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[Q] Testing Microphone - Any Apps to Try

I am trying to test the microphone on the GTab. I sideloaded fring and tried to make a test call. The microphone was all crackly. Not useable. Is there another app to try to test the mic? What I want to know is if it is the device or fring. I tried to get Yahoo Messenger with the Video app but I haven't been able to find the apk anywhere that is the current version.

how about the sound recorder that's included in the GAPPs file?

3pod said:
how about the sound recorder that's included in the GAPPs file?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was also going to suggest as the quickest check... or Rehersal Assistant from the Market if you want to really test sound quality better saving a raw uncompressed audio file for playback on tab or elsewhere...

Microphone Sucks
I purchased this in part to perhaps do video conferencing. I tried the sound recorder with the unit at arms length distance and tried to record my voice. It was so faint through the speakers with my normal speaking voice I could hardly tell that I had recorded anything. This is not a good sign. Even talking way loud (shooting), it was barely audible through the speakers with the volume at 100 percent. Now that may not be how someone would perceive it in a video chat application but I don't have high hopes.
Anyone else record anything through the microphone? Is there any other approach that would work (Bluetooth Headset)?

i have Talking Tom open at my desk while im at work because it entertains me when i yell at my employees
i notice no issues with volume or quality

[Q] How to improve sound quality during video recording

Is there a way to improve the sound quality during video recording on the Sensation?
When recording loud music in a club or a consert, the quality is realy bad.
I guess the microphone input level is to high.
Is there a working solution for this?

NoModE said:
Is there a way to improve the sound quality during video recording on the Sensation?
When recording loud music in a club or a consert, the quality is realy bad.
I guess the microphone input level is to high.
Is there a working solution for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Goto HKCU/Software/Samsung/Camera
Find AudioNormalCodec
the options are:
0 - Default : GSM-AMR-NB 8000Hz 1ch (this is the default but has lots of high pitched noises in the background)
1 - MPEG4 AAC 16000Hz 1ch (this so far is the cleanest audio that I found you can get during video recording)
2 - Qualcomm QCELP 1000Hz 2ch (this is the MMS setting, not good at all for video recording)
I have found this solution, but i can't find "AudioNormalCodec" in my Omnia II...
if you can, pls let me know.

riddler88 said:
Goto HKCU/Software/Samsung/Camera
Find AudioNormalCodec
the options are:
0 - Default : GSM-AMR-NB 8000Hz 1ch (this is the default but has lots of high pitched noises in the background)
1 - MPEG4 AAC 16000Hz 1ch (this so far is the cleanest audio that I found you can get during video recording)
2 - Qualcomm QCELP 1000Hz 2ch (this is the MMS setting, not good at all for video recording)
I have found this solution, but i can't find "AudioNormalCodec" in my Omnia II...
if you can, pls let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know that you posted this in HTC Sensation forum? Can you tell me where can I find register on android device?

Hi.
Got the same problem, I tried to make a video during a gig and the sound was horrible, no way to fix that you think ?
Thx.

got the same problem sound qualityis okay but after playin in pc or phone i got some noises during playback zzz zzz sound

Just came back from a concert yesterday and am really dissapointed about the quality of the sound. picture is just amazing but my girlfriends Galaxy S had way better sound recording. anny progress in this?

I'd read in other thread that unchecking the stereo option in video camera settings the sound was better...

MasterKaiser said:
I'd read in other thread that unchecking the stereo option in video camera settings the sound was better...
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Click to collapse
Apparantely so, and also 3.5 ROM's fix the audio even with STereo

Hgaara said:
Apparantely so, and also 3.5 ROM's fix the audio even with STereo
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Click to collapse
not so sure about that to be honest, recorded at a gig last night with latest revolution hd 4.1.4 rom and the sound was horrible
really would appreciate it if someone knows or could find a way to take the recording volume down a notch or two

vegi71 said:
not so sure about that to be honest, recorded at a gig last night with latest revolution hd 4.1.4 rom and the sound was horrible
really would appreciate it if someone knows or could find a way to take the recording volume down a notch or two
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Surely there must be an app or developer out there who knows how to fix this mess. Again, another event recording ruined. The htc sensation is fine for unamplified natural voices, but even speech or music at LOW volume is pingy, distorted and generally sux.
The Chic Corea concert I recorded was a total disaster. unticking stereo still not effective. Why does iphone make great recordings, but htc can't get it together? or is this an android issue in general? Don't get me wrong... love android and open source, but really... someone needs to nail this one. Is there any point in complaining to htc? ♥
---------- Post added at 12:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 AM ----------
Natural voices are ok, but this makes two concert video recordings ruined using my htc sensation. the sound is distorted pingy and beyond painful to listen to. Can't some brilliant developer create an app or fix for this? Is there any point complaining to htc, or are they too busy getting out their latest phone?
Sux that iphone video recordings. Natural voice and music is ok, but anything amplified, even at a moderate level, is ping-distortion city. and turning off stereo setting doesn't help much either. Thanks for the whine, now the cheese.

done some digging and i think, from what i read, android wasn't given a facility to lower recording volume. so i guess that plus a highly sensitive mic equals crappy sound recording with no fix, for the time being hopefully

I don't think it has to do with Android. I remember at some point on my Vibrant I was able to change the setting and got much better sound after. It may have been a DSP manager app I did it through or it could have been a setting when I was using CM7. Either way, I'm almost positive there is a way to adjust it.

sound quality
I have found a big improvement in sound quality by UN checking stereo sound in the video recorder setting menu.

+1 on this, I'd love to figure this out

I agree. This is one of the weakest points of the sensation. We have great video capture - but the sound can totally ruin the experience. If a Dev could figure this out it would be golden!

I am not sure about this, just a quick thought. But MAYBE the noise comes from the mics on the back of the sensation? Maybe HTC didn't thought about turning off the those mic's while recording.
Just a thought...

I believe the stereo recording uses the 2nd mic above the camera, while mono just uses the standard mic, that we make calls with. I did some tests just by covering the mic holes while recording.
I just think it would be great if we could have a DEV take a look at how to lower the mic gain.
There is a thread over in the HD2 forums, that deals with edits to some lib files for mic gain, but I don't know if that would be something to take a look at. Here is the thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1162224

We need this fixed!

I think the problem is that there is no normal codec for audio coding. Oddly Andoid revolution HD writes with a frequency of 44,100 Hz, but the quality is very poor, although an order of magnitude better than in HyperSensation. Unfortunaly, developer chamber is at the bottom, and understandably so - because enough other bugs.

Just wanted to check in on this old thread and see if this is all still in issue with the Sensation and the latest ICS Roms? Wondering if HTC has fixed the high mic gain by now?
Thanks

[GUIDE] Fix for Thin-Sounding Rear Speakers

I couldn't find any threads about this so I'm not sure if anyone else has already found out about this, but I'll share my findings here.
For those of you who own a Pure XL or have watched/read a review about the phone, you may have came across a point regarding the phone's "thin-sounding" rear speakers.
I own a grey Pure XL and to me, it sounds like the phone is EQ'd to have high treble and low bass by default when outputting to the rear speakers, which makes it sound like it is lacking in substance, somewhat lifeless, and again, really thin-sounding.
There may be music that sound good with this EQ preset, but I haven't came across any (yet).
The common solution is to only listen with headphones, which sound slightly better (but will sound a lot better with the Hi-Fi/dts setting turned on, depending on your taste)
Thankfully, there is a solution to this that lies in the stock system Music/Video app, which is that dts setting.
All you need is any audio or video file with an extension that is supported by the phone.
In Music app:
Play your audio file
Tap the bottom section of the screen where it shows your track name and artist, along with a circular 'play' and 'next' button.
Tap the icon with three squares and a triangle at the bottom-right (beside the circular 'next' button)
Tap 'Equalizer'
Turn on dts
DONE!
In Video app:
Play your video file
Tap the oval dts option on the left side of the screen so that it turns red
DONE!
You can only change the dts sound settings if you have headphones plugged in, but it's way better than the lifeless sound that comes out the speakers without it.
This doesn't just apply to only those two apps though. I've tested this with the YouTube GApp that came factory loaded and it works with it. Will need others to confirm that it works with other multimedia apps (Spotify, SoundClound, etc...)
The result? Better-sounding rear speakers! The lows are now MUCH more apparent and the highs have been brought down to reasonable settings, resulting in a much more richer and balanced audio experience (but don't quote me on this, since I'm no audiophile).

Short Circuit said:
I couldn't find any threads about this so I'm not sure if anyone else has already found out about this, but I'll share my findings here.
For those of you who own a Pure XL or have watched/read a review about the phone, you may have came across a point regarding the phone's "thin-sounding" rear speakers.
I own a grey Pure XL and to me, it sounds like the phone is EQ'd to have high treble and low bass by default when outputting to the rear speakers, which makes it sound like it is lacking in substance, somewhat lifeless, and again, really thin-sounding.
There may be music that sound good with this EQ preset, but I haven't came across any (yet).
The common solution is to only listen with headphones, which sound slightly better (but will sound a lot better with the Hi-Fi/dts setting turned on, depending on your taste)
Thankfully, there is a solution to this that lies in the stock system Music/Video app, which is that dts setting.
All you need is any audio or video file with an extension that is supported by the phone.
In Music app:
Play your audio file
Tap the bottom section of the screen where it shows your track name and artist, along with a circular 'play' and 'next' button.
Tap the icon with three squares and a triangle at the bottom-right (beside the circular 'next' button)
Tap 'Equalizer'
Turn on dts
DONE!
In Video app:
Play your video file
Tap the oval dts option on the left side of the screen so that it turns red
DONE!
You can only change the dts sound settings if you have headphones plugged in, but it's way better than the lifeless sound that comes out the speakers without it.
This doesn't just apply to only those two apps though. I've tested this with the YouTube GApp that came factory loaded and it works with it. Will need others to confirm that it works with other multimedia apps (Spotify, SoundClound, etc...)
The result? Better-sounding rear speakers! The lows are now MUCH more apparent and the highs have been brought down to reasonable settings, resulting in a much more richer and balanced audio experience (but don't quote me on this, since I'm no audiophile).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it through the music app (didn't need music on the phone just click more -> equalizer). Had Spotify playing in the background and heard a major difference. So much better.
Thanks!

This is great. Thanks

Speaker phone volume

Does anyone have an idea if we can raise the speaker phone up louder then current max? For some reason the speaker phone seems to be a lot quieter then using the speaker for watching youtube for example.

Yes, there is a special trick. Use external amplifiers such as even a little cylinder bluetooth speaker!
Works like a charm! As for when the device has been rooted and modified in he future, there may be a kernel with access to "speaker level gain."
However. Playing large dynamic youtube and web video such as movies and TV.... These sources are not mastered or mixed like the ads or like music or like a voice call...
Therefore, modding the gain up is very easily going to damage the speaker when "standard loud audio" plays. Sure you can control it and lower the risk... But loud ads on youtube you can't control.
Audio that loud then gained digitally can easily exceed the design parameter of the amp and speaker.
Sent from my sailfish using XDA Labs

Microphone records only in mono?

Ok so I just got the Pixel 2 XL and realized that all audio recording on it is in mono. Even when I hooked up my blue yeti (set to stereo mode) the audio still got mixed down to mono. The reason why this is such a big deal to me is that recording just sounds awful compared to my Galaxy S5 that recorded in stereo.
Is this a hardware limitation on the Pixel 2 XLs side, or is it a software limitation? If it is software do I have hope that a custom rom in the future would be able to enable stereo recording?

There's one mic (unless you want different levels and quality on each channel) and one pin for mic input in the phone, so I'm guessing (it would be the way I'd have done it) they've only implemented one audio channel for the mic (hardware costs money). So even if you use a stereo mic, both channels are being fed to the same pin (or you're losing one channel, depending on the mic manufacturer and whether you have the mic set to stereo or mono), so the phone records in mono.
I haven't torn my phone apart - this is just a "how would I implement this if I were given the assignment" first approximation. (On second approximation, I'd probably split the mic input so a mono mic plug would hit both channels, but a stereo plug would maintain them separately, then run 2 channels in the phone, at least for video recording ... then present it to be shot down as being too expensive.) But I don't work for Google, so I have no idea what their design philosophy is.

There is definitely at least two mics, one bottom side that you speak into and one top side that is used for ambient noise reduction while you are on a call. This is the same setup that the original Pixel had except the ambient mic was on the rear, it too only recorded video with mono audio, but later on an audio system mod was made to enable stereo playback and capture; https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-xl/themes/mod-enabling-dual-speaker-audio-playback-t3492257 . Unfortunately an equivalent mod doesn't exist for our Pixel 2 yet, but hopefully someday it will.