Mic monitoring wasn't always a thing. In fact, it has only become prevalent in video games and gaming headsets within the past decade. This leads people to wonder what exactly it is.
Well, we're here to help.
What Is Mic Monitoring?
Microphone monitoring is your ability to hear your own voice through a headset. The feature feeds your mic input to your headsets and regulates voice volumes to help you monitor your voice. Mic monitoring is useful for gamers who play with other people online and need a clean, less chaotic chat experience. Although this feature is often available in wireless headsets used for gaming, It can also be helpful if you usually deal with frequent conference calls at work. You can use it to know if your microphone is picking up too much background noise or if you're too close to it.
Mic monitoring provides a few key benefits of mic monitoring:
- Solves the issue of people talking too loud
- Helps with troubleshooting
The first benefit of mic monitoring is the reason why it was created. When people can't hear themselves while playing games, they have a tendency to speak louder than they would if they could listen to themselves.
This led to an uncomfortable experience for people on the receiving end of the microphone.
How do you turn on mic monitoring on different gaming platforms?
This is dependent on the device you're on. Most devices that allow you to add a microphone have mic monitoring settings where you can adjust the mic volume, its input, EQ, and sometimes other audio settings. Most of the time, you can find the option to turn on and enable mic monitoring here. For instance, when turning on mic monitoring on Xbox, the feature automatically activates once you plug in a compatible headphone or adjust the mic monitoring slider.
At times, the process becomes a bit involved, especially when using Windows 10. You'll have to open the control panel, click the sound icon once, click on the recording tab, and then double click on your default microphone device. On the next window that pops up, click "listen" and then choose your desired playback device. Luckily, disabling mic monitoring on Windows is straightforward than turning it on.
Recommended Products:
Xbox: If your wireless headphones don't have mic monitoring, or there is another issue, you may want to check out the Ear Force Audio Controller by Turtle Beach.
With this little device, you can use any set of headphones you want, but get the features, like variable mic monitoring and more. (Check Out This Product)
Other Consoles: VANKYO Gaming Headset CM7000, this gaming headset offers great control of mic monitoring (you can easily enable and disable mic monitoring), volume control, and an overall superior surrounds sound gaming experience. (Check Out This Product)
3 thoughts on “What Mic Monitoring Is & How To Use It For Gaming”
Google home mini is now turning on and off it’s mic. Or is someone using it to monitor me?
Hell yeah. Everyone wants to know about you
Each platform for gaming has a different way to activate mic monitoring. The steps are easy to follow, and most devices can be used with the mic monitoring feature. For computers, it is not often a default setting; however, each device, in turn, can be synced to work with it.