Windows 10: Driver update effecting microphone quality

A year ago I ran the driver booster software and updated a bunch of drivers including some sound related drivers. I don't remember specifically which ones because I never really take note of what gets updated, I just update the drivers when they need it. As soon as I updated the drivers my mic became significantly worse. By that I don't mean quality wise, but worse in its ability to consistently pick up sound.

When I would talk, any time I would lower my voice such as how I would naturally at the end of a sentence, it would cut out. This made it so that any time I spoke somewhat quietly no one could hear me, or it would cut in and out so that my message was barely understandable. No matter what I changed in discord voice settings, the problem persisted.

Even though it seemed incredibly obvious that it was a software problem, I held out hope that it could just be a problem with the mic on my hyper X cloud headset. Not too many months ago I got a new hyper X headset and the problem was the exact same. Gaming headset microphones are known to not be the absolute best, but it persisted across even nicer microphones as well. I very recently bought a Blue Yeti X to finally get a standalone microphone with good quality, and it still is having a very similar issue. While the quality of my transmitted voice is very high, the volume struggles and even with incredibly high microphone gain, I am easily drowned out in a discord call when someone else is talking at the same time.

I'm not sure exactly how to fix this problem and I would seriously appreciate if anyone has any ideas as to how I could fix this issue.

:)

 

Windows 10 USB Microphone quietness + low quality (AT2020 USB)

Hi,

There is a significant problem with the the new generation of Windows which is to do with (mostly) professional USB microphones, mine being the Audio Technica AT2020 USB Plus. The microphone input by default is far too quiet (and also slightly lower quality). This problem occurs in Windows 10, however it worked perfectly in Windows 7.

The solution, I repeat, is NOT turning up the percentage level, DB, or boosting the microphone. For someone who intends to record professional audio, this solution is effectively what "digital zoom" is in a camera, simply boosting the audio in its entirety, even though the input volume is simply not what it should actually be. This results in noise becoming louder, and many other various imperfections.

Things I have tried:

• Reinstall/update the driver. There are no drivers except the generic Windows 10 USB microphone drivers. They worked perfectly on Windows 7 but after that they were completely broken.
• Contact the manufacturer. I contacted Audio Technica and explained how this is a call they get often, and that it is a problem with Windows. The only way they said it could be fixed is with some form of Windows update which matches the driver format of Windows 7.
• Boost the volume. Artificially boosting the volume in any way results in quality loss and is in no way a valid solution. This works for some people, but mostly it is just hiding the problem.
• Run the recording audio troubleshooter. All this does is check to make sure the audio services are running and that the microphone is detected. Neither of those are the source of the problem, therefore this fixes nothing. Neither will any other troubleshooter.
• Install Windows updates. As of this post, there is no Windows update that fixes this. I've installed every update for the past 2 years and they've done nothing to address this. Unless an update has been released that specifically addresses this, installing updates will fix nothing.
• Contact Microsoft support. This helped slightly as it gave me a few different things to do, but all of them have been in vain.
• Run a virtual machine of Windows 7. Not only is this extremely tedious, but it simply doesn't work correctly. Even if the microphone was working in its original Windows 7 format and as far as I know, a virtual machine is simply not made to record audio at high quality. This was suggested by Microsoft Support. VM tried: VirtualBox.
• Install previous audio codecs and drivers. I have tried to install previous audio drivers from Windows 7 onto Windows 10 with no success. This was also suggested by Microsoft support.

This was NEVER a problem in Windows 7. This problem has been on the forums of Microsoft Support for over 2 years with no clear solution.
Name of my laptop: MSI GL62 6QD


Any, and I mean ANY help would be appreciated about solving this problem, thank you.

 

Microphone Sound Quality

Hi I'm Peter an independent advisor, you could try the following:

Step 1 - Run the troubleshooter

a) Press Windows and X key together and select Control Panel.

b) Click on Troubleshooting.

c) Click onView all option on the left side of the Windows.

d) Click on Playing Audio option.

e) Click on Next and follow the onscreen instructions to troubleshoot the issue.

Step 2 - Check your microphone’s drivers

1. Type in “Device Manager” in the Search box and select it from the list.

2. Expand Sound, video and game controllers

3. Right-click (or tap and hold) your microphone device and select Update Driver Software.

4. Select Search automatically for updated driver software. This option will scan the Internet for the correct version of the driver or determine if you already have the most recent driver installed. You may be prompted to restart your computer to install the
driver.

Step 3 - Manually turn up the mic gain

1. Type in “Sound” in the Search box and select Sound (Control Panel) from the list.

2. Select the Recording tab.

3. Right-click (or tap and hold) on the active microphone input device and select Properties.

4. Select the Levels tab.

Manually drag the Microphone gain to a higher level and click Apply.

 

internal microphone not working since updates

In order to effectively assist you with your concern, we'd like to confirm what are the troubleshooting steps that you've performed to resolve the microphone issue?

Since the microphone driver is up to date, we would suggest that you reinstall it to rule out issues related to corrupted driver installation after the recent the
Windows Update. To do this, follow the steps below:

• Type Device Manager in the search bar and press Enter.
• Click the drop-down arrow to expand Audio inputs and outputs.
• Right-click on the microphone driver and select Properties.
• Under the Driver tab, select Uninstall.
• Press OK.
• Restart the device to reinstall a native driver.
• Once you're done, check if the issue persists.

Let us know should you need further assistance.