USB mic

[Phil1960]

Hi, I am completely new to this site and not much clue about electronics in general (age thing). I am doing some online training with a colleague and using a USB mic between us so our pc microphones don't interfere and go all echoie. Today we had a near miss where one of us spoke before the mic was muted. My question is, is there such a thing as an "on air" light which signifies when the mic is live. I'm assuming it would sit between the mic and pc and we are using Zoom.
Thank you in advance

 

[rjenkinsgb]

There should be the option of some sort of mic indicator in Zoom itself, from what I can see?
(I don't use it myself).

You cannot do anything at the mic side; that is continuously being read by the PC audio system whether there is any audio or not.

 

[audioguru]

Your microphones go "all echoie" because they are missing an old automatic voice switching speakerphone circuit. It turns off your microphone when it detects a louder receiving signal than your microphone signal, and turns off your speaker when it detects that you are talking louder than the receiving signal.

Modern speakerphones use a digital echo canceller circuit allowing both ends to talk and listen at the same time without echoes or feedback.

On TV lately there are people talking from their home with the microphone hidden or so far away that it picks up room echoes. Maybe that is also your problem.

 

[Phil1960]

Thank you for the replies. I thought as much that I wouldn't be able to do it. I spent the afternoon Googling it before I joined the forum. Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

 

[dougy83]

You can get a USB headset with an inline control (volume +/-, mute, pick up/hang up) and an LED indicator (e.g. red for muted).

 

[Phil1960]

Thank you Dougy. Would that sit between the pc and the mic?

 

[dougy83]

It all comes as a single package. The headset has a USB cable that has an inline control on it... so technically, the control is between the PC and mic (but no BYO mic, as it's already got one).

e.g. https://content.webcollage.net/apps/cs/mini-site/bestbuy/module/logitechg/wcpc/1537298564148 -- I don't know if this model has LED indicators, however. Other models definitely do (I have a jabra headset with controls and lights).

 

[Phil1960]

Thank you very much. I'll investigate this further