Usually inexpensive headsets, connected to a not very high-quality built-in sound card, can produce a fairly low sound level and quality. Now we will try to figure out how to improve this situation.
Which microphone will be suitable for communicating on the Internet?
In our case, you can choose one of three main types of microphones:
- Conventional with analog output;
- Web cameras with microphones;
- Microphones connected via USB.
Microphones with analog output
This is the most common type of microphone. They are found in various configurations: on a stick, with a stand, or combined with headphones. All of them are connected to the microphone jack on the PC using a regular “Jack 3.5”. Inside such a microphone there is a special capsule, which receives sound vibrations. The capsules themselves can have different characteristics in terms of their sensitivity and noise level. It’s clear that cheap microphones don’t differ much high level and quality. So the situation when an inexpensive microphone is very quiet, or too noisy, occurs quite often.
Web cameras with microphones and digital USB microphones
You can find cameras equipped with both a simple analog microphone and a digital one. In the first case, two cables will be connected to the PC at once: one to USB, the other to the microphone input. In essence, the microphone here is no different from the analog ones that we described above, it’s just hidden in the camera body.
In the second case, only one comes from the camera USB cable. This option is much preferable. This is due to the fact that the signal from the microphone capsule must be converted into digital form through a special analog-to-digital converter, which is already adjusted to specifications capsule and transmits sound in fairly good quality.
Of course, in inexpensive cameras the sound will also be far from ideal, but thanks to such a converter, the quality can be higher than that of analog microphones with terribly quiet sound. Among cameras with digital audio reception, Logitech products performed well. Moreover, even the cheapest models can boast of quite normal sound.
What is a USB microphone? In general, it is the same as a camera equipped with a microphone, only without a camera. Often, this type of microphone has the most best quality sound. Unfortunately, they are quite rare on sale, and those that are available are professional models with a high price.
Microphone settings
In earlier articles we already looked at. But many users still often talked about the quiet sound. Some even had to shout loudly into the microphone so that the interlocutor could at least hear something. To correct this situation, you should configure the microphone not in the IP telephony program, but in the sound parameters of the operating system itself.
We will figure out how to set up the microphone one by one. operating system Windows 7 using the fairly common Realtek HD codec and configured on Windows XP with an AC’97 compatible codec. Having seen how the settings are done in these codecs, you can do this in others, all by analogy.
Increase microphone volume in Windows 7 via Realtek HD
Before you begin making all the settings, make sure that the microphone is connected to the computer. After connecting the microphone (usually it is connected to the pink jack), the codec manager will make a request to determine the connected device.
It’s clear that we need to select “Microphone input”. After this, the microphone will be available for use, and we can begin setting it up.
Now open the sound manager for Realtek HD, or launch the standard volume mixer. To open the dispatcher, click on its icon in the notification area. And if you decide to do everything through the volume mixer, then right-click on the sound icon and select the volume mixer. Then open the Recording tab or go to Recording Devices. 
We can do the same through the parameters in the control panel. Open the “Start” menu and click on the “Control Panel” button. After that, in a new window we find the necessary sections. 
Let's try setting up the microphone using standard means systems. And so, launch the volume mixer using any of the already known methods. 
Find the input to which the microphone is connected. Typically these inputs are identified by color and the computer panel they are on. At the same time, at the beginning there is the word “Microphone” “Mic” and other variations with the same meaning. If you do not connect the microphone anywhere, it will not be displayed. To enable output even of inactive inputs, right-click on an empty space in the window and check the box next to “Show disconnected devices”. 
In general, select the input to which the microphone is connected and click on the properties button. Then, in the next window, open the “Levels” tab. 
On this tab you can adjust the strength input signal and degree of amplification. The reason usually lies in the level of amplification quiet sound. To amplify the sound, you simply need to increase the gain level. Often it is enough to set it at +20 dB. You can specify more (if there is such a possibility at all), but then the noise level will increase too much. To get rid of them, or at least reduce them, open the “Improvements” section. 
First, uncheck the "Disable" sound effects”, and then set it next to the “Noise reduction” item. If, in addition to noise, there is also an echo, then suppression of such a phenomenon as echo can be activated. Unfortunately, when such filters are activated, the voice will sometimes significantly change its sound, in some cases it even sounds with a “metallic” coloration. This is the price of inexpensive microphones.
Now open the “Communication” tab. Here you can activate the convenient function of reducing the volume of playing music and other system sounds while using voice communication. 
Adjusting microphone sensitivity via Realtek HD
Open the Realtek manager window and go to our microphone tab. 
You can configure the same parameters as last time. Everything is shown very clearly and quite understandably. The dispatcher window looks the same as in Windows system 7 and in Windows XP.
Setting up a microphone in the operating systemWindows XP
Here we will use the AC’97 compatible codec setup. We will consider the setup using the example of an Intel built-in audio device, but the principle of all actions in all other codecs will be identical.
Double click on the sound icon on the taskbar. The Audio Mixer will open. 
If you suddenly find that the sound icon is missing on the panel, you can turn it on. Open the Start menu, click on the Control Panel launch button and open the Sound and audio devices settings. In the “Volume” section, check the box next to the line “Display icon on taskbar”. 
After opening the mixer, expand the menu with Options and click on the item " Extra options». 
Now let's start setting up the recording mixer. Open the Options menu and select Properties. After that, set the switch to the “Record” position and in the next list, make sure that the checkbox next to “Microphone” or “Mic Input” is checked. 
Click the "OK" button. In the main window of the mixer we look for microphone adjustment. Here you can set the required sensitivity level and, if necessary, turn on the gain (this feature may have different names, but the effect is always the same - +20 dB to the volume). 
Hello readers of the ComService company blog (Naberezhnye Chelny). In this article we will figure out how to set up a microphone on Windows 7 so that you can safely communicate and record your voice. Several factors affect microphone performance. First of all, it's on audio. If it doesn’t exist or there are problems with it, then we won’t succeed. Secondly, this is the serviceability of the microphone itself. If it is not in order, it will be difficult to configure correctly. The easiest way to test a microphone is to connect it to another one where everything works. Thirdly, this correct connection. This point is checked first so that later it doesn’t hurt for wasted time. Here we will pay attention to the above factors, and then we will deal with the software settings of the microphone in.
Article structure
Usually the microphone jack is pink
You can also connect a microphone to the jack on the front panel. In this case, you will add one more link in the sound transmission chain. In the vast majority of cases, audio wires are not shielded and there is much more noise inside the case than outside it. Due to this, the quality will be worse.
If you see at least one unknown device in Device Manager
then it’s better to go to the official website for yours or download the latest drivers. And install them. You can read more about installing drivers.
After this, the task manager will look something like the following:
Now we have the drivers installed. Let's move on to the software part.
3. Setting up a microphone using Windows 7
Or you can go to Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound
In the Sound window that opens, go to the Recording tab. We find our microphone with a checkmark in a green circle. Select it and click the Properties button
In the Properties window that opens: Microphone on the tab Are common in the Use a device section, from the drop-down list, select Use this device (on)
Click Apply if necessary.
Go to the Listen tab. Check the Listen from box of this device
Click Apply.
Now the sound from the microphone will be played through the speakers or connected headphones. Go to the Levels tab and turn the slider in the Microphone section to the right. I have it screwed all the way. At the same time, you can speak into the microphone and listen to yourself. You may not need 100% volume level.
You also need to adjust the Microphone Gain. You need to be careful with this because everything is amplified and interference is also amplified. We need to find a balance here. On my cheap Chinese microphone, the maximum gain can be +10 dB. If you make it higher, the noise will clog your voice.
After all the settings, click Apply.
Go to the Improvements tab. Ideally, check the box next to Disable all sound effects. In this case, the voice does not change in any way and, accordingly, is not distorted. If you have a lot of noise, then uncheck this box and set Echo Suppression, Noise Suppression or/and Removal constant component
Click Apply.
Go to the Advanced tab and select the desired bit depth and sampling frequency from the drop-down list
The higher the sampling rate, the larger the files recorded from the microphone will be and, accordingly, the higher the sound quality.
Click Apply.
After these settings, your microphone should simply work normally. Go to the Listen tab and uncheck Listen from this device
And click Apply.
The microphone is set.
4. Microphone settings via Realtek HD Manager
Realtek HD Manager is a program from the equipment manufacturer. In my case, built-in sound card. In it you can make similar settings, perhaps with a more convenient interface.
Find the Realtek HD Manager icon in the notification area
and double click on it to open. If you do not have an icon in the notification area, then open Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Realtek HD Manager
You launch it.
In the manager that opens, go to the Microphone tab and in the Recording Volume section, turn the slider all the way to the right. Check that the speaker icon to the right of the slider is turned on (as in the figure below)
It’s not entirely clear to me what the playback volume section is responsible for, since I had it in the extreme left position and everything worked fine.
To set the microphone gain, click on the icon (highlighted in the figure below) and in the window that opens, set the required value
On the Standard Format tab, you can set the sound quality, i.e. sampling rate
After all the settings, click OK in the lower right corner of the Realtek HD manager to save the settings.
5. How to enable the microphone on the front panel of the case
The Sound Recording utility window opens.
Click Start Recording and say a phrase. Click stop recording and save it to your desktop, for example
Then you listen and if you like everything, then the microphone is set up.
7. How to set up headphones and microphone for Skype
Opening Skype program. Expand the Tools menu and select Settings
On the left select Sound Settings
In the Microphone section, select all devices one by one from the drop-down list. In this case, it is advisable to say something. When you have selected the desired microphone, the bar in the Volume section will display the input signal level in green. She will change.
Leave this microphone. Leave the Allow automatic microphone setup checkbox.
We do the same with speakers. We select one by one from the drop-down list and check by clicking on the green button to the right of this drop-down list. If the volume level is reflected in the Volume field and you hear the ringtone in Skype, then you have chosen the right headphones or speakers. Check mark Automatic setup We leave the speakers in place.
To check, you need to call Echo Sound Test Service. We find him in contacts and call him
Conclusion
In this article, it became much clearer to me how to configure microphones in Windows operating systems. I hope the same for you. The main points are the correct connection, the functionality of the microphone itself, and correctly installed audio drivers. Without this, it will be practically impossible to record a voice. The rest is a matter of software settings. The latter can no doubt be changed, just as everything can be returned to default. There was such a button somewhere in the settings.
Thanks for sharing the article on in social networks. All the best!
Calling over the Internet today is the most common way of communication. But sometimes this is impossible, since the microphone is most often poorly configured and the quality of the connection suffers as a result. All versions of Windows have the same microphone settings.
There are three types of microphones that can be installed on your computer with Windows platform:
1. Standard analog microphones. They are devices on sticks or stands. But they should not be confused with those intended for karaoke. Typically, standard microphones are connected to the computer through a jack that is pink. In order for the microphone sound to be of high quality, the input must be in the Windows sound or motherboard. This is important because the lack of a quality input significantly reduces the sound quality of the microphone.
2. Microphone built into the camera. Typically, webcams have regular analog microphones that are connected via a cable. Cheap cameras, as a rule, have weak microphones, which, before producing sound, must convert it through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). If the ADC works poorly, then the interlocutor hears the sound very poorly.
3. A USB microphone is a device that connects to a computer, but is not connected to the camera. There are very few such models, and they are most often used for communicating on Skype.
Microphone setup via Realtek HD codec
Typically, all microphones are configured in the Windows mixer, which is available on all platforms Windows 7, 8, 10. Most often, the microphone can be configured using the Realtek HD codec:
First of all, you need to connect the microphone, after which the Realtek HD manager will ask how to determine the device connected to it. You need to select a microphone input from the list.
Now, to configure the microphone, you need to go to the Realtek HD sound manager, which is launched via the tray icon. You can also adjust the microphone through the Windows volume mixer. To do this, right-click on the volume control icon and select “Open volume mixer” from the menu, and then select the “Recording” tab.
When the Windows volume mixer is open you need to find the microphone input. Depending on the location of the jack (front or rear panel), as well as its color, the name of the microphone input may vary. Usually the name looks like this: “Mic in at the name (color) of the socket.” When a connected microphone is found, in the list to configure it you need to click the “Properties” button.
In the new “Properties” tab, open the “Levels” tab. Here you can adjust the input signal level, setting it from 0 to 100. Also, the microphone gain level will be set from 0 to 30 dB. It is in the last parameter that the problem of a quietly working microphone often lies. For some Windows, the minimum allowable frequency is 20 dB, but if the setting allows you to set it to 30 dB, then the noise increases. To eliminate them, you need to go to the “Improvements” tab.
In the new tab, you need to uncheck the “Disable all sound effects” box and put it in the “Noise reduction” box to eliminate noise. If there is an echo in the microphone during a conversation, you can remove it by checking the box next to “Echo suppression.”
You can also configure another setting that will allow you to reduce the level of all sounds during conversations on Skype. To do this, go to the “Communication” tab and select one of the items in the list.
Setting up the microphone via the built-in audio device
The microphone can also be configured through the Intel codec, which is a standard built-in audio device on most Windows platforms. But even if you install a different codec to configure sound on a computer running Windows 7, 8 or 10, you can configure it in the same way.
So, to configure a microphone in Windows, you need to double-click the sound mixer through the speaker icon in the tray.
If you don’t see the icon you need, you can use the following path for all Windows: Start – Control Panel – Sounds and Audio Devices. In the new window that opens, you need to check the “Show icon on the taskbar” option.
In the volume tab, you need to click the “Advanced” button and check the box next to the “Advanced settings” line, otherwise you will not be able to adjust the microphone gain in Windows.
Now you need to set up the recording mixer. To do this, open “Options” - Properties. There you need to select the “Record” column. In a new window there will be a list of available inputs, in which you need to select “Microphone” (Microphone input) and check the box next to it.
After clicking the “Ok” button, you can configure the microphone. In the recording mixer tab, you need to find a line called “Microphone Gain”. But in some versions of Windows this setting may be called differently, such as "Microphone boost". But no matter what this line is called, it means that the microphone can be adjusted to gain up to 20 dB.
In some versions of Windows, it may be that there is no “Adjust” button under the volume level that allows you to turn on the microphone boost. In this case, you need to know that this button is located in the volume mixer and therefore going to the recording mixer is not necessary. The presence of a button allows you to turn on microphone gain without going to unnecessary tabs.
If the above methods did not help achieve a comfortable sound level and the microphone is still very noisy and operates at a low volume level, then you should consider buying a webcam with a built-in microphone or purchasing a new expensive microphone.
You can also improve the sound level by installing a new sound card on Windows with a good microphone input. Another solution would be to install an amplifier on the microphone.
All of the above methods for setting up a microphone are common to everyone. available versions Windows. If all conditions are met, you can configure any microphone that will work at a decent level.
Full description parameters, as well as instructions for setting up built-in Realtek sound cards. Setting up playback, recording, 3D sound. Windows Vista/7/8
2012-02-17T18:19
2012-02-17T18:19
Audiophile's Software
Copyright 2017, Taras Kovrijenko
Full or partial copying of the text is allowed only with the written permission of the author.
Prologue
This time I will touch on a topic that is relevant, so to speak, for beginner enthusiasts - that is, for those who have not yet acquired a discrete sound card and want to get the most out of an integrated one.
1. Educational program
To begin with, a short educational program. Who doesn’t know or doesn’t fully understand what it is hardware audio codec, carefully read the relevant Wikipedia pages:
Have you read it? Great! And now it would be very nice if you read my two articles:
Well, now we can start.
2. What we have
So, I have at my disposal the Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate x64 OS (the setting described in the article is suitable for all operating systems starting with Vista), the ALC887 codec built into the motherboard (ASUS P7H55-V) (there is a datasheet), an external amplifier connected to the rear connectors and microphone (green and pink sockets, respectively). Please note that we will configure the card for withdrawal stereo sound by analog interface.
3. Software installation
First of all, you need to install the drivers. Of course, most likely the OS Windows already I found and installed the drivers for the sound device myself, but to gain access to all the functionality, as well as for peace of mind, we will install the driver package directly from Realtek, latest version which you can download on the corresponding page of my website. By the way, the settings specified here were tested on driver version R2.67.
Download the drivers and perform a simple installation procedure (by running HD_Audio/Setup.exe), reboot the computer.
After loading the OS, a brown speaker icon should appear in the system tray:
4. Driver setup
First of all, let's go to Windows Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Sound and, making sure that our headphones or speakers are connected to the green socket of the sound card, we disconnect all unnecessary devices, and make our connected device the default device:
At the same time, let's do the same with recording devices:
Now double-click on the tray icon. If there is no icon, look for it in hidden icons, if not there, go to Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->. One way or another, the dispatcher window should open:
Here we immediately set the speaker configuration (stereo), set our analog device as the default device (after which the corresponding button will go out), turn off surround sound if, God forbid, it’s turned on.
Using the button in the form of a yellow folder, you can configure to disable detection of front panel connectors:
Also note that the connected connectors are displayed in bright color - in our case, speakers are connected to the green output, and a microphone is connected to the pink input. There is one very important detail here: by double-clicking on the connector icon, you will see a window with a choice of the type of connected device. This is important because if you choose "headphones", then the codec will use a special additional amplifier (otherwise the sound in the headphones will be too quiet), but for connected active speakers or external amplifiers you should select "Front Speaker Output". Here you can enable the automatic pop-up of this window when you connect a device to any of the card connectors:
Using the “i” button, you can open a window with information about the driver version, DirectX, audio controller and codec version, and you can also turn on/off the display of the icon in the system tray:
Now let's turn off the effects:
The “Room correction” settings for the stereo configuration are not available, which is actually strange - in the same console from THX (which is included, for example, in the driver package Creative X-Fi) you can adjust the distance and angle of direction of the speakers relative to your location, which can be very useful when you are not sitting directly in front of the speakers, or they are located asymmetrically relative to you. Well, okay, let it be on the conscience of the developers.
The last tab duplicates the control panel settings (however, most of the settings from the Manager are also in the control panel):
Here you can set the parameters of the system mixer - with what sampling frequency and depth Windows bit will mix all played sounds. Let's set it to 24 bit, 96 kHz. I’ll tell you why later.
Since I am constantly bombarded with questions about how to set up a microphone (which, in my opinion, should cause a minimum of confusion), I will still focus on setting up recording devices. Their settings, by the way, like those of playback devices, are located on separate tabs at the top of the window. Let's start with the stereo mixer:
Everything here is elementary. This device records everything you hear through the speakers, i.e., the finished audio stream that Windows transmits to the sound card. It is reduced to the specified form (since the mixer operates with a sampling frequency of 96 kHz, then we will set the same here).
But our main recording device is, of course, the microphone:
So, set the recording volume to maximum and turn off the microphone gain (then, if necessary, you can turn it on). Also, very often people complain that they reproduce the sound picked up by the microphone; to prevent this from happening, we turn off the playback. To your taste - noise filtering, echo suppression. On the tab , again, the recording format is set:
Considering the characteristics of the sound recording path, the standard 16 bit/44.1 kHz will suffice here.
5. Setting up foobar2000
In principle, the work done is enough to ensure the highest (for this card) sound quality in any player. But for the truly paranoid, I will provide foobar2000 settings. We will need, in fact, the player itself and several plugins for it - WASAPI output support And SoX Resampler. Well, or you can download my assembly, which already has everything.
So, in the player output settings (File->Preferences->Playback->Output) select WASAPI:<наше устройство>
, set the bit depth 24 bit:
When outputting through WASAPI Exclusive, all sound card effects (if enabled) are bypassed, as well as the Windows mixer (for which we specified the sample rate).
Now let's move on to the DSP settings:
Here we add the resampler SOund eXchange and Advanced Limiter to the chain. In the resampler settings, set the frequency to 96 kHz. Now why 96 kHz? I conducted a series of experiments and this is what I found out. In front output mode, if the volume control is set to more than 90%, when playing the test tone udial(sampling frequency - 44.1 kHz) strong distortion is heard. The distortion disappears if you either lower the volume, switch to headphone mode, or resample the audio to 96 kHz.
It is difficult to judge the reasons for this phenomenon based on the available data, but you can draw conclusions and play it safe twice: output all audio at a sampling rate of 96 kHz, and do not increase the volume to more than 90%.
And a few words about the need to configure foobar2000. In principle, it is possible to output audio to the device "DS: Primary sound driver" In this case, resampling will be performed using Windows(the resampler there is not the worst), besides, all other sounds will not be turned off (as when playing through WASAPI Exclusive). In addition, by selecting this device, Windows will output sound to the device that is installed by default in the Control Panel, which can be convenient (for example, when you turn off one of the devices, the sound automatically switches to another). So the choice is yours - convenience, or confidence in quality.
6. Resurrecting 3D Audio and Hardware Mixing
And of course I haven’t forgotten about gamers. Since in Windows, starting with Vista, there is no access to hardware mixing of streams (all operations are performed by Windows, and then one single stream is output to the sound card), the developers came up with special program, analogous to Creative ALchemy, but for Realtek - 3D SoundBack. It connects to hardware resources via the OpenAL interface, emulating for the specified Windows programs emulates a DirectSound device (as in Windows XP), and then simply converts DirectSound (or DirectSound 3D) commands to OpenAL commands, resulting in true EAX 2.0 in games, as well as the ability to convert multi-channel audio to stereo with surround effects.
To launch the program, open the folder .../Program Files/Realtek/3D Sound Back Beta0.1, in file properties 3DSoundBack.exe on the tab "Compatibility" install Windows Vista SP2 compatibility mode:
Now run this file. To add an application - click Add Game, enter the name and address of the folder that contains the executable file of the program. For example:
After adding, do not forget to highlight the added application and click the button Enable.
Now the specified application will by default use the DirectSound emulated device and will have access to the hardware resources of the sound card:
Epilogue
Well, another grandiose article is completed. By the way, I was thinking: in a good way, this article should have been written one of the first... However, at that time I still would not have had enough knowledge to describe everything in such detail, so it may be to the best.
If something is unclear, or you have any questions, please ask or comment. Good luck!
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Hello, dear visitors! Many owners of laptops and home computers, having purchased a microphone for communication or gaming, do not know how to set it up correctly. Our instructions for setting up a microphone are designed to correct this annoying misunderstanding. What is this communication device typically used for? Yes, for a lot of reasons. For example, for conversations with family and friends on Skype (by the way, we have a separate article), or for communication in online games such as Dota, World of Tanks (WoT) and Counter Strike.
In our publication, we will tell you not only how to set up a microphone on a laptop and computer, but also how to connect it, and also how to check that all drivers for the audio card are installed. The fact is that the microphone setting depends on installed driver on your Windows operating system. In one case, the driver may be standard and all settings are made through the built-in system software. And in the second case, Realtek software may be installed on your laptop High Definition Audio and you need to connect the microphone through it. We will look at both options for connecting and setting up a microphone.
How to set up a microphone on a computer or laptop
So, we’ll start with the simplest thing - by connecting a microphone to a laptop or computer. In fact, we already have an article, and everything is already pretty well described where to connect the microphone to the computer. But we’d better repeat this information. After all, not all of you, dear readers, know how to connect a device to a computer or laptop. For a microphone on the audio card there is a special connector - 3.5 jack, like regular headphones. The connector on the computer sound card should be pink:
If your computer does not have an external audio card, then the microphone connector will also not be difficult to find. It is located on the built-in audio module motherboard:
The same goes for laptops, netbooks and ultrabooks. The connector is usually located on the right or left side of the laptop and is marked with a special graphic icon.
As you can see, nothing complicated. We will assume that we have physically connected everything. It's time for him Windows settings. The next setup step is to search for a microphone in the Windows operating system. As we already said, everyone's system and drivers are different. Therefore, we will split this chapter into two parts − standard setting on Windows and setup via Realtek HD Audio software. Depending on which driver you have installed, select the desired setting option.
Checking the audio driver of a laptop or computer
Before setting up the microphone on your computer correctly, let’s deal with one popular mistake made by novice computer users. Often, in addition to the setup itself, problems arise with the audio driver. Of course, if there is sound coming from the speakers, then everything is fine, but often the opposite is true. Therefore, we advise you to check its presence in the system. Making sure that an audio driver is installed on your laptop or computer is not at all difficult. To do this we need to get into the dispatcher Windows devices. There are several ways to do this. The first way is to click on the computer icon on the desktop and select the desired menu item.
Or find Device Manager in the command line through the Start menu:
The third way is to find the Device Manager through the Control Panel. To do this, you need to open it through “Start” > “Control Panel”, in the control panel find the “System” item and there will be a link to the device manager. Which method you use is not so important. The main thing is that in the “Sound, video and gaming devices” section you have installed drivers for the sound card and there are no unknown devices, as shown in the following screenshot.
If there are unknown devices, then in order not to suffer later with a non-working microphone, it is better to go to the website of the manufacturer of the laptop or computer motherboard and download drivers for the sound card of your PC. So, we made sure that the driver for the sound card is installed. Let's start setting up the microphone.
Microphone settings in Realtek High Definition Audio
Realtek HD Audio Manager is a microphone configuration program that is very popular and can be found on most modern laptops (if this software is not installed specifically on your PC, then read the next chapter of our article). But many of you probably don’t know if Realtek HD Audio is installed on your laptop or computer. The Realtek High Definition Audio driver can be found in Device Manager. Or find a column icon in the Windows tray, as shown in the following picture.
You can also find the Realtek audio driver through the “Control Panel” by going to “Hardware and Sound”:
Having opened the manager, go to the “Microphone” tab. Here you can adjust the main microphone volume. If it works quietly, then it is best to set the volume to maximum. Here's a screenshot:
You can also configure the gain in the manager. If the microphone is noisy or humming, then it is better to set the gain to the minimum. It’s better to check the operation with several gain levels:
If your laptop has a built-in microphone, and you decide to connect another additional external microphone, then in the Realtek HD manager you need to set the device that you want to use as the default. In the screenshot below, the “Set standard device” option is responsible for this.
As you probably noticed in the same picture (located above), on the tab you can adjust the microphone sensitivity. In principle, this is where you can finish setting up Realtek HD Audio. We are waiting for the final chapter of the article, in which we will look at how to set up a device in Windows. Below will be discussed detailed setup microphone on Windows 7, but this instruction will be relevant for Windows 8 and Windows Vista. If you are Windows user XP, then there is nothing wrong with that. Our tips on how to set up a microphone on a laptop or computer are universal and will definitely come in handy.
How to set up a microphone in Windows
So, as we saw above, the driver for the sound card is installed and there is sound in the computer. It's time to understand the microphone settings in Windows. Open the “Control Panel” via “Start”, go to “Hardware and Sound” and select the “Sound” menu item.
Or you can do it even simpler and find the sound settings through command line Windows:
You can also find the settings in the system tray by clicking on the column icon. Again, it doesn’t matter how you get there. Having opened the sound settings, go to the “Recording” tab. This is where our recording device should be displayed. If there are no other microphones in your system, then there will be one. If your laptop has a built-in microphone and you connect an additional headset or webcam with a built-in microphone, then there will be two devices. We highlight required device and click on the “Properties” button.
After clicking on the “Properties” button, the settings of the device you have selected will open, to which you can configure the microphone. You don't need to configure anything special on the General tab. Just make sure your device is turned on.
On next tab, which is called “Listen,” we recommend checking the “Listen from this device” checkbox. This option will allow you to output sound from the microphone to speakers or connected headphones. It is worth noting that when using this option and the microphone and speakers are close together, unwanted whistling may appear in the speakers, which, however, does not always happen. Therefore, if you do not need this option, you don’t have to check the box.
On the “Levels” tab, you can adjust the microphone volume (adjust the volume level) and set the sensitivity. The volume option is especially useful if online game or when talking on Skype the sound is poor. And amplification can be useful if the microphone hisses when communicating. In general, if the device is not working well, then the “Levels” tab is just right for correcting various distortions. Just don't get too carried away. The volume can be turned up to 100%, and the gain is better set to 10-20 decibels. Otherwise, wheezing and clicking may appear, and extraneous noise may appear.
Next we have the “Improvements” tab. The “Disable all sound effects” option is responsible for distorting the sound in the device. but if you are using a cheap microphone and you hear a lot of noise when broadcasting audio, you can disable this option and enable noise suppression options. Removing a constant component - helps with unintelligible and choking sound. It turns down the microphone sensitivity.
The next tab “Advanced” is more for setting studio microphones. On it you can set the sampling frequency and the number of channels used in the microphone.
So, we've sorted out the settings in Windows. We hope that our instructions for setting up a microphone on a computer or laptop were useful to you. If you have any questions or difficulties connecting, please ask in the comments. Finally, I would like to answer another fairly popular question from our visitors - how to set up a microphone on headphones. Everything is absolutely the same as described in the above instructions. Whether a regular microphone or a headset with headphones, both gadgets are configured in the same way.
