Computer sound query

[Bert Coules]

Eliminated now, for all practical purposes, by moving the mic as detailed in other posts.

[Andy Burns]

I think you accepted your hearing might no longer be "top-notch", so maybe you don't hear the hum, it was better after you'd moved the microphone and wasn't noticeable while you were speaking, but in a call it would be an annoying background noise while you were listening (hence Dave suggesting you should mute yourself when not speaking) possibly moving it further could actually eliminate the hum?

[Martin Brown]

Second one are you sure it wasn't the PC making the ZZ ZZ ZZ noise in the background. My PC speakers sometimes pick up electrical interference from the PC when it is being worked hard. Running IE11 used to elicit it a lot. Few other apps I use regularly do so. IOW the second one might not be the mike so much as noise that your loudspeakers are making.

The last one sounds like a weak signal with the automatic gain right up.

[Bert Coules]

And Andy Burns wrote:

Thanks to both of you. I'm going to try a new recording with the mic in various different locations to see if I (and you, if willing) can pinpoint the source of the interference.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Those are both designed for use with a radio mic transmitter pack. Doesn't say if they will work with a standard analogue mic input on a PC, and may or may not do with an adaptor lead.

But plenty modern laptops don't have analogue inputs anyway, so need a USB mic.

[Dave W]

The first two show a stereo jack plug so would suit a PC that has such a socket. The third one has a Hirose 4-pin connectot to suit a particular wireless pack, so would not be suitable.

Audio to USB adaptors seem cheap enough;

[Dave W]

This forum says otherwise:

[Bert Coules]

I can only suppose that not all versions of Windows 7 have that implemented. Mine - Win7 Home Premium - does not.

[Dave W]

That's annoying. Here's someone who had the same problem but which miraculously cured itself.

It seems too obscure a problem to be included in any Windows 7 version comparison lists I could find. Someone said it might be due to a missing dll file, and installing a new audio driver might cure it, but that was just a guess.

My old Windows XP machine contains a Realtek sound card, and for 'Set Microphone Volume' under Control Panel Audio Devices there is a checkbox under the volume slider labelled Mic Boost, but I don't know by how much.

[Paul]

For RealTek audio, you can go to the RealTek site, locate the jumbo driver, enter an email address, and download it. Install it, and see for yourself, what additional items may or may not appear.

0008-64bit_Win7_Win8_Win81_Win10_R281.exe 217,553,063 bytes

Here is the difference it made to my Windows 7 Pro x64 setup. Original driver was from the Asus Motherboard CD in the box, obviously an unripe-driver.

Paul

[Andy Burns]

Here on Win10 it shows a mic volume slider and a mic boost slider, but in reality the boost slider acts like a toggle, just allowing 0dB or +10dB

[Dave Plowman (News]

So is boost just a different level control?

[Paul]

Boost used to be a tick box, in the AC97 era. It was a fixed 20dB boost, not a "slider".

The other slider is a resistor ladder kind of thing, with 1dB or 1.5dB steps. It is not a continuous linear kind of control, but has a digital flavor to it.

On newer HDAudio, the microphone boost is now a tiny bit more granular. Instead of a tick box and 20dB fixed, the options are 10dB-20dB-30dB of boost. Meaning the slider has a few positions. At least, this is what the hardware datasheet claims the function consists of.

Since they keep messing around with this stuff, it's hard to say whether "we're winning" with these changes. Computer hardware never used to have sufficient gain to pick up a 2mV phono cartridge directly, and these changes to microphone might still not be quite enough for that purpose.

Paul