Switching a toggle restarts the mic with the new setting. Stay quiet for a few seconds after each change to compare noise floors below.
| Setting (EC · NS · AGC) | Noise floor | Peak |
|---|
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Press Start, allow access, and talk at your normal distance. The bar should jump with every word. Ordinary speech peaks around −20 to −6 dBFS. If CLIP lights up, the signal is hitting full scale and will sound distorted, so turn the input volume down. Then use Record 5 s and play back to hear what other people hear.
Usually the system input volume is low, the wrong input is selected (a webcam or headset mic instead of the one in front of you), you're too far away, or a mute switch is on. A noise floor above about −50 dBFS means a noisy room or a lot of gain. If the meter shows no movement at all, the sound is being muted before it reaches the browser: check the mute key, the headset's mute switch, and the input chosen in your system sound settings.
Echo cancellation removes sound from your own speakers, noise suppression filters steady background noise, and auto gain evens out your level. Calls use all three. Turn them off for music or to hear what the mic really picks up. Next to each toggle is what the browser says it actually applied.
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