Issues with ModMic v5

[Blindguard]

Hey!

 

Just bought a ModMic to attach to my AD700X headphones, it's primarily going to be used for skype/discord, I set it all up and it seemed great, until I noticed the strange noise that keeps coming through, it's coming in waves, sometimes it's absolutely silent, and sometimes it's loud as hell. It seems like the noise is more apparent when I'm using the cable clips to arrange the cables, but it does appear even if I don't arrange the cables, yet random at both times. I think it's mostly placebo though. This is an example of the noise: 

 

It's been even worse than this according to my friend, but I never managed to capture such a loud noise, apparently the microphone on my old siberia v2 sounds worse than this one, but the buzzing on this one is way, way worse. I'm swapping to a headphone + mic setup as the sound on the siberia v2 sucks, and it's starting to hurt my ears.

 

Any ideas what might be causing this issue? I've ordered a USB soundcard and going to give that a shot whenever it arrive, but if that's not solving my problem, I don't know what to do. Probably return it and get a zalman, otherwise I'm shit out of luck. Studiomics are a pain and I refuse to have a pillar infront of me when gaming, that's the spot for my teacup, a robotic arm could work, but that's a pain when going on a LAN instead.

 

Edit: Might as well add that it has nothing to do with microphone boost on windows 10, if I increase that to +30 there's just the basic, lowhum sound, which goes away entire at +0 boost. 

[AAJoe]

Sounds like electrical bleed, though its quieter than usual when you hear this.

 

Try unplugging ALL other devices nearby one by one till it goes away INCLUDING your power strip you have everything plugged into. Basically if its a plug, unplug it. Lets see if that moves us towards getting to the bottom of this.

You can also get our help directly on our Discord: https://discord.gg/x33SVhK

[Blindguard]

Alright, I will most likely hop into discord if I fail to resolve this soon. I've disconnected most plugs around my computer but nothing seems to help yet. 

I received the antlion usb adapter earlier and to be honest, I haven't heard the noise... yet! I need to give it some more testing before I can confirm what's causing it, however I'm starting to get a low, constant buzz emitting from my AD700X when they are plugged into the adapter, it's very low, and I did notice this sound earlier when I had the headphones plugged into the front of my PC. 

I seem to get the buzz despite plugging the usb in the back, or front. The noise is very low, but comparable to the example sound I included in my first post. So you are most likely correct on electrical bleed. 

Whenever my girlfriend decide to leave, I'll have a closer look at the issue.

 

Alright, it seems like the Mic problem is solved thanks to the USB soundcard, however I can't have my headphones plugged into it, due to the constant buzzing/spark/crackling. 

While the mic works now, my voice is superbassy instead, anyway to tweak this? 

 

And any idea what's going on with the headphones? Cause they don't emit a static noise when connected to either my phone or back of the PC, but as soon as they are connected through the USB stick or the front of the pc, I hear the constant noise. I prefer to have the 3 outputs on my motherboard for my speakers, otherwise I have to drop down and pull cables when I'm not playing with my friends.

[AAJoe]

Welcome to audio life, where everything is a little more complex than it seems at first.

 

So the headphones get static from the USB only - first, check if it goes away if you grip the wire or near the connection with the device. This would be a grounding issue if it does. If it doesn't... well, our USB has some issues with being overly loud, as I am sure you noticed. Download Equalizer APO and set a negative pre-amp of -20dB and then fine-tune the volume to see if it goes away. Here's a tutorial I wrote about it: https://antlionaudio.com/blogs/news/what-to-do-if-your-modmic-is-too-quiet obviously you're setting a negative dB and selecting the USB device instead of a positive dB and selecting your motherboard device.

 

Also... before you try any of this, try unplugging and re-plugging, could just be a loose connection.
 

Toss a recording my way here or via Discord (I am Antlion Joe there) and I'll see about the bass issue. Our mic is fairly bass heavy due to the proximity to your mouth. Try this: With the USB plugged in turn AGC on and set the volume to about 60-70%. Then move the mic away from your mouth (about 4 inches or so). If you want to learn more about this phenomena look up "Audio Proximity Effect." Anyway, if that doesn't solve it send me a recording and I'll see if I can diagnose it. You can also use Equalizer APO or Voicemeeter Banana to adjust your EQ settings.

[Blindguard]

25 minutes ago, AAJoe said:

Welcome to audio life, where everything is a little more complex than it seems at first.

 

So the headphones get static from the USB only - first, check if it goes away if you grip the wire or near the connection with the device. This would be a grounding issue if it does. If it doesn't... well, our USB has some issues with being overly loud, as I am sure you noticed. Download Equalizer APO and set a negative pre-amp of -20dB and then fine-tune the volume to see if it goes away. Here's a tutorial I wrote about it: https://antlionaudio.com/blogs/news/what-to-do-if-your-modmic-is-too-quiet obviously you're setting a negative dB and selecting the USB device instead of a positive dB and selecting your motherboard device.

 

Also... before you try any of this, try unplugging and re-plugging, could just be a loose connection.
 

Toss a recording my way here or via Discord (I am Antlion Joe there) and I'll see about the bass issue. Our mic is fairly bass heavy due to the proximity to your mouth. Try this: With the USB plugged in turn AGC on and set the volume to about 60-70%. Then move the mic away from your mouth (about 4 inches or so). If you want to learn more about this phenomena look up "Audio Proximity Effect." Anyway, if that doesn't solve it send me a recording and I'll see if I can diagnose it. You can also use Equalizer APO or Voicemeeter Banana to adjust your EQ settings.

Alright, I've downloaded equalizer apo, but I'm really terrible with these things, I'm too bassy so I thought adjusting the lower values would remove a bit off the bass, but according to my friend I got entirely mute if I overdo it, otherwise there's no difference, or the buzzing noise return. Any ideas what to alter?

[AAJoe]

Hah, the easier method is really moving the mic away from your mouth if possible. There's a very slim chance there's a defect, so you really should send me a recording so I can hear if it sounds natural or distorted.

 

It doesn't take much low frq changes to really affect things, so if i had to guess some EQ settings to start with I'd say bring the 50hz and below down 4dB, 200hz down 3, and 800hz down 1. Something like that to start. If its not enough, decrease them by like 2, 1.5, and .5 further. (So 6, 4.5, and 1.5)

 

 

[Blindguard]

I tried the grabbing the wire but it does not resolve the issue, however I discovered that I'm actually hearing the microphone through the headphones when they are both plugged into the USB adapter, that might be what's causing the noise... Feels like a rookie mistake, and feels easy to fix but I can't find out how... Disabling AGC solve this, but the sparking sound is still present, and my microphone is silent, put the preamplification in the equalizer to -20DB, but it changed nothing except lower the sound (obviously). This is strange.

 

I also noticed that configuring the preamp also changes the microphone, if i select the speakers C-media usb audio device from the dropdown menu and set the preamp to -20dB, I can hear music playing just fine, somewhat lower than before, but I can't hear what I'm saying on the microphone at all. 

 

I might add that I managed to solve the microphone though, it sounds way better now! I did a combination of moving it away from the mouth and changing the <50hz settings. And the amount of crackling going on inside the headphones doesn't differ depending on my volume, it's the same amount of crackling at 100% volume as 2% volume.

 

Edit: It seems like the crackling intensifies when I load a page on chrome as well. I get the exact same crackling when I connect the headphones to the front of the PC, the back is fine, but the usb sound card remains this crackling noise, plugged in back, front or usb 3.0 (back or front), all slots seem to produce the noise.

[AAJoe]

Ok so mic issue is solved for now. That is good That leaves us with the headphone problem. To reiterate, you are getting the problem no matter what you plug your headphones into? USB or direct to MB on all slots?

 

Just as a dumb test for sure, do you have a USB 2.0 slot to test on? Shouldn't matter but you never know.

 

If its happening regardless of what it is plugged into, then its your PC or a component inside your PC (most likely). You should NOT be hearing the mic in your headphones regardless of settings. There isn't even a way to do that, as the USB doesn't have sidetone. Does this happen even when not using the USB? If its only when using the USB it could be a faulty USB unit, though I have never heard of such a thing happening.

 

If it happens regardless of what its plugged into you have yourself a real scooby-doo level mystery. The obvious thing to check is that Listen to Device is off, but I think you'd know if it were on. The USB doesn't have a stereo mixer, but make sure that guy is disabled too just in case there's another mic causing bleed through. In fact, safest bet is to disable (temporarily) all devices that aren't in use to make sure they aren't the cause. 

 

If you have another system to test on, you can also use that to make sure it isn't the USB. A laptop, friend's PC, etc. 

 

Also I feel pretty bad for spamming the LTT forum. Toss me a DM to continue here and we'll sort it out in private.

[EsaT]

2 hours ago, AAJoe said:

If it happens regardless of what its plugged into you have yourself a real scooby-doo level mystery. The obvious thing to check is that Listen to Device is off, but I think you'd know if it were on.

If operating system in Wintoys10 there's no quarantee what latest patches have screwed up.

 

Anyway with very low impedance and high sensititivy ATH-AD700 will pick up any slightest interference.

They're pretty much so sensitive I wouldn't wonder, if touching sleeve with finger of one hand and tip or ring with finger of other hand would give AC hum.