Good afternoon all. I play a lot of racing and flight sims in VR but i got some pretty good speakers so i like to listen to the games through them. Now the mic on the Quest 3 is pretty pants so i was wondering what mic setup people recommend whilst still using my speakers for gaming? I dont want a headset as u already have a logitech pro X and i dont like wearing them whilst in VR as it makes me totally unaware of my surroundings. Cheers
A small condenser might work well - I have a RØDE VideoMicro which I sometimes use for video calls (via an Elgato CamLink 4K). Quality seems quite good for the price. Though if your PC's mic input is on a combined headphone/microphone TRRS jack you'll need an adapter cable. The bigger problem you'll have with not using headphones is echo cancellation and feedback. You will not want the audio from the mic to be fed through to the speakers or you will get very nasty feedback, and whatever you're using for chat will need to have very good echo cancellation processing. Without the latter, whatever is playing through your speakers will be fed back to whoever you're on voice chat with. Have you considered open-backed headsets or headphones? They don't tend to dampen environmental noise quite as much, so you still retain auditory spatial awareness. Another alternative might be bluetooth earbuds with some kind of "transparency" mode. My AirPods, for example, have a 'transparency' mode which basically works like a hearing aid - I can hear what's going on around me and hear what's playing through the earbuds. Other manufacturers have likely implemented a similar function in their products. Although latency might be an issue in games - Windows isn't the best when it comes to latency on bluetooth audio, I've always found it to be hit and miss even with the most up to date bluetooth versions & audio protocols.
Thanks for the info. My chat i always use push to talk function but wouldnt it be great if the same button could mute the sound of the game at the same time?
This is quite a common video/audio production technique, it's called "ducking" . It's worth having a nose around in whatever voice chat software you use to see whether there are native options for it. Discord has support built in, although they call it "attenuation" (Settings > Voice & Video > scroll almost down to the bottom): ...But, strictly speaking, you don't need support in whatever software you're using: Windows can do this natively. The functionality has been around since... jeez... maybe even the Windows 7 days... Open Control Panel - the old school Control Panel, not the "Settings app" - and go to Sound. Make sure your communication devices are set correctly - in my case my 'communication' and 'default' Recording devices are different, but the Playback devices are the same: https://i.imgur.com/uQtC4tw.png https://i.imgur.com/jVkNbQB.png Then go to the Communications tab and set one of these options: https://i.imgur.com/rBwIIiZ.png However I don't know how well the Windows implementation works. I've never used ducking, whether in Discord, Windows, or any other software - I always use headphones if I'm mic'ed up, even if it's hot as balls. It might also reduce the volume of other chat participants as well as lowering the volume of system sounds.
If you have ad-blockers or other types of privacy plugins they may be interfering with the imgur embedding. I've added direct links below each image.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BRCR2QQ7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I use that and it is ace. Easily rotated out of the way when you aren't using it.
