Bug Report Background noise on Plantronics 780 USB Headset

[MikeZykes]

Hi All,

I've got Plantronics GC 780 USB Headset. It's perfect in all terms, clean sound and mic is working excellent in Skype, RaidCall etc. But when i start streaming strange background noise appears from mic. I called Plantronics support they told to install fresh drivers. I did it but nothing changed. That noise still appears only during streaming sessions.

Please advice what can be the problem.

 

[trexid]

Is it like a white noise type of sound? I have something similar going on and I'm currently trying to troubleshoot it. Really annoying.

 

[MikeZykes]

Yep its exactly kind of a white noise.

 

[trexid]

Yep its exactly kind of a white noise.

Have you tried messing with these options in version: v0.541b ? (microphone noise gate)

I'm at work right now so I can't play with anything until I get home later but I believe this is a fairly new feature. I'll be tweaking these settings when I get home tonight. However this might not make any difference considering the mic level is at 20% from the white noise / static even when the mic is in the MUTE position.

 

[MikeZykes]

Yep its exactly kind of a white noise.

Have you tried messing with these options in version: v0.541b ? (microphone noise gate)

I'm at work right now so I can't play with anything until I get home later but I believe this is a fairly new feature. I'll be tweaking these settings when I get home tonight. However this might not make any difference considering the mic level is at 20% from the white noise / static even when the mic is in the MUTE position.

I've tried this several times. When i speak nothing there is no static ofc but when i start speaking static appears. I've found that it's the headset problem. But nevetheless somehow there is no static during skype talk.

 

[Gol D. Ace]

But nevetheless somehow there is no static during skype talk.

Skype is filtering the voice signal.

 

[Lain]

Do you have a webcam by any chance, and if so is it on when you're streaming? If so, could you try deleting the webcam source and seeing if it still occurs>

If not to any of the above then not entirely sure (yet). Weird noise on headsets is something that does seem to happen, though only on some of those headsets, and only on certain systems for some reason. Most work fine, yet for some reason a few people get this issue from time to time with certain systems and with certain motherboards.

One thing just to try might be plugging it into a different port if it's USB, or trying a USB 3.0 port if it's in a 2.0 port or vise versa as well, it's sort of a shot in the dark but it has been known to help others in the past with other weird USB device issues

 

[trexid]

Do you have a webcam by any chance, and if so is it on when you're streaming? If so, could you try deleting the webcam source and seeing if it still occurs>

If not to any of the above then not entirely sure (yet). Weird noise on headsets is something that does seem to happen, though only on some of those headsets, and only on certain systems for some reason. Most work fine, yet for some reason a few people get this issue from time to time with certain systems and with certain motherboards.

One thing just to try might be plugging it into a different port if it's USB, or trying a USB 3.0 port if it's in a 2.0 port or vise versa as well, it's sort of a shot in the dark but it has been known to help others in the past with other weird USB device issues

Hi Jim, thanks for the reply. I put together a quick 3 minute video with a little bit of troubleshooting on my system. If you have a few minutes take a look at it and let me know if you want me to test anything else or perhaps send in a log.

The only detail I forgot to add in the video is that when I adjust the mic boost setting in my recording options of windows it increase and decreases that white nose level.

Mic boost was at +10 during my test, you can faintly hear a little bit of the white nose being picked up by camtasia but not as much as OBS and on the live stream example.

Video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lksvid2DjOw

Again here is an example of the issue on a live stream here: http://www.twitch.tv/trexid/b/428369943

Let me know what you think. If it makes any diffe rence I don't have this issue in Xsplit, I know that doesn't say a whole lot though and I mean no disrespect with that bit of info.

Thanks!

Update: Going to try this guys method later tonight. http://youtu.be/7tam-Zh5kMs

 

[Kharay]

All I can add really is that Noise Gate might indeed be able to resolve this. Skype has such functionality built in which is what was referred to. It filters the mic input to flush out background noise and what not. Which is why you're not hearing it on Skype. I'd reduce the Microphone Boost in your audio settings as much as possible and then simply tweak the Noise Gate in OBS to the point where it only picks up on your voice.

If I had to guess, it is simply static from the PC that the mic is picking up on.

 

[trexid]

All I can add really is that Noise Gate might indeed be able to resolve this. Skype has such functionality built in which is what was referred to. It filters the mic input to flush out background noise and what not. Which is why you're not hearing it on Skype. I'd reduce the Microphone Boost in your audio settings as much as possible and then simply tweak the Noise Gate in OBS to the point where it only picks up on your voice.

If I had to guess, it is simply static from the PC that the mic is picking up on.

Okay I'll give those things a try and mess with the noise gate and also play with mic level / boost settings.

The mic would still pick up that static even muted?

Thanks Kharay

 

[Kharay]

The mic would still pick up that static even muted?

Obviously such noise is not picked up by the microphone end of your mic. Unless you're sitting right on top of your PC. Or rather, inside of it. :P Which I'm going to assume you aren't. ;)

Puns aside, some devices simply pick up on the ambient static inside of a PC more easily than others.

 

[FerretBomb]

A USB device isn't going to pick up on 'ambient static' unless the line quality is so incredibly bad that it even affects the power being put out by the PSU (which would have to be truly ridiculously bad), and the USB audio device isn't able to deal with dirty power on the 5V rail.

An earlier user noted that the mic noise gate was filtering the static when not speaking, so this is less likely the case of an internal on-board sound card picking up static (especially if OBS is set to record from the USB mic device specifically and not 'default').

If you record with Sound Recorder, does it still pick up the same static? That should capture raw audio, without Skype massaging it/applying any 'audio enhancements' (I'd also switch off any Windows 7 or 8 voip-enhancements as they likely are not being applied to OBS recordings). I'd also recommend checking to make sure that your webcam audio is switched off as well (as most of them include a mic nowadays) in the OBS capture settings.

 

[Kharay]

Watch his Youtube video, he clearly states it is not a USB device. Not sure why the title states he does however.

 

[trexid]

Watch his Youtube video, he clearly states it is not a USB device. Not sure why the title states he does however.

I kind of hi-jacked this thread since it seems like the same issue, I didn't want to start a whole new one since it might be easier to combine our troubleshooting.

I'm not the OP - Just another OBS user troubleshooting the Mic static. Apologies for any confusion, I think Ferret was replying to the OP. You're correct I'm not using a USB mic in my setup.