Skype Audio Problem

[wazzupyall]

So this is what I want to do.

1: Hear my friends on skype.

2: Let my friends hear my computer and my mic on skype.

3: Make sure there is no echo received by my friends on skype.

I haven't been able to do that yet. I have VAC if that helps.

[Cornucopia]

For best quality sound possible on Skype:
1. Have BOTH parties use webcams that allow for microphones to be placed NEAR the people speaking (+ their mouths).
2. Have BOTH parties use "noise-cancelling" microphones and operate in quiet, sound-absorbing rooms.
3. Have at least one, but preferably BOTH parties use headphones to listen.
4. Have BOTH parties be capable of connecting at high bandwidth/speeds (=improved codec efficiency & quality).

What's VAC - Virtual Audio Cable?

Scott

[wazzupyall]

I'll put it in other words. My friends can hear my me via my mic but not the audio from my computer itself.
If my friends can hear both me and whatever is playing on my computer, they can hear themselves causing echo.
How can I have my friends hear me and my computer without it going into an loop causing echo.

VAC is virtual audio cable

[Cornucopia]

Echo/feedback is ALWAYS a problem in every communication technology, from telephones, to PAs & Mikes on stage, and onward. You WILL have a loop, unless you take physical steps to minimize the leakage. Since sound power is the square of the distance, moving the mike closer to your mouth (and then compensating by speaking more softly) and moving the speaker either closer to your ear, or further away from the mike (or both) and turning that volume down means the loop doesn't have enough energy to feed-back. This alone can make a H*U*G*E! difference.
You can only PARTIALLY rely on circuits/algorithms to remove output from the re-input, because when it goes out the distance/volume/eq balance of the signal gets changed unpredictably prior to going back in.
Mikes are NOT that descriminating - they don't know the difference between a signal coming from your mouth and a signal coming from the computer it's plugged into. The computer might know, and it might have some post-feedback "noise-cancelling" or "squelch" algorithms, but as I said: they are imperfect. Even if they do a decent job, they also will slighly adversely affect the intended signal.

You could incorporate something like VAC to include a "noise gate" function, which when the signal goes below a certain threshold, it will lower the volume. However, that is also not a panacea, especially if your speaker level is above that threshold volume (or your own speaking level is BELOW that threshold).
IOW, there is no "magic feeback suppression button" - you have to resort to plain sense (following the rules of audio physics).

What about what I said isn't doable for you?

Scott

[wazzupyall]

I was thinking of doing something like this.
Lets say I'm trying to play a game over skype.

Here's what normally happens.
I combine my mic input with my computer sounds. My computer sounds include both the game I'm playing and my friends. Since my friends are part of the computer audio I'm sending to them, they get an annoying echo.

What I'd like to do is separate my computer sounds.
Currently my game and skype are combined into my computer's audio. What I'd like to do is separate my game and skype so I can just combine my mic and the game. The combined mic and game audio will go through skype to my friends without their own voices looping back to them.

If I can separate the audio coming from the game with the audio coming from skype and then combine the mic and game, that would make what I'm trying to do work without echo.

[wazzupyall]

Bump. Because I don't want to create a new thread.

[rickydavao]

Just wear headphones while you're Skyping and playing your game. That way, your friends' voices will only be heard in the headphones, and not get picked up by the mic. You will eliminate game echo this way, too.

[TimA-C]

Why do you want your friends to hear the sound from your PC? Some soundcards #might# allow you to direct the Skype audio out to a headphone socket and leave the rest of the system sounds as they are. You #might# be able to achieve this by adding a second "soundcard" (probably a cheap external USB one) but it's more likely that the hassle and potential for screwing up your system just won't be worth it.

[wazzupyall]

Alright, to be specific I want to start to do a live video game commentary with other people.

What I would do is I would set bandicam to record both stereo mix and the mic.
Since stereo mix includes the audio of both my friends and the game it's good for recording.

The problem arises when use VAC to combine stereo mix and the mic into one cable.
Since all the audio is in one cable the sound of my friends talking goes right back to them.

Why can't I separate the game audio and Skype audio so that my friends don't receive their own voice again?

Edit:
I found that Google plus works better for me than Skype because of the free multiple person video streaming.


Edit Edit:
I usually just stream my mic audio only so my friends can hear me but not stereo mix.

This is only good for games like Ace Attorney where there's only music and text.

Here's an example of this. Jeremy and I had a YouTube video of the soundtrack on our ends while Tom was recording the actual game.

It worked okay for that but for other games like Portal it's not favorable.