HP Touchpad Microphone + Skype

[billionaiire]

Hi,

I was told by the person on the other side of the skype phone call (on wifi) that my sound is extremely loud, and sometimes crackling and quite disturbing through the micrphone. I plugged in an earphone with a mic attached and the sound quality transmitted was said to have improved with the occasional crackle and loudness.

Anyone with similar experiences? If no, do you think my microphone is faulty or some patch is causing trouble? I am on 3.0.5. And I do not have increasevolume patch installed.

[addiarmadar]

No but the peeps I skype will turn down the volume on their end for those cases. The crackles are prolly dropped packets. Sometimes there could be a variance on volumes for calls, voip or not. You can isntall a voice memo app onto your device to do some recording samples if you like to confirm.

[Mutoidi]

I was told on a TP Skype call recently that my audio had a continuous buzzing in it.. I plugged in the USB wall charger and the buzzing was cut back to almost nothing.

Earth Leakage/Wifi shielding problems?

Hhmmm..

You might also want to access your Skype account through a PC/Mac.. and turn the volume down from there?



EDIT: Yay! Sorted by the command line gain level changes below!

(still reckon I had an Earth-leakage 'buzz' though!)

[billionaiire]

Originally Posted by Mutoidi

Hhmmm..

You might also want to access your Skype account through a PC/Mac.. and turn the volume down from there?

How do you do this?

[BoRn]

Originally Posted by Mutoidi

I was told on a TP Skype call recently that my audio had a continuous buzzing in it.. I plugged in the USB wall charger and the buzzing was cut back to almost nothing.

Earth Leakege/Wifi shielding problems?

Hhmmm..

You might also want to access your Skype account through a PC/Mac.. and turn the volume down from there?

hmm idea. I might check it.
have 2 TP and 2 different skype accounts. One is acting up and has all that buzzing and loud sound on the other end reported and the other is doing just fine.
I thought that the magic fix was the original folio case (very small mic hole) and the clean TPU poetic case that has very big hole for the mic....
Hmm will have to try and log on from PC.

[mapenn]

This is a problem for me also. My familyh has 3 TPs and they all have the same issue. It is not a skype issue. I get the same "scratchy" sound quality when using the voice recorder app. The only resolution is to speak extremely quietly.

A normal speaking voice will causing the scratchy sound -- as if it is spiking the audio input. It almost seems as if there is an audio compressor or limiter missing.

[bi0tech]

If anyone wants to try adjusting the input gain on the mic from the commandline:

amixer cset numid=36 <value> [where value is 0-31, default being 27 on the touchpad at least]

[billionaiire]

Originally Posted by bi0tech

If anyone wants to try adjusting the input gain on the mic from the commandline:

amixer cset numid=36 <value> [where value is 0-31, default being 27 on the touchpad at least]

A newbie here - but this sounds something that can help. Can you please tell us how to do this step by step? Can this be done using xecutah?

[bi0tech]

Originally Posted by billionaiire

A newbie here - but this sounds something that can help. Can you please tell us how to do this step by step? Can this be done using xecutah?

Any terminal interface really, ssh/WOSQI/Xecutah/Wterm as long as you get a command line. Just type the command exactly as shown above and replace <value> with 0-31 or 0-100%.

[oneeyedhawk]

I tried typing the command and I get no identifier' numid'

Is that correct
Hank

[billionaiire]

Originally Posted by bi0tech

Any terminal interface really, ssh/WOSQI/Xecutah/Wterm as long as you get a command line. Just type the command exactly as shown above and replace <value> with 0-31 or 0-100%.

I start wterm but it says file not found. Do I need to do this differently?
EDIT never mind, a little google helped me understand how to get into the root mode in wterm. Once done, I entered the above command and ran a voice recorder in parallel to test the results and I was pleasantly surprised. The gain indeed reduced as I tried 17, 15, 12. I recommend that 12 to 14 is a decent value for HP touchpad microphone input gain. 12 if you naturally speak sort of loudly and 14 is more than enough if you are within one feet from the microphone.

excellent! I don't know where these genius people hail from :-) thank you for help.

[FesterTreo]

Is there a patch for setting this gain level?

[mapenn]

never mind, a little google helped me understand how to get into the root mode in wterm.

Can you please share the steps to get to the root mode? Thanks!

EDIT - Here's how to do it.

In wTerm,
1. Open Preferences --> Misc.
2. Change the value in "Default Exec Command" to this: login -f root

Close and restart the app and then it will be logged in as root. Learning new things everyday!

[bi0tech]

Also, if you are using a headset w/mic you may want to try:

amixer cset numid=42 <value>

[mapenn]

amixer cset numid=36 <value>

This solution worked! I actually changed the value down to 8, and the audio quality over skype was great.

This might be a good project for me to build my first app -- something that would allow user to control the mic "gain" value. Or has somebody already built this?

[FesterTreo]

mapenn.

I didnt see anything in preware for this but could probably just copy the volume adjuster patch structure as it makes a similar command line change.

[bi0tech]

Originally Posted by mapenn

This solution worked! I actually changed the value down to 8, and the audio quality over skype was great.

This might be a good project for me to build my first app -- something that would allow user to control the mic "gain" value. Or has somebody already built this?

I might add it into TouchVol if people have a use for it, but don't let me stop you if you have an interest to try it.

[BoRn]

Originally Posted by bi0tech

I might add it into TouchVol if people have a use for it, but don't let me stop you if you have an interest to try it.

Yes, please. Having it in one place will make more sense.

[billionaiire]

Originally Posted by bi0tech

i might add it into touchvol if people have a use for it, but don't let me stop you if you have an interest to try it.

please do!

[billionaiire]

Originally Posted by mapenn

This solution worked! I actually changed the value down to 8, and the audio quality over skype was great.

This might be a good project for me to build my first app -- something that would allow user to control the mic "gain" value. Or has somebody already built this?

8 was a little too low for me, but hey...