Would like to be able to hear myself while talking on my headset.

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ticklemehballlz

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Hello, I have the razer kraken pro headset, It is a very loud one and will always drown out any sound on the outside world while playing games. When I plug the 3.5mm jack into my Android smartphone Sony Xperia U and start a phone call, the phone will play my own voice back to myself while i talk. it's very fast at doing this and it doesn't feel like it has any delay. this creates that same feeling as when you are talking in real life and can hear your own voice. It certainly stops one from shouting loudly.

This feature would be amazing if i could somehow use it on the PC while I am gaming.

I have a soundcard on my PC it is the Soundblaster recon 3d PCIE. Does anyone know of a way to activate this feature? or any 3rd party software that can help?
 

bgunner

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It is done buy right clicking on the speaker Icon for windows the selecting recording devices then right clicking the microphone in use and selecting properties. now select listen tab and check the listen to this device box and apply. now you can hear the recording device.

EDIT: this works even with a sound card installed. I have one too. many things are still controled through windows even if you have a sound card.
 

ticklemehballlz

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I suppose that is a solution, The slight problem is, this is nothing like what my phone was doing during a phone call. Windows seems to be slightly behind as I am talking which almost feels like I interrupt myself. My phone was creating the illusion that I wasn't even wearing noise canceling headphones I could hear myself perfectly clear but nothing else around me. It is possible that all android phones do this? maybe you could try it and see what i mean.
 

nukemaster

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EDIT, Was beat to most of it while typing...

You can try to set Windows to playback your mic to your self, this should have no delay. EDIT just tested, still a delay but less. On older systems, it had no delay at all.

I have NEVER used it for this reason, but your idea is a very good one.

Try sound -> Playback devices -> Speakers -> Properties -> Levels and look for the mic(it will be muted). unmute it, but keep the volume VERY low. adjust it, but if you go too far your mic will hear the headphones and you will get bad feedback.

Another option is to goto
Sound -> Recording -> Mic -> Properties -> Listen and check Listen to this device. You will need to adjust this as well(in the Windows Volume Mixer) to avoid feedback and it will have more delay.

Let me know if this helps you.
 

bgunner

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My solution is the best your going to get in windows for hearing your self. I know exactly what you are referring to as i have run across this issue when doing a Jack and Jill party. some devices are better than others for the delay but I have never gotten rid of it in windows. My plus side is my head phone natively do this so no need for windows delay.
 

ticklemehballlz

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I had already tried these before posting on here but thanks for the idea anyway. the delay is just far to distracting and even though the on board audio with my Asus sabertooth 990fx is nice, It's nothing compared to the Recon 3D which just really puts my Corsair SP2500's and Razer Kraken Pro's in another category compared to on board. Just looks like I will have to have my volume lower on my headset.
 

nukemaster

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Well, that kind of sucks.

I am almost 100% sure my old SB Live! and Audigy IIzs had no input delay at all. I have to wonder if they have ADDED this to reduce the chance of a feedback loop. I had the mic right in front of the speakers and it did not feedback like it used to on the older operating systems/cards.

I can check with my X-fi ,but if the Recon has it chances are all the current creative cards do.
 

bgunner

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Just for info (those that are interested) on the SB X-Fi I have the delay and I can and have gotten the feed back loop although I can definitely see how it could stop it if it was a long enough delay but it always seems to just short enough to be really distracting and keep the feed back loop in effect.

I have done extensive research on this issue and have not found a good solution to the delay with my setup which is very similar to the OP's setup.

I just wish I could help more than I have because of the time I put into this situation about 3-4 years ago with my same issue. It seems to be just long enough for the CPU clock and the ram clock add in the onboard/dedicated card chip clock to get the delay. I had it even on a older realtek onboard audio chip before I bought my sound card. that's when I actually started really looking into it.
 

ticklemehballlz

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I wish I understood sound cards and onboard audio like the rest of the PC, I'm very new to using a dedicated soundcard... before it was pretty much all automatic. So the delay is happening due to the CPU? or do you mean the 4core processor that is on the recon 3d? because I assumed when using a dedicated sound card it completely avoided the main CPU.
 

bgunner

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a misconception is that having a dedicated card means it's totally removed it from the CPU. Everything goes through the CPU but the dedicated card does the processing.

there is a clock time in the CPU and ram and on the sound card 's chip. because the signal needs to wait for the next cycle to go from the CPU to ram then wait for the next signal to go to the chip on the sound card it causes a delay. although it is just enough like a quarter of a second or less it is enough to drive our minds nuts hearing the delay.
 

nukemaster

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Despite all the marketing most of what the sound core 3d core does is software(I think the THX Tru studio is done on card). While most of what the older Audigy(they had some software cards) and X-fi(they had some cheap software driven cards as well) did was in fact done in hardware.

The 4 core idea refers to things like a built in DAC/DSP/ECT. This is why you will notice the Recon3d is a very bare board with much less parts than cards of the past. This reduces costs and makes the card more easy to build. Keeping all those parts in one chip should also remove many sources of analog interference(not that I have seen it as an issue so far).

I think some of this may be Windows it self. After all, starting at Vista, sound acceleration in DirectX was removed just leaving ASIO(still see software implementations. I have never even had to use this) and OpenAL(same for this. With the right hardware implementation, Windows does not even see the audio is playing.).

This change in the field of cards made most of the hardware on modern sound cards(Audigy/x-fi) useless most of the time since the hardware portion of the card was only used by very specific software.
 

lonwinters

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I can tell you how even the cheaper pro audio interfaces work and can only assume that the PC cards now work in a similar fashion. This would also mean that the device would come with its own software mixer and not rely on the windows mixer.

With a headset, the mic would connect to the mic in of course, but it would loop right back out to the speakers - not leaving the card at all, and no delay at all. This delay is referred to as latency.

With "software monitoring" the signal does travel through the entire system and introduces latency. But, the mixer should have a latency slider - lower it and eliminate delay. There used to be a price to pay for low latency - processors had a hard time keeping up. Now, it's almost a non-issue.

With the devices mentioned here, I wouldn't know if they do have their own sofware - but if they do, I woud hope that not only can you set the latency but other pro audio type settings like 24 or 16 bit recording, and 44.1KHZ or 48kHx sampling rate.

I hope this doesn't actually muddy the waters more - but I can say with certainty, is that there is a solution to be had to completely elimiate that delay in the headphones.
 

Blacktape

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Apr 14, 2017
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Unfortunately, I am in the same boat as you, in wanting to hear my microphone though my headphones. I am wanting this more for quality assurance and troubleshooting reasons though. Sure Windows has the "Listen to this device" checkbox, but that is a recipe for feedback loops, blown speakers, and damaged hearing in my case.

The trouble is, with Windows Vista and latter operating systems, as Nukemaster has said, Microsoft removed the ability to enable a direct loopback on many of the inputs on your sound cards, both software driven, and hardware driven, and have replaced it with their ill constructed Windows emulated audio loopback, which is horrendously high latency. This happened at the same time that HDCP compliance was initiated for media playback, and I believe it is related to those restrictions.

I run multiple operating systems on my computer for various reasons, and the sound system is one of them. I don't have any troubles with controlling the sound system the way I want it to work in Windows XP, but in Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10, I have not found a single utility that allows a direct hardware mixer with loopback ability. All of those listed OS's after XP also make it very cumbersome to access the individual input level sliders as well. The only remaining option for us, is to abandon the audio mixing capability of our soundcards, and use external Audio Mixers, and then send the audio to the computer for recording.

So, basically, for most people, the only possible solutions are impractical or not allowed.
 

DarkMatterMatt

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Mar 12, 2016
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I found that setting the "Playback through this device" to the headset massive reduced the latency when compared to the "Default Playback Device".

Go to: Sound > Recording Devices > Microphone (right-click Properties) > Listen
Check the "Listen to this device checkbox"
In the "Playback through this device": select your headphones / speakers

Tested using:
Windows 10 Pro x64
HyperX Cloud 2 headset (and mic)
 

Cornboi

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Hey dude i have that exact same set up as you, same headset and OS. I've done what you said but i still have a slight delay which is more distracting than helpful.
 
Feb 23, 2018
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Perfect and easy solution on Windows 10. Thanks.
 
May 27, 2018
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Certain headsets have a boost sort of feature . like the turtle beaches recon 60 headset. Comes with a usb adapter that makes it to where you can hear your own voice . I thought that feature would be gone forever since I switched from xbox to playstation. But I'm glad it's not exclusive to pc and xbox
 
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