Michael Rubin
775 posts
Jul 16, 2013
9:46 AM
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Often I have my skype students use band in a box to create a backup rhythm. Most of the time it works great. A student just got a new computer and when she plays, her band in the box sounds quiet to her thru her external speakers, but it is screaming loud to me on my end and I have trouble hearing her playing.
I have suggested she get a second computer for band in a box only, but of course money is money. Someone suggested she wears headphones. That way I could hear her harp but not the rhythm which would be imprefect, but probably an improvement.
Ideas?
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nacoran
6934 posts
Jul 16, 2013
10:08 AM
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Tell her to crank her external speakers! I know that sounds like stating the obvious, but there are several volume settings on a computer, and they don't all play well with each other. I know, for instance, if I'm going to play a YouTube video that I have my computer's master volume, the YouTube volume and my speaker volume, and any one of them being off can screw things up. I don't know band in a box, but I know Audacity lets you set an individual volume for each track, as well as gain; on top of that, some of the volume controls have hot keys that are easy to accidentally hit, and my Yeti microphone has it's own gain (and volume for headphones, and in the past I've had headphones with their own volume!)
My guess would be that one link in the chain is broken and set to a weird setting.
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Nate
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Michael Rubin
776 posts
Jul 16, 2013
10:15 AM
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Nacoran, If she cranks her externals, won't it be crazy loud to both her and me? We want it the volume it currently is for her to be the volume for the both of us. Maybe I am missing what you are saying.
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Kingley
2903 posts
Jul 16, 2013
10:26 AM
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The problem is you're hearing the BT over the player because the computers internal mic is picking up the speakers before her playing. That's why it's so loud at your end. You could try getting her to use an external mic to talk and play through. Thus allowing you to hear the student more clearly over the BT. Of course she'd have to have the mic far enough away from the speakers and she'd have to be close enough to the mic for you to hear. A little bit of trial and error should solve it. I'd suggest you get her to try it and get her to record herself so she can get some idea of the balance levels required. Of course she'll have to disable the internal mic and enable the external one for it all to work correctly.
Last Edited by Kingley on Jul 16, 2013 10:31 AM
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Michael Rubin
777 posts
Jul 16, 2013
10:43 AM
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Thanks Kingley (and narcoran) I will pass it on. ANy other ideas?
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Pistolcat
436 posts
Jul 16, 2013
11:50 AM
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She probably has placed her webcam, with mic, in front and to close to her speakers. An external mic is good but it probably can be solved by repositioning her webcam.
I'm just assuming that it isn't an integrated webcam now....
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Kingley
2908 posts
Jul 16, 2013
12:07 PM
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Very strange. My last post which I posted twice has disappeared, but the thread says 8 comments (now 9 with this one). Weird!
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nacoran
6936 posts
Jul 16, 2013
12:13 PM
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Kingly, you got hit by the spam filter again! You need to stop being so concise. Longer posts seem to get picked up less often as spam.
So, for those of you counting, that's the 1 millionth post marked as spam incorrectly. It has, however, managed to pick up one real spam post, so it is working!
(If you see duplicate posts appear like Kingley's above posts, that's probably what happened. We can restore posts, but when we do, we are given the option of either deleting it as spam or restoring it. Supposedly, the spam filter 'learns' based on our decisions, so we restore them so it's less likely to mark you as spam in the future.
Or so goes the theory.
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Nate
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Kingley
2909 posts
Jul 16, 2013
12:16 PM
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"So, for those of you counting, that's the 1 millionth post marked as spam incorrectly. It has, however, managed to pick up one real spam post, so it is working!"
hahahaha! Thanks Nate. I'll try and waffle on more from now on in my posts.
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nacoran
6937 posts
Jul 16, 2013
12:21 PM
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And, back to the main issue, yeah, I didn't even think about the external mic picking up the speakers. Headphones and or a directional mic might solve that issue. If it's possible, the first thing I'd do to troubleshoot is to turn off the mic completely and see if it's still too loud. That would mean it's happening inside the computer, not in the room. If it's still playing loudly, go through all the volume controls. If it's not playing loudly, turn the mic back on and play with speaker/mic placement.
Headphones or a directional mic should solve the problem (although a directional mic might not pick up enough of the band in a box. There is probably a way to run it internally though, although you might have to adjust it for latency. I know in Audacity you have to adjust the latency manually for when you are playing with the playback in your speakers.)
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Nate
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