Gaming mic and headset words, explained

A box that connects XLR mics (and headphones) to a computer over USB. It powers and amplifies the mic and turns its signal into digital audio.

An XLR mic like the Shure MV7+ on XLR mode needs one before Discord can hear it.

Software that turns your mic up when you're quiet and down when you're loud.

Browser calls switch it on; between your words it also turns up your fan and keyboard.

A pickup pattern that hears the front and the back equally and rejects the sides.

Good for two people facing each other across one mic; for game chat it doubles the room noise.

How finely each sample's loudness is recorded: 16-bit or 24-bit for mics.

24-bit gives more room before clipping when recording; voice chat apps never send that much detail.

A sprung arm clamped to the desk that holds the mic near your mouth and swings away when you're done.

It lets a dynamic mic sit a hand's width from your mouth without a stand in front of your keyboard.

The heart-shaped pickup pattern: it hears what's in front, less from the sides and least from behind.

Point the back of a cardioid mic at your keyboard and the clicks drop.

When your voice is louder than the top of the digital scale and the tops of the waveform get cut off, which sounds harsh and crackly.

If the mic test's red 0 dB mark lights when you shout, turn the gain down a step.

A sensitive mic type that picks up detail and quiet sounds, including your room. Most USB mics are condensers.

Great for a quiet room; with a loud keyboard, keep it close and aimed at you.

Decibels below the top of the digital scale. 0 dBFS is the loudest a recording can go; everything else is negative.

The mic test's meter reads in dBFS: a normal voice landing well below 0 is healthy.

The small USB receiver a wireless headset talks to. Console headsets come in editions with different dongles.

A PlayStation-edition dongle won't carry Xbox party chat.

A less sensitive mic type that needs to be close to your mouth and picks up less of the room.

A favourite for loud mechanical keyboards, as long as it sits close.

Software that removes sound from your speakers that your mic picks up, so friends don't hear themselves.

Needed on speakers; with headphones it can clip the start of words, so some players turn it off.

A foam sleeve over the mic that softens breath and plosives.

Lighter and cheaper than a pop filter; a little less effective up close.

How much the mic's signal is amplified before it's recorded.

Set it so your normal chat voice sits well below the top of the meter; too much gain also lifts room noise.

A control that balances game sound against voice chat in your headset.

Turn it towards chat when your squad is hard to hear over gunfire. It changes what you hear, not how your mic sounds.

A button or touch pad on the mic or headset that silences it, usually with a light.

On a USB/XLR mic it may only mute the USB output.

The level your voice must reach before Discord opens your mic in Voice Activity mode.

Set it just above your keyboard and fan, so they stay silent between words.

The time sound takes to get through a device or a chain of devices, in milliseconds.

Hearing yourself through the computer adds latency; through a mic's headphone jack it adds none you'd notice.

The stronger signal that comes out of a mixer, phone or audio player, much louder than a mic's.

A mic plugged into a line input sounds faint; a line source plugged into a mic input distorts.

A feature that sends your computer's sound back into an input, so a stream or recording gets game audio and voice together.

Handy for streaming; in Discord it means your friends hear your game.

Hearing your own mic in your headphones while you talk.

A mic with a headphone jack does it with no delay; through the computer it comes back slightly late.

A filter that keeps the mic closed until sound goes over a set level.

Discord's input sensitivity is a gate; OBS has a Noise Gate filter.

Software that removes background noise from your voice before it's sent.

It removes fan hum well and keyboard clicks partly; strong settings make voices sound thin.

A pickup pattern that hears equally in every direction.

Useful for a room full of people around one mic; for game chat it picks up everything.

Power an interface sends up the XLR cable to run condenser mics.

XLR condensers need it; dynamic mics don't, and switching it on doesn't harm them in normal use.

The thump a P or B sound makes when its puff of air hits the mic.

Speak slightly across the mic instead of straight into it, or add a pop filter.

The directions a mic hears from: cardioid, omni, figure-8 or stereo.

For game chat, choose cardioid on a multi-pattern mic.

A mesh or fabric screen in front of the mic that catches puffs of air from P and B sounds.

Some mics ship with one; many have a foam cover that does part of the job.

The amplifier that lifts a mic's weak signal to a usable level. Interfaces and USB mics have one built in.

Quiet dynamic mics need a preamp with plenty of gain.

The extra bass a directional mic adds as you get very close.

Talk closer for a deeper, radio-style voice; back off a little if you sound boomy.

A setting where your mic only sends while you hold a key.

No background noise between sentences, at the cost of a key to remember.

How many times a second the sound is measured: 44.1 or 48 kHz for most mics.

48 kHz is plenty for voice; a mic advertising 192 kHz won't sound better in Discord.

An elastic cradle that holds the mic so desk bumps and keyboard thuds don't travel into it.

Add its weight to the mic's when you check an arm's limit.

A headset feature that plays your own voice in your ears so you don't shout.

Closed headsets block your ears; sidetone brings your voice back.

The audio hardware in a computer, usually built into the motherboard, with headphone and 3.5 mm mic jacks.

It can run a 3.5 mm headset mic, but not an XLR mic.

A 3.5 mm plug with four sections that carries headphones and a mic on one cable.

Controllers and laptops take it; desktop PCs with separate pink and green jacks need a splitter.

A mic with both a USB port and an XLR output, so you can start on USB and move to an interface later.

On many of them the mute button, headphone jack and app processing only work over USB.

The round three-pin connector professional mics use. It carries a mic-level signal and needs an interface or mixer to reach a computer.

An XLR mic plugged into nothing but a PC won't work: it needs the interface in between.