There's no doubt about it: we are living in the era of video conferencing, from Zoom and webcams. We work, study, and socialize remotely. Many people feel comfortable with this change, and there are plenty who hate every second. Regardless of your situation, you need your basic tools to work as they should, and one of the main challenges is eliminating microphone noise on your PC, or at least reducing it to an acceptable level. Here are some tips to make your experience more pleasant.
Want to eliminate microphone noise on your PC? Start here
Optimize your environment
The easiest thing first: before blaming the microphone entirely, you need to manage (as much as possible) the noise sources around you. From your PC's fans to air conditioning units, not to mention pets, televisions, and why not other computers, the microphone doesn't discriminate and will pick up everything within reach. Do what you can to silence your surroundings.
Test, test, test
If microphone noise on your PC is the enemy, you must first get to know it... and the best way is to run multiple sound tests. Download a free audio editor or use the built-in recorder in Windows. Record your voice for 30 seconds a couple of times, and that will be more than enough to determine whether the noise is from the microphone or if there's something else causing it.
Update your sound drivers
In certain cases, the problem isn't strictly the microphone, but rather a bug or conflict in the audio driver. Your options are to check your system's audio chip and look for an updated driver version, or use something like Snappy Driver Installer Origin which automatically detects hardware and offers multiple versions.
Watch out for volume levels
"I can't hear you" is one of the most common complaints from the other side, and the logical response is to turn up the microphone volume, but if your setup has multiple volume and amplification levels (microphone + driver + Windows + program = ?!bzzzzzt!?), the cure can be worse than the disease. There's no problem with raising the volume, as long as it's a moderate increase.
Dedicated hardware... and wired
Sometimes, no software adjustment is enough, and the only option left is to spend some money. If your current sound system is particularly noisy, there are USB sound cards for about 10 euros. Even better is to get a dedicated microphone, and if possible, a wired one. I personally use Bluetooth headphones, but I opted for a Boya BY-M1 microphone, and the difference is abysmal.
RTX Voice
If your computer has a GeForce graphics card from the GTX 600 series or higher running Windows 10, remember that Nvidia offers RTX Voice, its noise cancellation technology. Originally, the software only worked with RTX cards, but today the support is much broader. Nvidia shared on its official page a complete guide with download links and its configuration in the most important programs.
