Fix Your Microphone

It’s likely that, at some point, you've had shitty audio during video meetings.

Why? Because you don’t get immediate feedback for audio issues. With video, you can instantly see if your image is out of focus or if you’re not in the frame. You can’t easily tell if your microphone is unplugged, you’ve set the wrong inputs, or it’s too loud in the coffee shop - there’s no direct feedback mechanism.

Unfortunately, in remote meetings, audio is far more important than video. If my video is wonky (or disabled), the meeting can continue just fine. But if no one can understand what I’m saying, we’re all having a bad time.

Once you realize you have an audio problem, you can work to fix it. The problem, so often, is that realization never happens in the first place.

My advice?

Give feedback. The only one who won’t know their audio is bad is the person talking, so speak up!

Test your setup. Record yourself for a few seconds then play it back! And don’t just test in ideal conditions (in your home office with a deluxe camera & microphone). Does your audio still work on the back porch with the laptop? Or at the busy office with your headphones? Oftentimes, switching from one location to another is what triggers bad audio - the inputs are set incorrectly, your rarely-used headset is broken, etc.

Each person should have their own microphone. That means avoiding the dreaded “laptop in a conference room full of people” situation. Unless the room has a good omnidirectional microphone, it’s gonna have bad audio. Instead, each person should call in from their own computer, since it’s generally easier to get a decent audio setup individually.

Get a decent microphone (if you can afford it). Your laptop/webcam microphone is not as good as you think it is. At the very least, don't suffer a headset that is regularly failing you.