Microphone only works with some programs

[Animus Draconis]

Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster. I am having a really frustrating time with my microphone/headset.

It works just fine with certain programs - primarily Xbox Live for crossplay gaming. Never had a problem here. I have some Astro A20 headphones w/mic.

But I just recently decided to try my hand at voice-over work, namely, audio-books. I have worked with the independent author community for a long time. Writing, editing, cover design, marketing, I have done it all.

At the urge of some family and friends, I downloaded audacity and started recording a few of my own short stories, only to realize there's no audio!

Did some digging - everything has the proper permissions. My drivers are all completely updated.

Cortana cannot hear me call her, but any commands I give after opening her up are relayed fine. Windows native recording software does not pick up anything. When I test my mic with no programs open, there's no response. Troubleshooting says it can find the mic just fine. If I open Cortana or Xbox Live, it starts responding.

The only work around I have found is to turn on Speech Recognition services, but that is a terrible workaround. I have searched dozens of tech forums and found no solutions. My hard drive is pretty sparse - I did a fresh install of Windows less than 60 days ago. There were no problems before that.

Anyone have any ideas?

[TempestCatto]

A long shot, but right click on the audio icon in the lower right of your taskbar, click recording devices, now right click on your mic and click properties, click the listen tab at the top, make sure the box labeled "listen to this device" is unchecked. Do this for all input devices. See if that changes anything. 

 

Also make sure your mic is set as the default device. There should be two options when right clicking it.

[Animus Draconis]

1 minute ago, TempestCatto said:

A long shot, but right click on the audio icon in the lower right of your taskbar, click recording devices, now right click on your mic and click properties, click the listen tab at the top, make sure the box labeled "listen to this device" is unchecked. Do this for all input devices. See if that changes anything. 

Doesn't even show up when I RC. I've got Sound Settings, Volume Mixer, Speaker setup and Troubleshoot

[Animus Draconis]

8 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

A long shot, but right click on the audio icon in the lower right of your taskbar, click recording devices, now right click on your mic and click properties, click the listen tab at the top, make sure the box labeled "listen to this device" is unchecked. Do this for all input devices. See if that changes anything. 

 

Also make sure your mic is set as the default device. There should be two options when right clicking it.

Hey! Put me on the right track, not sure why it doesn't show up in my taskbar, but I went into the settings manually and it had duplicates of my headset and mic. I disabled all 4, tested 1x1 and got it figured it out! Thank you!!!

[TempestCatto]

5 minutes ago, Animus Draconis said:

Hey! Put me on the right track, not sure why it doesn't show up in my taskbar, but I went into the settings manually and it had duplicates of my headset and mic. I disabled all 4, tested 1x1 and got it figured it out! Thank you!!!

You're welcome, glad it works!