. I doubt the onboard sound is the trouble.


For headsets(with mic) you can't beat Plantronics (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&manufactory=1519&catalog=70&DEPA=0&sortby=14&order=1)
(suggest .Audio 90 set for only $23, unless you want to go all out and get the $75 DSP500s)

[Paleo Pete]

Recording volume is the one that sends sound from the mic to the other computers, so don't turn it down too much. It needs to be on or you send no sounds to anyone at all. Playback volume should be all the way down. Check Advanced Controls, if you have a booster, turn it off.

See if you can check the headset mic on another computer set up for one and working right, or get a plain mic and test it on your machine. Testing the headset will tell you a lot. Testing a plain mic will give you an idea whether the sound card is involved or not.

[Sylvander]

I have a Labtec C-324 stereo headset with mic; built-in mic on/off switch & earphone volume control.
It has never given any trouble, and the quality is pretty good.
Music sounds better through the headset when playing wave files on the PC than cd's on my Hi-Fi system.

Could your mic volume be set too high and could you have some system in place which automatically mutes high or distorted sound [or fails to reproduce it]?
So only the sound below that level is heard?

[Whyzman]

Also, I think if you want to be able to experience what others are hearing from your end, you might want to download MusicMatch which has a recording ability.

You could record and tweak to possibly isolate the culprit/s...

[malcore]

Or simply use Windows' sound recorder in programs>accessories>entertainmment. Record yourself speaking into the microphone. Will only record for 60 seconds, but should be enough to analyze.

What Sylvander said is exactly what I was thinking when I suggested turning the record volume down a bit. Your microphone may be too sensitive, picking up background noise too easily and distorting your voice.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I second Pete's advice. If your mike volume (record) is too low, the others would have to turn their volumes up to hear you. This also increases the level of any RF (radio frequencies) interference and/or line noise (called: signal to noise ratio) in their and your systems. Try a middle setting for the record volume and tweak from there.

Too high gets distorted and muddy sounding, too low has hiss.

[Sylvander]

When killercow talked about "background noise" he mentioned "tv, furnace, and a dog in the same room", so I assumed the persons on the other end were saying they could hear all this , but not him speaking.

I have noticed when using Netmeeting that I can hear background sounds [not noise necessarily, noise being UNWANTED sound][weeds being unwanted plants etc][what do you call an unwanted wife? but I digress].
Then the person speaking may be too loud and the sound meter goes into the red. It would be an easy matter I imagine, to design software to mute any sounds that go into the red, so they don't damage the hardware.

All this prompted me to look for any sound problems I have myself.
I have one:
When I set my [audio or wave] sound levels to high, when I reboot they are back at a middle setting.
I looked in the MS knowledge base and sure enough, it says that this is caused by using a "WMD" driver, which is what I was using.
So I reverted to the original driver supplied by the manufacturer and discovered it has some extra features = bass & treble adjustment plus "Voice Commands" whatever they are.
I'm just about to re-boot to see if the problem is gone. Here's hoping.

[Sylvander]

MY PROBLEM IS FIXED ! :) :D :cool:

[killercow]

Well, I tried the windowss audio recorder this morning and the only background noise is my computer, but I could hear myself fine. I'll trty turning the furnacec on, bringing my dog in here and turning on the TV. From 7-10PM that's what it's like in this room.:rolleyes:

[Sylvander]

Is "Teamspeak" like "MS Messenger" or "Netmeeting" and do the others report hearing background sounds like your TV, dog and furnace but not you speaking?
Does Teamspeak have anything for testing out the sound levels etc like the "Audio Wizard" in Netmeeting?
If so, have you tried using it?

By the way, I'm in 7th heaven here at the moment.
I 1st listened to my sons band = Red Bee Society - The Homecoming.
Then I listened to Status Quo & Maddy Prior - All Around My hat.
Faaaantaastic.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Sylvander, I'm glad for you but I'm not sure I understood what your problem was in the first place other than a different set of drivers that now includes bass and treble.

Killer,
What is your connection to these other pc's? Something slower than broadband would propbably wind up noisy and erratic.

[Sylvander]

Well, normally when you set your audio volumes they stay where they are put, but not with mine.
When I re-booted, the volume levels would be back where they started and I'd be forced to RE-ADJUST them YET AGAIN.
It gets a bit wearing having to continually reset the sliders.

Now they STAY WHERE THEY ARE PUT.

[killercow]

This is a quote from another gaming forum about my recruitment:
Good attitude and he always has teen girls giggling in the background on TS :)

Those "teem girls" are either some of my friends, mom, sister, or aunt. They say they can usually hear them pretty well.

TEAMSPEAK (http://www.teamspeak.org/) does have a place to adjust audio levels. The options are:

output volume (minimum - maximum)
Test Codec