Microphone too quiet on Discord?

[AstroBenny]

Hi,

 

I'm using a Rode NT-1 XLR Mic with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio interface. My friends are complaining that they can only just hear me even with their volume set to 200% on Discord.

On the 2i2 itself, I have to turn the mic to about 2/3 o'clock to get a "green" signal from the 2i2 with me seated about 30cm from the mic but my friends complain they can't hear me. When I turn the gain up on the 2i2 to the limit, the indicator on the 2i2 is going red and my friends don't have an issue hearing me on Discord but they hear distortion ;/

What could be going on here?
Do you think this is Discord related?

[ALwin]

Are you giving the mic the necessary phantom power?  And you are sure it's aimed in the right direction?

[AstroBenny]

4 minutes ago, ALwin said:

Are you giving the mic the necessary phantom power?  And you are sure it's aimed in the right direction?

Yes, phantom power is turned on and the mic is definitely facing the right direction. Besides, if the signal on the 2i2 is green, surely that would indicate good level signal.

 

[ALwin]

Check the volume settings in your software then, perhaps there is an issue.

 

Do you have any other audio software where you can check the levels of the audio while you speak into the mic?  I think the Scarlett comes with some software as part of the package, otherwise download a trial of Adobe Audition.  The Scarlett interface's audio level indicators are pretty much useless if they only show green and red colors, without any actual level meter.

[Aivaras]

40 minutes ago, AstroBenny said:

Yes, phantom power is turned on and the mic is definitely facing the right direction. Besides, if the signal on the 2i2 is green, surely that would indicate good level signal.

 

Green does not indicate "good" it indicates that there is a signal and it's not peeking (not going to red.).

Download any application for recording. And then checkout levels. Maybe you have something working in windows settings side?
With condenser mics your distance from mic should not be ~30cm, but more like 3-5cm.  That could be the main issue.
Also mind a cardiod pattern of the mic. 

[AstroBenny]

9 hours ago, ALwin said:

Check the volume settings in your software then, perhaps there is an issue.

 

Do you have any other audio software where you can check the levels of the audio while you speak into the mic?  I think the Scarlett comes with some software as part of the package, otherwise download a trial of Adobe Audition.  The Scarlett interface's audio level indicators are pretty much useless if they only show green and red colors, without any actual level meter.

My Windows microphone volume is at 100%.

I do actually own Adobe Audition so what sort of levels should I be aiming for?

I know this is a different matter that won't affect the issue I'm having but after installing the 2i2's Audio drivers I have this small application window I can open which lets me change the buffer length. Out of interest, what does this actually do?

I'll also attach a pic of the levels in Audition soon.

Thanks.

 

[ALwin]

Audio levels on Audition should be between -20 to -6 db, that should be loud enough.

 

I'm talking about volume levels in Discord, doesn't it have any audio settings?

[AstroBenny]

1 minute ago, ALwin said:

Audio levels on Audition should be between -20 to -6 dub, that should be loud enough.

 

I'm talking about volume levels in Discord, doesn't it have any audio settings?

Input volume is already at 100% on Discord itself.

[AstroBenny]

8 hours ago, Aivaras said:

Green does not indicate "good" it indicates that there is a signal and it's not peeking (not going to red.).

Download any application for recording. And then checkout levels. Maybe you have something working in windows settings side?
With condenser mics your distance from mic should not be ~30cm, but more like 3-5cm.  That could be the main issue.
Also mind a cardiod pattern of the mic. 

What do you mean by green not indicating a good signal? What exactly is it supposed to represent?

Have I made a mistake buying this microphone then, maybe? Would a dynamic mic be more suited to further distances?

[Aivaras]

5 minutes ago, AstroBenny said:

What do you mean by green not indicating a good signal? What exactly is it supposed to represent?

Have I made a mistake buying this microphone then, maybe? Would a dynamic mic be more suited to further distances?

It represents that "it's alive" one LED can't and does not represent level. 

Dynamic mics are even worse in distance. For larger distances you could use shotgun type mic or something with super-cardiod pattern. Just keep it close and you will be good to go.  

[AstroBenny]

1 minute ago, Aivaras said:

It represents that "it's alive" one LED can't and does not represent level. 

Dynamic mics are even worse in distance. For larger distances you could use shotgun type mic or something with super-cardiod pattern. Just keep it close and you will be good to go.  

So it's not "alive" if I don't turn the gain up to the green? But what does that actually mean

[AstroBenny]

53 minutes ago, ALwin said:

Audio levels on Audition should be between -20 to -6 dub, that should be loud enough.

 

I'm talking about volume levels in Discord, doesn't it have any audio settings?

dub refers to decibels, right?

In audition, it's sitting anywhere between -35 to -23 DB.

[ALwin]

11 minutes ago, AstroBenny said:

dub refers to decibels, right?

In audition, it's sitting anywhere between -35 to -23 DB.

Yeah, damn auto correct on my tablet.  I meant db.

[AstroBenny]

24 minutes ago, ALwin said:

Yeah, damn auto correct on my tablet.  I meant db.

On Discord however the voice meter has a scale of -100DB to 0DB.

When I speak on Discord, the level is sitting at about -40DB but in Audition I'm sitting at about -15DB

What's going on!!

[ALwin]

1 hour ago, AstroBenny said:

On Discord however the voice meter has a scale of -100DB to 0DB.

When I speak on Discord, the level is sitting at about -40DB but in Audition I'm sitting at about -15DB

What's going on!!

Something seems to be wrong with Discord.  Can you try talking to someone on Skype or another VOIP application and see if they also have issues hearing your voice.

 

-40db, if they use the same scale as what is used in Audition, is very quiet.

[ALwin]

On professional interfaces that we use, there are a series of LED indicators that show us the audio level.  But on your Scarlett it only shows green or red, so read the manual to see what their design philosophy is for the colors.  Red we can safely assume that the audio is clipping.  As they don't have a series of lights, does it mean that you need to have the gain dial turned up and the green light will only appear once the device thinks the audio is loud enough?

[AstroBenny]

38 minutes ago, ALwin said:

snip

From the manual:

- "adjust the input gain for input signals on inputs 1 and 2 respectively. The gain controls have concentric bi-colour LED ‘rings’ to confirm signal level: green indicates an input level of at least -24 dBFS (i.e., ‘signal present’), the ring then turns red when signal level reaches 0 dBFS "

[AstroBenny]

7 hours ago, ALwin said:

snip

 

Looks like it's just Discord after all. I called myself on another account with both Discord and hangouts setup and the hangouts call was considerably louder.

So annoying but glad the issue has been found - thanks.

Now I'm off to have a word with Discord support

[kris6799]

On 2/28/2016 at 8:32 PM, AstroBenny said:

Looks like it's just Discord after all. I called myself on another account with both Discord and hangouts setup and the hangouts call was considerably louder.

So annoying but glad the issue has been found - thanks.

Now I'm off to have a word with Discord support

I know it has been almost 5 years, but I am stuck with the same problem. And it's just discord, everyone I know has to put my volume on 200% to hear me understandably.

[The Flying Sloth]

7 hours ago, kris6799 said:

I know it has been almost 5 years, but I am stuck with the same problem. And it's just discord, everyone I know has to put my volume on 200% to hear me understandably.

It's a known issue with Discord, it's designed for cheap headsets with really hot signals and just doesn't deal well with the much cleaner, quieter input from an interface.