Question New Mic- now audio is a disaster in games ?

[pjadovich]

I recently purchased an Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ Microphone to act as my desktop mic. I'm replacing a blue yeti that until now has been my daily driver for both work and games.

Because I often toggle between wanting/needing my mic near my face, and then out the of way quickly, I have the mic mounted to a boom arm and I plug my headphones directly into the microphone, not into the computer tower. I have a standing desk, and running a cord from my PC on the ground to where I'm often standing, wouldn't work.

Ever since I switched to the AT2020USB+, audio quality in the games that I play has been distorted. I play FPS games and knowing which directions different sounds are coming from is very important, with this new mic, a gunshot clearly coming from in front of me can sound like its coming from behind, or coming from both directions at the same time. It's completely disorienting and unplayable.

Again, I know that the easiest solution would be to have headphones with a cord directly plugged into my Mobo like a normal person- and that is something I'll do in the future. But for now, with my current set up and how I use my PC, having my headphones plugged into the body of my mic is preferred. I experienced the problem with both the apple wired headphones that I often use while working, as well as proper over ear gaming headphones.

Any ideas? Thank you!

 

[Ralston18]

This:

"I experienced the problem with both the apple wired headphones that I often use while working, as well as proper over ear gaming headphones. "

My underline of "apple".

My thought is that there is some TR, TRS, TRRS, mismatch in the audio connections being used. Especially if you have Apple audio connections.

FYI:

https://www.cablechick.com.au/blog/understanding-trrs-and-audio-jacks/


As for "Again, I know that the easiest solution would be to have headphones with a cord directly plugged into my Mobo " - understood.

However, there is a lot to be said for simplicity - Occam's Razor coming to mind.

 

[pjadovich]

Thanks Ralston. Perhaps this is the forcing function I need. I just wish I could figure it out :/

 

[Paperdoc]

A suggestion to experiment. The earphone jack on the mic rear is intended primarily to let you hear yourself as the mic picks up, but the makers recognize that sometimes you want to hear the total audio stream. That includes both the mic pickup and other audio sources from your computer. So the Mic has a blending control on the front to left of centre. If you turn that more towards the "COM" side it lets you hear more loudly the audio from sources OTHER than your mic. When gaming, I'm sure you want that and are using it. BUT the mic makers also remind that there may be small audio delays on SOME sources because the mic is using your USB system and software to feed its signals into your machine. This can cause garbled sound if you are mixing several sound sources. So for a first step, try turning that control all the way to the COM side. IF that signal includes both computer-generated sounds and mic-generated sounds, you MAY find that clearer, although your mic sounds may be slightly different in time from what YOU actually say.

If that does not work, the source here may be the details of contacts in the earphone jack and the socket in the mic body. That is what Ralson18 is talking about above. If you don't know all about those details, post back here for info and how to get an adapter.