A friend has a computer running Windows 10 and a connection to the Internet
and is having problems apparently with his microphone.

(The microphone belongs to a webcamera: Dericam W3.)

He has been having problems with both Zoom and Skype. I've heard the
problems for myself in Zoom's audio test. I haven't tried Skype.

The problem manifests as follows: start Voice Recorder and record
short audio clips of speech. Playback sounds like a loud rumble with
a squawk at the end. Oddly, the length of all the clips is given as
one second.

After searching the Web, I have the following suggestions:

change the microphone's sampling rate to 48000Hz (it was already set to
this,
but I tried two other settings and it made no difference)

change the rate in sound _playback_ (worth trying)

turn off "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"
for the microphone (worth trying)

turn off enhancements for the microphone (there don't seem to be any)

turn off enhancements or other fancy features in sound playback
(worth looking)

use the recording sound troubleshooter (I tried that)

use the voice recognition troubleshooter (worth trying)

check that applications are allowed to use the microphone in Settings
(worth a try, but Voice Recorder complains if it can't find a microphone)

adjust the levels of the microphone (I think I tried that)

move the USB cable of the microphone/camera to a different USB port
(worth trying)

untick Fast Startup, restart, clear the hibernation file, restart

uninstall the device driver for the microphone, restart and let it
re-install

try turning off any anti-virus service

go back to the previous device driver for the microphone if there is one
(I don't want to do this to someone else's computer)

go back to a previous restore point
(I really don't want to do this to someone else's computer)

get in touch with Zoom support (I don't know whether Skype has a support
team)


Next time I visit him I shall take a microphone with a phono plug
and try that, which might shed some light on the matter.


I feel I am clutching at straws here. Any suggestions are welcome.

Jim Hicks

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Jim Hicks <james.hicks78@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

I feel I am clutching at straws here. Any suggestions are welcome.

I've had something like that with an iPhone with a screen protector on it.
What happens is that when you start recording, the microphone adjusts the
gain to hear whatever sounds but to avoid causing feedback. If there's a misplaced screen protector it muffles the microphone, with the result that
it winds the gain up to maximum before winding it down again. That causes
an audible pop on recordings.

Obviously your setup isn't quite the same, but I would look at any
microphone volume settings, particularly automatic or noise cancellation
ones (which Zoom will be doing). And check for anything that might be obstructing the microphone.

Theo

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On 14/08/2021 15:54, Jim Hicks wrote:

A friend has a computer running Windows 10 and a connection to the Internet and is having problems apparently with his microphone.

(The microphone belongs to a webcamera: Dericam W3.)
...
The problem manifests as follows: start Voice Recorder and record
short audio clips of speech.  Playback sounds like a loud rumble with
a squawk at the end.  ...

And the solution was: unplug the camera/microphone from its USB socket
and plug it into a different one.

Many thanks to Theo for following up to my earlier article.

Jim Hicks

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