Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – CSGO Basic Microphone Improvement Guide

Introduction

This guide aims to tackle microphone stutter, obnoxious reverb and application conflicts. I know many people avoid using a mic in CSGO despite it working well in other applications. 
 
This guide assumes your hardware is correctly installed before using CSGO. If your microphone has issues outside of CSGO then this guide is not for you. In my experience, I’ve found most issues outside of CSGO arise from driver conflicts, and are usually best solved by grabbing the drivers from your provider, removing all traces of the device from WIndows, and reinstalling the providers software in an offline environment, with the device detached (Im looking at you Steel Series…). 
 
With that done, lets get into some tweaks. 
 
 
 

Windows Settings

Foreword

What follows is some tweaks for the Windows environment. The following can help if you experience audio inpuit issues like mic stutters (which are not network related) or issues when running input on multiple applications (CSGO, Discord.. etc) 
 

Un-used Sound Hardware

Although not required I recommend disabling any unused sound hardware. This includes motherboard audio and GPU audio ports if you use a digital USB headset. I do this to make navigating my sound devices easier, and reducing the chance of conflicts. 
 
This can be achieved through the Sound settings within Windows, easily accessed by right clicking the volume icon on the taskbar. 
 

Power-Saving

Windows has power-saving features applied to I/O ports. To remove power management as a factor in poor microphone pick up or stutter lets go ahead and disable that for the Microphone. This is best achieved by opening device manager, highlighting your microphone and then selecting the view tab within device manager. Choose Devices by connection 
Here you should see the USB hub your connected to or sound device. Right click the Root Hub and select the power management tab. Disable 'Allow the computer to turn of this device to save power' 
 
 
Do the same for the Host Controller. 
 

Exclusive Mode

This guide focuses on the input quality of your headset and not the output. So for this section head over to the recording tab. Right click the input device you intend to use for CSGO, ensure its the default device then right click and enter the properties. Head over to the advanced tab. 
 
 
 
Select the highest available quality to you, that is ‘named’. In the past, Ive seen corrupted options automatically selected here. Youll know when you see it. Ensure you select an option that is fully fleshed out, listing quality, channel and bitrate. 
 
Disable Allow Applications to take Exclusive control of this device This will now prevent applications from setting the microphone input level. CSGO can override the windows value with this setting checked, along with other applications like Discord. 
 
This isnt in itself an issue, however the conflicts that arise can be. 
 

Levels

Now that we can select a value on an individual app basis for mic input, lets set a conservative baseline of 50 here. This can be tweaked later to suit your needs. 
 
 
 

3rd Party Sound Settings

3rd Party Software

This guide was never written with the scope to include all third party software tweaks – however a general rule of thumb for optimisations is to set any microphone input level here to full and enable any noise/echo cancelling. 
 
This guide is mostly aimed at improving the experience of CSGOs input. Most users Ive encountered with problems, rarely see any issues outside of CSGO. 
 
 
 

CSGO & Steam Config

Foreword

The configuration options available to you in CSGO is fairly limited, but through the console we can tweak some stuff related to input. Some say CSGO used input settings set withing STEAM, so those are covered here to. 
 
Now that CSGO can operate outside of any imposed limits from other applications to the microphone, we can move forward without conflicts. Most users who faced mic stutter before this point should now find this problem rectified. 
 
Our next move is to improve the levels CSGO records at. This will involve some trail and error, so set aside 20 minutes. 
 

Autoexec.cfg

Please remove any commands that are listed in the following section before tweaking. These can be re added later with your tweaked values. It may be worth checking config.cfg for any left over sound commands. 
 

Steam Settings

Open your friends list, hit the settings cog and select the "Voice" tab. I havent extensively tested with this, but its said these settings can effect CSGO input. They did with CS:S Select your device from the drop downs, or if you set the defaults earlier, those will do. Set the gains and input levels to around 30%. If you use Steam Voice Chat and know better, ignore me. 
 
 
 

Voice Loopback

Perhaps the most important command for this brief guide. Enter voice_loopback 1 to hear your own voice in CSGO. Head into a locally hosted server. If your not used to hearing your self on a delay, speaking for long periods will become confusing. Use dull tone sounds to ascertain if your mic stutters or suffers fluctuation levels (we should of tackled these problems earlier). 
 
So test your microphone! How do you sound? 
 

Voice Mixer Commands

First disable voice mixer boost. This should be disabled automatically, but just in case; 
 
voice_mixer_boost 0 
Next lets adjust the voice input level, this default to the windows settings set before, here we can tweak it without it now effecting other applications. I run with 75% input, shown here as a fraction. This command is linked to the microphone input level within windows, If exclusive mode is enabled. 
 
voice_mixer_volume .75 
With 1 being the max, and zero being OFF find a level that suits your input needs, testing as you work your way up or down with the loopback command enabled. 
 
If you face variance in how loud your voice is, for example, transmitting at acceptable audio level only to get lower after a period of time, try disabling echo/noise cancellation in third party software suites. 
 

CSGO Tweaking Afterword

Further tweaking can be achieved with voice loopback and your 3rd party software. I recommend running CSGO windowed whilst tweaking sound options from a 3rd party suite. Please note, the changed made in your 3rd party software will affect applications system wide, so yoru Discord/TS or any other application may need its voice input levels tweaked. 
 
 
 

Final Observations

Final Thoughts

Some other bits of information I#ve picked up along the way. 
 

Interference

Port interference is real. I have faced the issue on a previous build with a trailing RGB pass-through and its proxmity to a USB hub. If your have a dedicated USB DAC port on-board your motherboard, use it. I recommend not plugging your USB receiver/headset into a populated hub or series of ports. Front I/O are notorious for being…busy. 
 
Some say using a 2.1 headset in 3.0/1 port can have issues. I havn’t experienced this myself, but switching out could solve some issues. Wireless devices may run a band already heavily utilised in your household. 2.4Ghz band has legacy Wifi, microwaves and cordless handsets all emit on the same band. 
 

Overclocks

Unstable overclocks can play havoc with audio. Those with Ryzen CPUS should be aware that pushing the infinity fabric to far has effected my audio in Source despite not having issues else where. Your results may vary. 
 

Hardware Failure

Never rule this out. Nothing lasts for ever and occasionally stuff just arrives DOA. If you can test hardware out elsewhere, do so. 
 

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