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Sixwheels View Drop Down
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    Posted: 29/Mar/2011 at 12:13pm
Originally posted by mmarkoe_admin mmarkoe_admin wrote:

The Tune Microphone feature is wonderful. However, your attempt to tweak to perfection is an act of futility. One's voice changes over the course of the day and background noise levels change over the course of a day. The microphone tuning will work well within a given range. Find a sweet spot and do not change it. The most important thing you can do at any time to improve accuracy is to remember to enunciate each word as you dictate. I find when I can feel my mouth forming words, accuracy is best.

Marty
 
The problem is I haven't found my sweet spot yet. Wink  I have switched back to my Acoustic Magic array microphone, and with some of the new adjustments found in the toolkit, I have been able to boost its accuracy quite high, but I'd like to have it perfect before I quit messing around with it. Do you have any suggestions from other users of the Acoustic Magic microphone what input level and SNR work best? Smile
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Points: 331 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mmarkoe_admin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29/Mar/2011 at 8:00pm
Originally posted by Sixwheels Sixwheels wrote:

The problem is I haven't found my sweet spot yet. Wink  I have switched back to my Acoustic Magic array microphone, and with some of the new adjustments found in the toolkit, I have been able to boost its accuracy quite high, but I'd like to have it perfect before I quit messing around with it. Do you have any suggestions from other users of the Acoustic Magic microphone what input level and SNR work best? Smile
If you want perfect you will need to go to the Garden of Eden. Smile
 
The Voice Tracker Acoustic Array Microphone was designed for audio and video conferencing. We only recommend it for WSR use in very quiet environments because it has such a strong pick up signal. I would try starting with an Input Volume of 15 and SNR of 10.
 
What I do to check microphone output is:
1. Right click the speaker icon in lower right taskbar.
2. Choose Recording Devices
3. Talk into the microphone while watching the vertical volume meter
 
I want to see 1 -2 bars as I talk. If not, start by adjusting the Volume level in properties to 50. Then try setting the Tune Microphone values. When you set the Tune Microphone values, you must exit WSR and restart. When ever you change volume in the Properties or Setup microphone, it defeats Tune Microphone settings.

Marty
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Points: 88 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sixwheels Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30/Mar/2011 at 9:45am
Thanks a lot, Marty. I will try out your recommended settings for the Acoustic Magic microphone. With this microphone, should the signal to noise ratio always be lower than input volume?
Something that has always puzzled me about this particular microphone is that when I use it to record sound, there is absolutely no noise in the background at all. It's as clear as a bell, not even a fragment of hiss, so why is it that it's not all that great for speech recognition? In a quiet environment, it is actually pretty good, but I would expect it to be great in every environment.
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Originally posted by Sixwheels Sixwheels wrote:

Thanks a lot, Marty. I will try out your recommended settings for the Acoustic Magic microphone. With this microphone, should the signal to noise ratio always be lower than input volume?
I would not obsess about this. Just use what I said as the guideline. If the volume meter in recording devices shows 1-2 bars you should be just fine.
 
Quote Something that has always puzzled me about this particular microphone is that when I use it to record sound, there is absolutely no noise in the background at all. It's as clear as a bell, not even a fragment of hiss, so why is it that it's not all that great for speech recognition? In a quiet environment, it is actually pretty good, but I would expect it to be great in every environment.
What you may not hear as noise, speech recognition software (WSR or Dragon) will.
 
Why in the world would you expect an array microphone to be good in every environment? Let's look at the laws of physics in simple laymen terms. For microphone to pick up your voice and the greater distance, it must have a stronger pickup signal. This stronger pickup signal will also pick up more extraneous noise. In addition, an array microphone is not only sampling directly at your mouth, it is sampling sound coming from up to 180°.
 
I highly recommend you adjust the microphone level so you see the 1-2 bars in the recording devices and then just get back to doing whatever it is you need to do on the computer with speech recognition.
 
Marty Markoe, eMicrophones, Inc.
Microsoft MVP
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Points: 88 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sixwheels Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30/Mar/2011 at 4:23pm
Okay, thanks for your input Marty. I will stop messing with it and see what happens. Smile
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