Mic Monitoring Xbox: Everything You Need To Know

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Are you a gamer? Do you conduct business using a headset? Do you use voice chat on your PC, Mac, or console? Do you find it difficult to check the volume of the voice chat? Are conversations between loved ones too quiet or too loud?

In today’s virtual world, chatting on devices other than smartphones has become crucial to go through day-to-day activities. Do you find yourself too loud or too quiet in a voice chat? Mic Monitoring may help.

This article explains what is Mic Monitoring and its benefits. After reading this article, you should be able to improve your chatting experience with Mic Monitoring. No need to be an audio engineer with these simple steps to mic monitoring.


What is Mic Monitoring?

Mic Monitoring, or microphone monitoring, is a tool that allows anyone to hear their voice via their headset when they speak onto the microphone. On PS4, Mic Monitoring is also known as sidetone. Think of mic monitoring as the opposite of muting your mic.

What is Mic Monitoring?
What is Mic Monitoring?

If you are using a headset make sure that your attempts at communicating are clear and avoid situations where your voice is too loud for everyone else when you’re gaming.

Also, make sure your voice is loud enough for people to hear you without needing to raise your voice. This is where microphone monitoring becomes important because it allows you to clearly hear what others hear from you.

Expert Tip: When you are able to hear your own voice through your headset, you can make any needed adjustments to your microphone’s volume.

If your voice is too loud, lower the volume, and if your voice is too quiet, you can increase the volume. Setting the volume at the optimal level will make everyone’s experience better.


How to Enable Mic Monitoring?

Gamers, the tech-savvy, and laypeople alike are often confused about how Mic Monitoring works since it’s not enabled by default on most platforms. Don’t worry, we’ll explain how Mic Monitoring works on each platform.


Mic Monitoring on PC

To turn on Mic Monitoring on PC, assuming you have Windows 10 please use the following steps:

  • Connect a microphone and a pair of headphones to the computer
  • Open the Control Panel. You can find it by typing “Control Panel” on the search bar.
  • Click on the sound icon
  • When a small window pops up, click “Recording” which is the second tab on the top.
  • Double-click the default microphone device.
  • When another window pops up, click on the tab that says “Listen.”
  • Click on the box that says, “Listen to this device.”
  • On the “Playback through this device” option choose the device on which you want to listen to your microphone’s output.
  • Click “OK.”


Mic Monitoring on PS4

Although Mic Monitoring on PS4 is enabled by default you can change the volume.
To turn on Mic Monitoring on PS4, please use the following steps:

• Go to settings, then select “Devices”
• Select Audio Devices. Then, you will see an option that says “sidetone volume”
• Turn the Volume up or down as needed.


Mic Monitoring on Xbox

Mic Monitoring on PS4
Mic Monitoring on PS4

Mic Monitoring on Xbox One is slightly different from PC because the Xbox One features a 3.5mm jack for an Xbox One headset for chatting. Before following these steps, make sure that your headset has a mic monitoring feature. Also, be aware that the settings vary among different brands of headsets.

To Turn on Mic Monitoring on Xbox:

  • On the Xbox One’s home screen press the Xbox button on your controller.
  • Go to the “system” tab (the gear icon on the far right), and select “Audio.”
  • Select the last slider, which is the mic monitoring one.
  • Adjust the slider as needed.

We haven’t forgotten about you Mac users. Mic Monitoring is very easy to enable on Mac computers. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise!


To Turn on Mic Monitoring on Mac:

  • On the QuickTime Player bar, click “File.”
  • Select “New Audio Recording”
  • Turn the volume all the way up.

Note: Recording your voice is not necessary to test mic monitoring.


How to Disable Mic Monitoring?

How to Disable Mic Monitoring?
How to Disable Mic Monitoring?

Disabling Mic Monitoring on all four devices is easy to get used to.

To turn off Mic Monitoring on PC:

  • Open Control Panel and click the Sound icon.
  • Once a small window pops up. select the tab that says “Recording.”
  • Double click the default microphone device
  • Another window will pop up. Click on the tab that says “Listen.”
  • Uncheck “Listen to this Device’ and then click “ok.”


To turn off Mic Monitoring on PS4/PS5:

  • Simply go to Settings, then devices.
  • Select Audio Devices, and you will see an option called “sidetone volume.”
  • Slide the sidetone volume all the way to the left.


To turn off Mic Monitoring on Xbox One of Xbox Series X|S:

  • Follow the steps to reach the mic monitoring section on the Xbox Menu.
  • Dial the volume to zero.


To Turn off Mic Monitoring on Mac:

  • Exit QuickTime Player, or slide down the volume.


Is Mic Monitoring Bad?

Not at all. Mic Monitoring is actually beneficial to your hearing, and it enhances your troubleshooting abilities. Two benefits of mic monitoring are voice modulation, which is being aware of your voice and adjusting your volume as needed, and troubleshooting issues, which is checking to see if your microphone or headset works.

Voice modulation is used in everyday conversations but can be difficult to control in a public speaking setting. There are resources online to help improve voice modulation.
Troubleshooting issues are a daily fact of life, and being able to troubleshoot your devices means less time with tech support and more time with your activities.

Is Mic Monitoring Bad?
Is Mic Monitoring Bad?

Troubleshooting is a process of identifying what’s wrong with the faulty device and using the process of elimination to fix it. With any feature, there are its drawbacks. Thankfully, they are not severe enough to deter you from trying out mic monitoring.

Expert Tip: A drawback to mic monitoring is that most headphone manufacturers do not list it as a feature with their product, so customers are unsure whether their headset has mic monitoring capabilities.

Another drawback to mic monitoring is that it can cause echoing while you’re recording. Lowering the volume a little should fix the echo. Also, another drawback to mic monitoring is that it takes getting used to, especially if you use multiple platforms for gaming, conference calls, and real-time calls.

Finally, if you speak too closely or too loudly to the microphone, it can cause it to digitally overload, distort, and clip the sound. A few headsets that do have mic monitoring include:

  • ASTRO Gaming A50 Wireless Headset + Base Station Gen 4
  • Corsair Virtuoso RBG Wireless SE Gaming Headset
  • Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset
  • Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 + SuperAmp
  • JBL Quantum 400
  • Xbox Wireless Headset

Each headset listed should be compatible with most platforms. There are countless headsets to choose from that have mic monitoring.

With Mic Monitoring, you’re able to keep your headphones on and hear what’s going on in the game while speaking. This decreases distractions and increases focus on the game. It’s especially useful if you’re playing games that rely on communication.

In gaming, Mic Monitoring can be used in any game mode, be it casual or competitive. However, it’s most useful when you’re playing in Team Deathmatch. With all of the action going on and keeping track of your surroundings, it can be easy to forget to call out something.

Mic Monitoring is helpful when you are in a business setting. Whether you’re calling a client, or in a meeting with colleagues, you must always be able to hear yourself. This helps to ensure you’re speaking clearly and if your voice is at an appropriate volume. It’s also a good way to catch mistakes when speaking.

For example, if you accidentally call a client by their first name rather than their last name, you can correct yourself as you hear the name in your headphones.

Microphone monitoring, mic monitoring for short, is a feature that allows anyone to hear themselves through their headset, as they speak through a microphone. It is the opposite of muting yourself in gameplay or a conversation.

Mic Monitoring can protect your hearing, as well as the hearing of others Mic Monitoring, can improve the quality of your voice, and it is available for most headsets for console and PC. Mic Monitoring may help people across platforms and programs such as Discord, Skype, Zoom, and Google Voice.

Don’t subject your chat members to bad audio. With their hands tied with gaming, they do not want to continuously adjust the volume as you speak.

This article explained what is mic monitoring and its benefits and drawbacks. This article also gave directions on how to enable and disable the feature. This article also gave examples of headsets that allow mic monitoring.

Mic Monitoring can detect problems in your headset, microphone, or headphones, and makes troubleshooting for sound very straightforward. By reading this article we hope you learned something new with your devices. Kiss communication problems goodbye with Mic Monitoring.

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About Jayden Buckley

Hi, my name is Jayden and I am author/editor for PlayTheTunes. I remember the first time I hopped on the drums, I was hooked. Music has played an enormous part of my life, and I'm honored I get to share my experiences with you!