TF2: Voice comms and audio slaying

[Fail Medic]

Welcome to yet another thread of Fail Cheese and W(h)ine.

I've heard other people say that this happens to them, so I know I'm not an isolated case. 

There are times when people use their mics it totally kills all sound.  Everything.  Ambience, gunfire, other voice traffic, everything.  It's not a on-off thing, either.  They'll start talking, and I can imagine a VU meter hitting the red zone, cresting, and then totally pegging out.  Their voice channel starts to drop out as it pegs, there's a loud rumbling as this happens, and during this cacaphony of audio barf, no other audio channels can get a word in edgewise.  "I CAN'T HEAR SHIT, CAPTAIN."  Understand this: I know the other party is NOT YELLING.  They're talking in a normal, civil voice.  Yet... bleh.

Sometimes, you may hear me go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!!"  This means either I stepped in a pile of sentry doo-doo, or someone's mic is pegging my audio.

I won't name names because it has to be something on the client (e.g. my) end.  Someone will be on mic, and it'll do the sound-squash-out thing, and yet I'll hear Caff or someone else respond to the question I could barely, if at all, hear.

It used to be one specific person.  I would wait and see if it would do it on them, but as soon as they'd hit voice, it'd happen... and I'd have to mute that player.  It's not something I can fault them for.  However, I don't know what else to do.  Once I mute them, my audio is blissfully back to normal.  This, of course, cuts off a communication link between me and him.  I also don't exactly say I do this because I don't want to be constantly whining on mic, "Uh, Person X, you're killing my sound so I'll have to mute you." 

I had to do this to two or three players tonight.  I fear that this problem is getting worse.

Would anyone else care to comment on this and suggest possible fixes here?

[copulatingduck]

Definitely not just you. Shitty mics would be my guess. Some people just seem like they need better mics, but then again, I know some people whose mics work great with Vent, but not with TF2 (does the same thing you're talking about nao). So honestly, I'm not really sure, and it's hard to get someone to sit down and try to work out the kinks with their system.

[CaffeinePowered]

Well its not just shitty mics, sometimes someone will talk and I will get no sound, nothing, until they stop talking.

For example, when Zoso talks, I get nothign out of his mic, not no sound at all but its all crackly garbage, but other people can hear him just fine.

If you really wanted to test the bad mic thing I would try to go on vent if its another person here and see if it works there, might help isolate the problem. I think its just shitty engine coding for mics.

[exanimo]

Remember: You can always mute individual players yourself without muting him to everyone else. It's different for everyone I think, because I hear ZoSo just fine.

[fyre]

Unrelated, but when I run HLDJ and get into TF2, the sound is poor quality.  And then if I change a sound setting, like change headphones to speakers, I can't hear anyone talk. Must be punishment for my spam. :'(

[KarthXLR]

Well its not just shitty mics, sometimes someone will talk and I will get no sound, nothing, until they stop talking.

For example, when Zoso talks, I get nothign out of his mic, not no sound at all but its all crackly garbage, but other people can hear him just fine.

If you really wanted to test the bad mic thing I would try to go on vent if its another person here and see if it works there, might help isolate the problem. I think its just shitty engine coding for mics.

I saw that happen on your recorded version of rps last friday.

[Geoff]

I'm positive the not hearing people thing has to do with NAT

[Fail Medic]

Remember: You can always mute individual players yourself without muting him to everyone else. It's different for everyone I think, because I hear ZoSo just fine.

Yeah, like I said, "It'll happen, but someone else will answer what they asked."  But then why on Earth is it like that?  Why is it so selective?  What's the criteria?  And I don't want to have to mute anyone in the first place unless they're mic spamming stupid shit.  That's why I whined for help.

Geoff:  NAT?  You mean router-type stuff?  'Sides, I hear them... I just hear, "Dude, hea- m--------------(all audio muted)-----------------------." (other audio returns as he lets go of mic key)

The next time I suffer from this, I will quietly test different slider settings both in game and on the sound card to see if it helps at all.  I won't do it if I'm Medicking, though  :-[ .  If I ask you to say something, you'll know why.  A likely candidate will indeed be ZoSo since I did have to mute him the other day for this reason.

[jorge]

I'm positive the not hearing people thing has to do with NAT

Interesting. This whole time, I've thought it was TF2 grafixx raping my dry old vagina of a comp, leaving no sloppy seconds for voice transmission.

[Eschatos]

Never happened to me, but I might have caused some of it with my shitty mic.