Microphones (built-in or separately connected) in computer or mobile systems have become as commonplace as many other devices. They are used both for live communication in specialized programs, and for sound recording. But sometimes, when connecting them, it may be necessary to artificially reduce the level of perception of the input signal, since too sensitive equipment additionally captures a huge amount of extraneous noise, can create interference and interference, and also cause voice distortion during broadcast or recording. How to reduce the sensitivity of the microphone, then let's try to figure it out. This can be done either by hardware or software. But first, let's focus on a few initial basics,to consider when setting up any type of microphone.
General rules for setting sensitivity
First of all, let's focus on computers with their software and household appliances, with which you can connect microphones and reproduce your voice. In general, the input signal level setting directly depends on the device model used and its main characteristics. But behind the scenes among musicians and sound engineers, it is generally accepted that the recording level or playback volume should be about half of the maximum possible value. It can fluctuate within insignificant limits (plus or minus ten percent).
Among other things, the sensitivity of any such device can be influenced by many third-party factors:
- type and characteristics of the microphone itself;
- difference in the impedance of the microphone and the input through which it is connected;
- sound parameters of the room (size, sound insulation, sound reflectance, etc.);
- type and power of loudspeakers (speakers);
- equipment or software used for recording and playback.
Full volume is never set. It's an axiom! But let's see how to reduce the sensitivity of the microphone, so to speak, at hand. In the simplest case, artificial lowering can be done by wrapping the microphone with a cloth or gauze.
Apparently, many noticed that inIn studios, special meshes are used as an additional accessory, which are installed in order to prevent saliva from entering the device, which can cause unwanted clicks and other side effects. Another rule is to turn off the speaker system when recording in order to avoid the appearance of interference (whistling) in the speakers. It is better to use headphones to speak or sing into the microphone while listening to your own voice. Finally, it is not recommended to initially install some additional voice processing effects on the input, such as equalizers, reverbs, choruses, normalizers, etc. The only exception is the De-Esser effect, which eliminates noise in real time or in post-processing.
If we talk about how to reduce the sensitivity of the microphone with another simple method, some experts recommend connecting the device through a block with an additional variable resistor, the resistance of which at face value exceeds the microphone's own resistance by about ten times (usually something is used like 10 kOhm). The simplest method, as mentioned above, is the most common setting of a reduced volume level at the input.
How to reduce microphone sensitivity on Windows 7 or any other system?
As for computers, all operating systems have a special section called "Sound Settings". Here, in general, it makes absolutely no difference which OS is installed on the user's computer. In the veryIn a simple case, you need to open the mixer via RMB on the volume icon in the system tray and lower the volume level there. If there is no such fader, you will need to open the recording devices section, set the desired options. You can also use the "Control Panel".
On the levels tab, you need to set the desired volume and gain percentage. By default, its value is at +10 dB. It is undesirable to increase it, but for microphones with low sensitivity, according to the reviews of some users, the level can be increased up to 20-30 dB without the appearance of side distortion.
But speaking of how to reduce the sensitivity of the microphone on Windows 10, it is more advisable to turn to the options menu, where in the desired section to check and configure the built-in or connected external microphone.
Additional parameters
In the sound card parameters in all the latest systems, you can find a special tab for setting the type of environment (Enhancements).
If you are recording from a microphone, it is better to turn off such add-ons immediately. Of all the available processing, you can leave only room correction (Room Correction), but, as mentioned above, at the time of recording a “clean” voice, it is better not to use additional effects. They may be useful, for example, only when singing using karaoke.
Adjustmentinput signal in recording programs and audio editors
Most modern applications for recording and processing sound offer users a fairly wide range of opportunities. Some professional sound engineers, when recording vocals, are repelled precisely from such settings, although initially the input signal level is regulated by means of the operating system. In such programs, in addition to accessing the system mixer, you can use your own settings for the input device and the signal coming from it (Wave In). How can I decrease the microphone sensitivity in these applications?
Here you can set a lot of settings that are simply not available in Windows (getting 32-bit audio output after recording, enabling zero-DC offset, etc.). It is clear that it will be quite problematic for an ordinary user to deal with such parameters, but you can experiment.
How to reduce the microphone sensitivity on the phone?
Now let's move on to mobile technology. Let's figure out how to reduce the microphone sensitivity on Android.
To do this, you need to enter the engineering menu using a special combination, select the Audio section, go to the Mic item, set the desired level (Level) in the range from 1 to 6, then set the value, adjustable within 0-255 and tap on the Set button. Similar actions can be performed in applications like Mobileuncle Tools or Volume+. The second applet does not require root rights and is available even in the Play Store.
Summary of conclusions
As you can see, setting up a microphone on different devices and for different purposes is quite troublesome, and without special knowledge it is not always possible to set the correct parameters. Despite this, in the most general case, you can use the simplest tips above, and at the same time experiment a little with the settings. The main condition is not to use the maximum volume and sensitivity values in order to avoid signal distortion and unwanted extraneous effects.
