[SOLVED] Microphone volume issues

[freejon2910]

Hi,

I am wrestling with microphone issues. Windows 10 on a PC with ASUS X470-prime motherboard.

I have had a Blue Snowball Ice for two years, but realised that the sound quality was poor and the volume shwing on Audacity was consistently low. I tried reinstalling to no effect. Drivers are showing as June 2020. There were other complaints like mine so I decided it must be a problem with that brand.

I bought two new mics. I really need a solution! One mic is on an arm, about 18 inches /45 cm from my face. It is a LCS Jeemak PC21. Even with its volume knob up high and a high setting in Windows, it is still quiet. No better than the Snowball.

The other is a lavalier - FiFine K053. Couldn't be more different. Picks up lots of background noise and very sensitive to my voice. Wierdly unaffected by any Windows volume settings or the Audacity volume slider. Even at zero it is just as loud. And not much difference whether on my shirt or at the same distance as the stand.

All of these devices plugged into USB, and it doesn't matter which USB port I use, or whether it is directly on the mobo or on the case, behaviours don't change.

What am I missing here?

Your responses will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[Vic 40]

Looked in windows under settings->system->sound->imput/microphone? Or just rightclick the sound icon in the system tray and choose "sound settings".

See if it it set low there.

Or check the realtek audio settings, if you did use their drivers.

 

[freejon2910]

Looked in windows under settings->system->sound->imput/microphone? Or just rightclick the sound icon in the system tray and choose "sound settings".

See if it it set low there.

Or check the realtek audio settings, if you did use their drivers.

Thank you. Vic

All the Windows settings are at max. Should I install the Realtek software. I believe that I used to have it, but that may have been a previous build. But right now I can't find it anywhere.

The Realtek>Audio>HDA directory is empty. There are no Realtek items on my motherboard installation DVD.

I can't find any HDA Audio Codecs or other HDA software on Realtek's downloads site.

Do you have any further suggestions for what I can do?

Very grateful,
Jon

 

[Paperdoc]

Go to the ASUS web page for your mobo and click on the tag for Support at upper right. You will get this page, I think.

｜｜ASUS Canada

www.asus.com

Choose Drivers and Tools. Select your OS and you'll find the driver for Realtek Audio available to download. I would hope it includes the Realtek utilities.

 

[freejon2910]

Progress. I have fixed the issue with the Lavalier mic. There is a setting in Sounds>Advanced for it to disallow any application from taking control. Fifine support helped me with that. Quick and accurate.

I have also had some success thanks to your advice, so thank you for that, and I now have the Realtek drivers installed and the software present in the Realtek>Audio>HDA folder. I thought I was home and dry when I saw that.

Unfortunately it will not launch. It didn't launch on startup even though startup is enabled. It doesn't start from the .exe files I have tried (and I have opened to run as administrator). Nothing happens visibly and nothing is running in Task Manager. I think that the correct file is C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA\RtkNGUI64.exe > and have tried that. But others I tried didn't do anthing either. I have even tried running is in compatibility mode under W7. No joy.

I have also checked the events log for this device and there is a warning message. Unfortunately it means nothing to me.

-

System

- Provider [ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP [ Guid] {9c205a39-1250-487d-abd7-e831c6290539}

EventID 442

Version 0

Level 3

Task 0

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x4000000000000000

- TimeCreated [ SystemTime] 2020-09-12T07:13:26.9673543Z

EventRecordID 775

Correlation

- Execution [ ProcessID] 4 [ ThreadID] 6496

Channel Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP/Configuration

Computer jon-desktop

- Security [ UserID] S-1-5-18

-

EventData

DeviceInstanceId

HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_1168&SUBSYS_10438733&REV_1001\5&2288a34b&0&0001

LastDeviceInstanceId

HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0892&SUBSYS_1458A002&REV_1003\4&2417de69&0&0001

ClassGuid

{4d36e96c-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

LocationPath

MigrationRank

0xf000ffffff28f002

Present

false

Status

0xc0000719

Do you have any more ideas?

Thank you once again

 

[Vic 40]

Progress. I have fixed the issue with the Lavalier mic. There is a setting in Sounds>Advanced for it to disallow any application from taking control. Fifine support helped me with that. Quick and accurate.

Seems then that some third party software is muting your mic.

I have also had some success thanks to your advice, so thank you for that, and I now have the Realtek drivers installed and the software present in the Realtek>Audio>HDA folder. I thought I was home and dry when I saw that.

Unfortunately it will not launch. It didn't launch on startup even though startup is enabled. It doesn't start from the .exe files I have tried (and I have opened to run as administrator). Nothing happens visibly and nothing is running in Task Manager. I think that the correct file is C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA\RtkNGUI64.exe > and have tried that. But others I tried didn't do anthing either. I have even tried running is in compatibility mode under W7. No joy.

Yeah that should be the one. Could try the other "latest version" as i suggested below.

I have also checked the events log for this device and there is a warning message. Unfortunately it means nothing to me.

-

System

- Provider [ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP [ Guid] {9c205a39-1250-487d-abd7-e831c6290539}

EventID 442

Version 0

Level 3

Task 0

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x4000000000000000

- TimeCreated [ SystemTime] 2020-09-12T07:13:26.9673543Z

EventRecordID 775

Correlation

- Execution [ ProcessID] 4 [ ThreadID] 6496

Channel Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP/Configuration

Computer jon-desktop

- Security [ UserID] S-1-5-18

-

EventData

DeviceInstanceId

HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_1168&SUBSYS_10438733&REV_1001\5&2288a34b&0&0001

LastDeviceInstanceId

HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0892&SUBSYS_1458A002&REV_1003\4&2417de69&0&0001

ClassGuid

{4d36e96c-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

LocationPath

MigrationRank

0xf000ffffff28f002

Present

false

Status

0xc0000719

Do you have any more ideas?

Thank you once again

That's for the realtek audio? Used the link provided above to download the drivers for it? There are two versions of the latest version "Version 6.0.8971.1" can try the other one as well.

Maybe try CMD-> "sfc /scannow ".

 

[freejon2910]

Thanks for all the help. The other version of the Realtek software was successful in respect of making the panel available. But this version is very limited, much less than the old one was capable of. Disappointing.

And no use at all in regard to the microphone issue because it does not manage USB devices. In effect, analog only.

So time to give up on all of that. I have found a program caled Equaliser APO which will amplify the USB mic, but that means also amplifying the background noise. So I am limited to about 6dB of gain. But better than nothing. I can make it work. Will have to suffice until I can afford a top-class / directional / noise-cancelling device, I guess.

Time to close this case.

Much apppreciation for the support.

 

[Vic 40]

You keep mentioning "Audacity", maybe try another program with same functions? Is all i can think of as last suggestion..