Inaudible USB Microphone

[PeterJB]

So I ordered a new USB microphone for my laptop which arrived today. I was hoping it would solve the problem I've had with the cheap micrphone I bought a few years ago and the microphone built in the laptop whereby the sound quality is passable but there is interference in the background and if you sustain any sounds or frequencies for more than a few seconds it then abruptly cuts the volume level. However I'm having the same issue with this microphone, plus the volume level is near inaudible and completely drowned out by static.


I've done the usual rounds of googling and the main solution seems to be to download Peace Equalizer and Equalizer APO, this helps somewhat with the volume however there is still tonnes of overpowering static, and when I tried to record my voice on the laptop's built-in voice recorder or Wondershare Filmora 9 my voice is either extremely quiet or non-existent. Another article said that the drivers for Windows 10 are not built for USB microphones and Microsoft don't appear to be interested in fixing them. Naturally I'm hoping that's not the case because the built-in microphone has the same issue and that basically means I have to get a Mac instead, which is not feasible at the moment. The microphone's instructions are also no help as they appear to have been written by a Chinese guy with a limited grasp of English grammar.

For reference, my laptop is a MSI GL75 9SD running on Windows 10 and the microphone is a Zingyou BM-800.

Any thoughts?

 

[Robin]

Have you tried it on another laptop, preferably running a different Windows? That way you can rule out anything faulty with the microphone and if it's fine and clear on another machine then it's likely a Windows 10 driver issue.

 

[PeterJB]

Have you tried it on another laptop, preferably running a different Windows? That way you can rule out anything faulty with the microphone and if it's fine and clear on another machine then it's likely a Windows 10 driver issue.

I'll give that a go, though I'm inclined to believe it's the laptop as my other microphone does the same thing.

I've had a look at different drivers that I can download but there's nothing on where you should download them to.

 

[Rallywagon]

I'll assume this, like nearly everything, is running Realtek audio equipment. Have you tried updating the drivers for it? I'll second checking the mic on a different PC.
One other thought though. You say there is lots of interference. Is there anything that makes it worse/better? Might the laptop perhaps have some sort of grounding issue or something? Is the power supply in good shape. The plugs and cable all in good shape?

 

[PeterJB]

I'll assume this, like nearly everything, is running Realtek audio equipment. Have you tried updating the drivers for it? I'll second checking the mic on a different PC.
One other thought though. You say there is lots of interference. Is there anything that makes it worse/better? Might the laptop perhaps have some sort of grounding issue or something? Is the power supply in good shape. The plugs and cable all in good shape?

The laptop itself is only three months old. Everything's in good condition, I tried it on a different laptop and got the same results. I've downloaded things like voicemeeter which helps somewhat with the interference but lowers the volume massively. Looking online a lot of people with this set-up have one of those V8 sound card box things, so I'll look around and see which ones are compatible with this microphone.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The laptop itself is only three months old. Everything's in good condition, I tried it on a different laptop and got the same results. I've downloaded things like voicemeeter which helps somewhat with the interference but lowers the volume massively. Looking online a lot of people with this set-up have one of those V8 sound card box things, so I'll look around and see which ones are compatible with this microphone.

You shouldn't need any phantom gubbins to make this work out of the box. There's an interesting thread about this mic on reddit - might it be an adaptor issue?

 

[PeterJB]

You shouldn't need any phantom gubbins to make this work out of the box. There's an interesting thread about this mic on reddit - might it be an adaptor issue?

I'm plugging it directly into the laptop's audio jack instead of using the adaptor cause the 3.5mm connection wasn't tight enough. There hasn't been any ringing but the interference is more of a static sound that either drowns out my voice or is just very annoying. Turning on audio enhancements removes this but then the volume jumps all over the place on sustained sounds.

 

[TenEightyOne]

I'm plugging it directly into the laptop's audio jack instead of using the adaptor cause the 3.5mm connection wasn't tight enough. There hasn't been any ringing but the interference is more of a static sound that either drowns out my voice or is just very annoying. Turning on audio enhancements removes this but then the volume jumps all over the place on sustained sounds.

Perhaps trying a better 3.5mm adaptor is a cheaper first option than tooling up with an external soundcard, unfortunately I can't find mine* otherwise I'd have posted it to you to try - sorry!

*Mrs Ten and I have swapped offices and I think she's binned some of my boxes of precious crap!

 

[PeterJB]

Not long after I created this thread my uncle purchased a Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen audio interface for me, which I thought had solved most of my problems, as my voice was now crystal clear (but still had a lot of reverb, and would cut the sound off on long notes when trying to record the bassoon) but it enabled me to start making videos for my YouTube channel. The laptop's built-in microphone would not have reverb, but would be much quieter and full of static...

Well...

It turns out I got the two mics mixed up in the settings and this entire time I've been recording videos with the laptop's built-in microphone and it was still the Zingyou I bought that sounded horrible. I have the interface set to 48V cause otherwise I get nothing at all. The reviews online for the mic are all good so I'm still puzzled about what's going wrong. There's no difference in sound quality as to whether I plug directly into the laptop or into the interface, but it's almost inaudible if plugged into the laptop directly. I'm inclined to think it's not the drivers as the build-in mic sounds fine, but yeah, I'm not really sure what's going on.

For reference (and a shameless plug, I guess), this video was recorded with the external mic:



And this was recorded with the built-in mic: