Decent Microphone And Installation

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• Tryon Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7040Members

  November 2002 edited November 2002

  Ah, hardware, the one part of the computer that I can get my hands on and really **obscenity** up to no end. Since you’re talking about a mic, I’ll start out by saying that I hate voice over net/game/whatever. However, when a game called Jumpgate came out, I also bit the bullet and bought a mic. I’m so glad that I did because it really has made a difference for me not only in Jumpgate, but also TFC, NWN and NS as well.
  
  Now, the first little tidbit of advice that I’m going to give you is to STAY AWAY from stand alone mics (those being the ones that mount on the top of your monitor or sit on the desk). Reason for this is with a standard speaker setup and that mic, you can wind up transmitting the sound from your speakers back to the other players in the game. I can’t tell you how disorienting it can be for me to hear my own (lagged) voice coming back from someone else’s mic. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
  
  Now that I’ve told you what I think you shouldn’t do, here’s what you should do. Get in your car and drive down to Wal-Mart <b>RIGHT NOW</b>! Yes, I said Wal-Mart. While most people will probably be laughing at me for suggesting this low cost, no clue, “I cant tell you anything about that because I’m barely smart enough to pin my name tag on my apron” electronics department, they really do have good prices.
  
  Ok, so now we’re looking for a good, cheap headset with a boom mic on it. The brand/model I would suggest is the Labtec Axis-302 Stereo Headset with Boom Microphone. It costs about $17, can be set up for both left or right side mic and the mic itself is mounted on a nice long flex cable so you can pretty much put it where it’s comfortable for you to use. Now, Labtec also makes an upgraded version of this headset that includes a volume control and mute option for $22 to $25. I don’t recommend this one because the design just isn’t as great as the cheaper version. (note: I have owned both models of this headset/mic and I do prefer the cheaper one because of comfort and the fact that they’re so cheap, they’re almost disposable) . However, it’s your cash and if you really want volume control, that’s your gig.
  
  Ok, now that you’ve got your mic, get back in your car and rush home! (Don’t want to miss any NS playtime ya know) <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> The first thing you’ll need to do is rip that bad boy out of the packaging and toss the instructions (you really shouldn’t need them). After that, turn your computer tower around and unplug the mini-jack for your speakers from the sound card. Now, if you look at the jacks on your headset (there had BETTER be two of them), one should be black and the other should be either green or pink. The black one goes into your “sound in” jack, i.e. the mic plug, and the colored one goes into your speaker plug.
  
  Hang on, we’re almost done!
  
  Now, fire up NS and get into the “Customize Controls” screen. If you scroll through this screen, you’ll come across an option called “Voice over LAN” or something like that (I’m at work right now, so I cant reference to the game itself and give you the exact title). You’ll need to select a key to use for activating your mic. I choose the “\” key because, well, I have that bound to one of the 5 buttons on my mouse, so it’s really easy for me to use (that’s another How-To lesson all together). Either way, select an activation key that’s easy for you to use without loosing too much functionality.
  
  That’s it! Put your headset on, jump into a server and press your voice comm key and ask for a mic check. Things should be working out good from there and you’ve got voice comm ability. Enjoy!
  
  P.S. Voice over LAN is a mighty powerful thing. Please don’t abuse this power.
  
  P.P.S. You can (usually) get the exact same headset with boom mic from Best Buy for a couple $$ more in case Wal-Mart doesn’t have them.

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• PJJ Join Date: 2002-11-21 Member: 9579Members

  November 2002

  I use a Labtec Axis 712 headset. Everyone says its the best mic they have heard in the game. It is USB, so its 100% digital. It actually acts as its own sound card. You plug it in, and it becomes your primary mic and sound device. You unplug it, and primary sound / recording reverts to your sound card. (While its plugged in you can switch manually, of course.) It doesn't come with any drivers, since everything you need is built into Windows. It is truely plug and play.
  
  CompUSA has it for $50. You can find it on buy.com for around $35.

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