So after about an hour and a half of searching XDA and Google I have yet to find a resolution that doesn't involve me opening up my phone and cutting the rubber around my microphone. Allow me to explain.
Since I can remember - I got my S4 in December of last year - I've had problems with people hearing me, low record volumes and so on. I rooted and modded my phone almost immediately after receiving it and never really had the chance to test on stock TW, but this problem has persisted at *least* since I switched to KitKat about 2 months before it was pushed OTA via Carbon, Pac ROM, and Vanir. I have made it a regular habit of removing any DSP/preinstalled audio software and using Viper4A, but I was hoping to get some sort of lead before I flashed again, revert to stock TW, or took apart my phone. EDIT: I still have the exact same issue without V4A installed and using stock DSP/settings.
This problem was reported fairly commonly with the SII and the Nexus 4, but the methods I have tried to solve the situation (*#*#197328640#*#*; Trickster Mod, no physical blockage, mixer_paths.xml does not exist...) have yielded no results. I tested with TeamSpeak and Zello's outbound transmit volume and there's a dramatic difference, but how to adjust this on a system-wide level still eludes me. Google Now, Sound Recorder, SoundHound and other apps have difficulty with any sort of recognition even in ideal settings (eg. quiet environments). I had to virtually yell to set up Google Now's "Ok, Google" system-wide feature requiring me to hold the device at arm's length.
I'm posting because I haven't seen any issues of this nature reported for the S4. Could anyone point me in the right direction? Kernel tweaks? File modification I'm missing? Anything?
Bump. I still have not been able to find a resolution to this issue.
Related
Although this is my first post/contribution to the forums, I've been a long time visitor and absolutely love this community, especially the effort that goes into not only providing exceptional ROMs, but the support thereafter. In short, this community, without the slightest exaggeration, is the reason I stepped into the Android world.
That said, I've frequently come across the issue/concern of low sound, be it via headset, in call, speaker, etc. I've tried everything suggested online particularly regarding the X10, to no avail. So to anyone still struggling with an issue with sound, try the following:
Enable the PowerAMP "tone" setting and adjust the preamp to max. Leave the equalizer off as its unneeded. Then, using DSPManager (assuming you have flashed the zip file; search xda if you need it), adjust the EQ settings for whichever configuration you are after. With regards to the headphone configuration, the newly applied settings will now superimpose with the PowerAMP settings, and the end result is a significant sound improvement. For the other two configurations, tune the EQ to your liking and you should achieve a similar result.
Being that both PowerAMP and DSPManager can be installed on just about any ROM without issues, the above method should work for most, if not all custom ROMS's. Nonetheless, I'm currently running rendeiro's scamble, and after applying the above settings on my new Superlux closed cans, I kid you not, they really do sound studio quality! I hope this helps someone, as I wasn't able to come across a clear cut solution anywhere, and always ran into problems or no noticeable improvement with all other suggestions.
Would anyone happen to know what the latest version of DSPManager is that can be easily flashed via recovery on the X10? If a link to the relevant thread/file can be provided, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Awesome. I damaged my Atrix and I'm using an old Xperia X10 again so I'll give this a try and report back.
The primary reason why I left is because the damn speaker volume is too low and half a dozen exchanges later I had no luck. Just abandoned the phone. This would be awesome, especially considering now that we have custom ROMs. I'm blown away by some of the new ROMs. When I left, custom ROMs were just in their infancy. THIS is why I bought an Xperia X10. Just happened a year too late lol
Has anyone found a way (or an app) to increase the mic volume? When I am google video chat with someone they say they can hardly hear me.
Snap! I was just about to post the exact same question. I've hunted aroudn and found a fair few people asking the quetsion in various threads but can't seem to find an answer, I know it can be done as I've had it too loud on other phone and they've tweaked it and altered the volume so surely it's fairly easy tweak (if you know what to tweak) to do it the other way. Probably just altering a register somewhere.
We got my mother in law a transformer and she calls us on Google talk. She can't hear us very well and we can only just hear her too. I know the speakers are very quiet but Google talk is just silly, even at full volume it's still very quiet.
I would also be very interested in learning if there is a way to increase mic volume.
Thus far I'm not aware of a way, but I too have the same issue. Mic is ludicrously quiet, only picks me up reasonably well if I turn the tablet so the microphone points directly to me (and hence, I can't see the screen).
Short of Asus fixing it, or a third-party making a fix (which will likely need root access to apply), the only solution is to use an external microphone.
Similar experience with Gtalk.. however not much of a problem with Skype.. heard that the pinout is similar to iphone.. so any iphone compatible headset should do the trick.
when speaking to my mother in law my father in law iss often there as well so headset is not an option.
Yet another thing we need a fix for! This fix list is geting longer Poor sound at the best of time to having quiet poor sound makes it almost unuseable!
i have the same problem with Fring
lets hope one of the clever bods can fix it for us
I am rooted and this was one of the reasons I did it.
Rooting is very easy to do on here now with the pure root package and I can't really see any downside to it other than it doens't update OTA but thats hardly a killer.
The microphone is bad on the Acer A500 as well. Trying to use the google voice to text is rather frustrating because it affects the accuracy of the translation. I was hoping the asus would be better in this regard, but if it's not then there's no point in switching tabs. I guess I will just have to speak LOUDER!
Rob
nobody worked out a way of fiing bad mic volume then?
The sad thing about the mic's location on the TF is that it is facing the wrong direction to pick up any voice. I too, am having issues with the TF not picking up my voice very well. I was hoping that there is a fix by now, but guess not.
voodoo
For rooted users you can install the voodoo kernel which improves audio including micropone volumes. From what i read I am tempted to root my device just for this.
Search on the market for voodoo, (and then show me how you did it
iansykes said:
For rooted users you can install the voodoo kernel which improves audio including micropone volumes. From what i read I am tempted to root my device just for this.
Search on the market for voodoo, (and then show me how you did it
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Click to collapse
I wasn't aware voodoo had any effect on mic? Plus it has not effect on speaker volume, only volume / quality on headphone output (can connect external speakers to it via that) I may be wrong though. I already have voodoo but use volume+ to increase built in speaker volumes. Mic is still terribly quiet
Just came across a disturbing report in a very recent Droid Life review of the Note 3 (from a list of N3 reviews posted on this forum) concerning "Audio Jack Issues". Anybody who treasures their hearing and uses their phablet for audio material (including movies, music, audiobooks, etc), especially using earbuds or headphones, might want to "listen up." The following is an excerpt from the review:
"...When listening to music through the 3.5mm jack, you are sometimes met with a very weak sound. It’s as if the sound of the music isn’t “full” or quite loud enough. Then, after a few minutes without touching anything while at full volume, the volume just explodes and you are left deafened by the surprise volume attack. Some people are pointing towards low-impedance headphones being the issue, but I have had the problem on multiple pairs of headphones, in-ear buds, through car decks, and everything else. It’s a very frustrating and reoccurring issue that I wish Samsung would find a cure for. Until then, I fear listening to music out of this device because I don’t want to go deaf. It might sound crazy, but it’s a very real issue that I experienced over the course of time I had the device."
I've had 3 Samsungs: a flip-phone a few years ago, a Fascinate 2 years ago, and currently Galaxy S3, and just preordered a Note 3. Of the three previous phones, two had infrequent but definitely-occurring audio issues where the volume changed unexpectedly. The flip phone blew out my ears once, and swore after that would never buy another Sammy (what a kidding-myself that turned out to be). What's unnerving is this seems to have appeared intermittently in multiple samsung phone models (the article reports yet another audio jack issue in the S4).
Chatted online with a VZW customer service rep. about this, who was really no help (wasn't her fault, i guess). She just regurgitated the company standard lines--14 days to return, restocking fee, can get a replacement if the problem occurs, etc. But she pretty much stated if there turns out to be a Note 3-specific issue, the customer is stuck with that model of phone; don't expect help from the carrier other than replacing with an identical unit might likely have the same problem; if you enjoy any kind of audio produced by the phone's audio jack, use it at your own risk. (Even more dicey is that it's intermittent--no guarantee you'll be able to demonstrate it to the carrier's service rep.)
Furthermore, i was one of those who got a free continuation of unlimited plan (thanks to the VZW ordering "system glitch" last weekend), which has been reported in the last day that VZW is going to honor contracts which show unlimited data. This rep completely contradicted that and claimed my data will be capped at 2gb at activation time. So with this diametrically-opposed chatter from VZW, what is one supposed to believe? Really suggests getting a satisfactory resolution from any carrier on a brand-specific phone problem like this to be wishful thinking.
Any thoughts or has anybody experienced thru-the-audio-jack sound issues with sammy phone products? My take is i'm not going to be on the bleeding edge of this one, too much of a hearing risk, cancelling preorder and wait for more reports on the N3 as time goes by.
For sure something is wrong with mine. (tmobile N3) The output levels are maybe half or less what my N2 can put out. I have carefully setup audio systems in my house and car, and it is unusable. Its also not USB compatible with the new Kenwood KMM 100u deck that plays FLAC files. It must be a glitch they can fix, i hope! The jack SQ sucks right now.
I hope mine won't have this problem.
*wierd double post an hour later*
dareo said:
For sure something is wrong with mine. (tmobile N3) The output levels are maybe half or less what my N2 can put out. I have carefully setup audio systems in my house and car, and it is unusable. Its also not USB compatible with the new Kenwood KMM 100u deck that plays FLAC files. It must be a glitch they can fix, i hope! The jack SQ sucks right now.
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I got that the first time you said it.
im experiencing this too with an AU Telstra Note 3.
ive tested it a bit and it seems like its 2 separate things to me, but I could be wrong.
firstly it seems like all EQs either crash or just lose their settings at random moments. this can be things like between track changes or when the 3G signal drops out. if you go back into the EQ panel it will kick in again, almost like it was off and you've launched it again.. very annoying. ive verified this with both the stock EQ and noozxoide. the difference in volume is minimal though, its more quality / bass / whatever EQ you use.
the second part with the volume dropping out completely only happens to me between track changes. if i pause the music for a couple of seconds then play it again, it will play at normal volume. fast forwarding between tracks is the most obvious since every other track will be minimal volume, and the ones in-between normal volume.
ive only tested this with google music. although my phone isnt stock now, the same behaviour was there out of the box. using etymotic earbuds with reasonably high impedance but i doubt thats the issue since pause/replay fixes it.
Doesn't happen to me on N7player or PlayerPro. (nor on videos in Dice, MX or VLC.)
Try not using stock apps if you have the issue. Might just be a stock problem.
I can't test Google music, I disabled that. Stock player itself is too annoying for me to try.
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk
kanemari said:
im experiencing this too with an AU Telstra Note 3.
ive tested it a bit and it seems like its 2 separate things to me, but I could be wrong.
firstly it seems like all EQs either crash or just lose their settings at random moments. this can be things like between track changes or when the 3G signal drops out. if you go back into the EQ panel it will kick in again, almost like it was off and you've launched it again.. very annoying. ive verified this with both the stock EQ and noozxoide. the difference in volume is minimal though, its more quality / bass / whatever EQ you use.
the second part with the volume dropping out completely only happens to me between track changes. if i pause the music for a couple of seconds then play it again, it will play at normal volume. fast forwarding between tracks is the most obvious since every other track will be minimal volume, and the ones in-between normal volume.
ive only tested this with google music. although my phone isnt stock now, the same behaviour was there out of the box. using etymotic earbuds with reasonably high impedance but i doubt thats the issue since pause/replay fixes it.
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Click to collapse
Got the same here. N9005 with Google Play Music. Sometimes it's also (it seems) input-triggered. Sometimes when I push Menu or Back button, volume goes down and when I open Browser volume goes up. I know this sounds like voodoo and I'm completely crazy but I got this situation some times now.
With original sound files this problem came very often but after installing sound mod, it became seldom but not solved.
Annoying!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Silberpfeil3110 said:
Got the same here. N9005 with Google Play Music. Sometimes it's also (it seems) input-triggered. Sometimes when I push Menu or Back button, volume goes down and when I open Browser volume goes up. I know this sounds like voodoo and I'm completely crazy but I got this situation some times now.
With original sound files this problem came very often but after installing sound mod, it became seldom but not solved.
Annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually moved to the stock sammy app since it was irritating me so much. i have to say though, that if you can be bothered syncing a playlist to your phone that the sound is much better through that... hard to pick fault with.
i set up galaxy adaptive sound first, which is the one that plays high med low tones through left and right channels on your headphones independently and lets you tune it. found a much more balanced tone coming out after that, to which I then applied higher bass EQ settings from within the sammy music player and it sounds pretty good. some distortion on really heavy bass tracks at high volume, but very nice otherwise. MUCH BETTER than variable bass and audio volume on the google music player.
i think samsung neglected to test the standard music APIs and borked them, but their own proprietary ones work fine. the adaptive music filter doesnt work in any player apart from the sammy one I read.
since i cant cross-flash regional roms without voiding knox warranty i havent tried the updated EU roms, but maybe they fix it there?
Experiencing same problem on my AT&T note 3. Google Music tracks will randomly apply a shoddy EQ setting that is either too loud or too soft. Then the next track will be normal. It explodes my ear drums constantly. I have the EQ set off also, but that doesn't seem to matter. Also unplugging and re plugging the headphone jack "fixes" the issue as well. I'm pretty annoyed by this problem.
Hi,
I'm experiencing many sound problems on my U8800Pro. Almost every ROM has it's own specific sound problems, for example MIUIv5 or CM10 have a lot of junk noise (which I cant identify, it just plays horrible) when playing from the back speaker. Some ROM's (i think shendu) are playing only one channel (mono) from the back speaker (which, for example, makes "Riders on the storm" or some Beattles unlistenable) but the quality is very good.
The only ROM I've come across, which makes a really good sound is ICEdroidV1 (because it's a modified stock rom)(and Stock, of course).
Is there a way how to "backport" "drivers" or some libs in order to resolve these issues across every ROM?
Call Sound and Mic sound are another story. On some ROM's, people can hear me good but I hear them really poor (some CM10)(which makes the phone unusable for example in bar or on the bus), on the ICEdroidV1 I can hear beatifully but in order to be heard, I have to have the phone really tightly to my face (I think that the second microphone is not working, but not sure).
I know these are really ROM specific issues, but do we have some universal fix for these issues?
It's really one of those issues which makes me hate this phone. (And, of course, the stock roms are slow and buggy). It makes me even think about buying a different phone but also, as a longtime linux user, hurts my head, because the hardware of the phone is pretty good and it fits all my needs --- it's the software that's putting me off.
If needed (but I think everyone knows what I'm talking about) I can record the sound and upload it here.
Thanks
When I first got the V20, one of the things I was always impressed by was the speaker. It was loud, clear, and it seemed like LG had implemented some sort of volume compression/limiting to keep things clear without clipping or distortion. I rooted the phone about six months ago, finally, and have tried a few custom ROMs. Some amazing work done by the people here, but it seems that the speaker no longer sounds anywhere near as good, and it often crackles and distorts when playing anything just slightly above hearing level. I reflashed the h918 stock mod and all was taken care of, but I don't wanna be stuck with a stock ROM and lose the versatility being rooted brings. Another thing I noticed was that when I send audio messages on Facebook Messenger, they don't record nearly as loud and clear as they do with the stock ROM.
I'm currently using LOS16 with Gamma Kernel (SS).
I was wondering if anyone could maybe figure out what LG did with their speaker (and possibly mic) settings and find a way to implement them somehow with a mod? I'm not sure if this can be done via XML or anything like that. I just hate how all my custom ringtones sound now and having YouTube, my music player, and anything crackle has just taken my enjoyment of these ROMs a notch. Maybe even come up with some similar settings via Viper4Android using the compression tool?
Thanks a lot of any help! :laugh: