Problems with microphone and headphones

Aug 13, 2018
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Hi everyone, I recently purchased a new microphone that was pretty cheap on Amazon similarly to this microphone here. After setting it up, I decided to test it because I use applications such as Discord and various games with integrated voice chat a lot. When speaking to my friends, they could barely hear me.I investigated in the Sound panel and turned up my microphone's volume and boost, but as those went up, so did background static whenever I speak. My friends say it is unbearably annoying and I should be switching back to my old microphone. Does anyone know how I can fix this static problem while maintaining a decent volume?

Additionally, I purchased this microphone because my headset with an included mic (Razer Kraken Pro) is recording the sounds of my games sometimes, even the volume is low. My friends didn't seem to mind much, but I saw this as a problem. I discovered that playing music through Discord at full volume to the point where it hurts my ears is not picked up by my mic, so I am at a loss of solutions.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

Lutfij

Splendid
Moderator
This sounds like you're having issues with your audio drivers. First off can you list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Include your audio equipment and also the link to the newly purchased microphone:

Are you on the latest BIOS update for your platform? Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling your audio drivers as soon as you experienced the issue(s)? You may want to turn off, listen to this device in your microphone option and see if that helps.
 
Aug 13, 2018
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Hi Lutfij,
thanks for your answer. My equipment is as follows:
CPU: Intel i5 4460
Motherboard: Asrock Z97 Anniversary
Ram: 12 GB (8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3, 4 GB of something unbranded I recieved from a friend)
SSD/HDD: 128 GB Samsung SSD, 1 TB WD Blue HDD, 500 GB Toshiba HDD
GPU: Asus GTX 750 Ti 2GB OC
PSU: Sharkoon 500 W WPM Bronze
Chassis: Sharkoon VG4-W
OS: Windows 10 Pro

I am currently using a Razer Kraken Pro as my audio output and the in-built microphone, which is the one recording my game sounds. You can find a link to the external microphone I am having static and volume problems with here.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling my Realtek audio drivers twice after noticing that I am not able to open the Realtek Control Panel (It doesn't show up in the Windows Control Panel and the .exe in /ProgramFiles/Realtek/drivers/HDA/ doesn't work either). I tried to find the Realtek Panel because turning On/Off noise cancellation was a potential fix, but that seems out of the options right now. How do I find out if my BIOS is updated? I have listened to the external mic and heard the static when the microphone was at +30 dB boost, (which resulted in my voice still being relatively quiet, just not as bad as on 0 boost).

Thanks in advance.
 
Aug 13, 2018
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Hi americanaudiophile,

Thanks for the reply. It's strange that I have never heard of phantom power when looking for microphones to purchase. Would a supply like this one be sufficient? How exactly does phantom power influence the microphone? Does it increase volume or decrease static? Or even both?

Thanks in advance.