Mic Test for Singing and Music

Why music needs the filters off

The browser’s audio processing, like the filters in call apps, is built for voice calls. A noise filter’s job is to keep speech and drop everything else, and a held note, a guitar or a piano can end up in the everything else. Auto gain turns quiet passages up and loud ones down, flattening the dynamics you put into a song. Echo cancellation subtracts what your speakers play from the mic signal, so a backing track the browser or call app plays through your speakers gets partly removed along with the echo. That is why Zoom, Teams and Google Meet each have a setting for music, listed below.

That’s why this page starts with all three off: you hear what the microphone really captures. Tick the boxes afterwards to hear what a call app would do with the same performance.

How to check your setup

1. Put on headphones, sit or stand where you’ll perform, and click Start microphone test.
2. Sing or play the loudest part of your piece and watch the Peak meter and the Clipping counter. Aim for peaks around −12 dBFS, which is what Focusrite suggests when recording: there is room left for a louder note. If the counter goes up, turn the gain down on your interface or mic, not in software, because the distortion happens before any software sees it.
3. Stop and click Measure noise floor. Below −60 dBFS the background is quiet enough for most recordings; above −50 you’ll hear it in the quiet passages.
4. Click Record 30 s, play a verse, and listen back on headphones. Play it again with noise suppression and auto gain ticked to hear the difference the filters make.
5. To hear yourself while you play, set Hear myself to Live. The browser’s playback lags slightly behind you, enough to pull a singer off the beat, so when you record, monitor through your audio interface’s direct monitoring instead if it has one.

Music settings in call apps

• Zoom: choose Original sound for musicians in the Zoom app’s audio settings, on a computer or a phone. It keeps more of what your mic picks up, without Zoom’s echo cancellation and audio filters, and Zoom says all noise suppression is disabled once it’s on in a meeting.
• Microsoft Teams: in a meeting, open the arrow next to Mic › More audio settings › High fidelity music mode. Teams then sends up to 32 kHz audio at 128 kbps when the connection allows (down to 48 kbps on a weak one), and you can turn off noise suppression, echo cancellation and other effects. Microsoft doesn’t recommend Bluetooth devices for it, and it’s meant for music, not regular meetings.
• Google Meet: turn off Noise cancellation under Settings › Audio, before joining or during the call. Google’s help says to do this when you need other sounds, like music.
• Discord: switch Krisp off, either in the Voice & Video settings or with the noise suppression button while you’re in a voice channel.

In every app, turn echo cancellation off only when you’re on headphones; with speakers, the other side will hear an echo of themselves.

Before a lesson or a gig

Test with the same mic, cable, interface and room you’ll use, and at performance volume, not speaking volume: a mic that’s fine for talking can clip on a chorus. If your voice is only in one ear on a recording, the left and right channel test finds out why. Check the listening side with the speaker and headphone test, and tune up with the online tone generator.

How this page is set up

This is the same microphone test as the standard mic test, opened with different settings. You can change any of them once the test is running. Like the standard test, the page remembers only which microphone you picked.