So here's the slim and skinny of what I hope to do here and why. People always seem to have problems hearing other people
in Ventrilo. It sucks. Jimbob is too loud. Gus is too quiet. We've all been through it before. People are far too hasty
to say, "Turn your damn mic up!" But is there something you can do to tame their volume level and keep it under
control? Why yes, yes there is.
That answer is not "go turn up their volume under special effects." While this CAN solve your dilemma temporarily,
what happens if you turn someone up who's normally quiet and then they decide to get closer to their microphone and blow your
eardrums out? Or what if you turn someone down who normally is really loud and then they get all quiet? It sucks to have
to go back through and turn them back up again. I'll be the first to say what I'm about to step you through is by no means
a set-it-and-forget-it solution. But it can be pretty damn close.
What we're going to do is install a compressor on their audio signal chain. I could go through a bunch of theory on what a
compressor does and why this is an awesome idea, I'll try to keep it simple. Basically, it takes the LOUD sudden BURSTS of
noise in a song/speech and turns them down. How much it turns them down depends on the ratio. The point at which it begins
to compress is the threshold, but that's getting a bit too in-depth for what you need this to do.
Step 1: Right Click on the person's name and go down to "Miscellaneous." Click and go down to "Special Effects"
Step 2: Totally ignore your instinct to reach for the one labeled "Volume" and instead, click on "Compressor."
Step 3: Click on the "<- Add" button and it should pop up the controls for the compressor.
Step 4: Now at first glance there's a lot of controls here, most of which don't make all that much sense when
you just read their names and look at the numbers and slider. THANKFULLY we really only need to worry about two of them.
We're going to set this compressor up to function as a limiter. Essentially what that does is it takes any part of the signal
that crosses over the threshold and goes "Bitch, no you don't," pimpslaps it in the face and forces it back down to the threshold.
So in theory, the sound will NEVER get louder than whatever the threshold is set at (which in this case is -20 dB, but you
don't have to worry about that). So, what we're going to do is take the "Ratio" and crank that bitch up to 11... or in this
case 100. Don't be afraid, just throw it all the way over to the right. There you go, feels better, doesn't it?
Step 5: Now that we've got that taken care of, we really only have one other setting we care about. "Gain."
Pretend this now says "Volume," because it is your new volume knob. Turn up the gain to taste. What this is going to do
now is make EVERYTHING THEY SAY LOUDER. Also, if the person is way too loud all the time, you can use it to turn them down.
If someone is too quiet (as is the case with poor Shad here) I normally recommend starting with the gain somewhere between
+5 and +20 (if they're REALLY) quiet.
Step 6: Press "OK" and it should drop you back to the Special Effects page. This time you should see "Compressor"
over on the left-hand side.
Step 7: Click "OK" again and it should drop you back to the main Ventrilo screen. You should notice a "S" next
to the person's name now, denoting that they have a special effect running on them. You should also notice a pretty significant
difference when they talk. Now you will probably have to spend a couple minutes jumping back and forth to the compressor's
settings and adjusting the gain setting until you're happy with it.
Note: Here's the unfortunate downside to this... it's making EVERYTHING that goes into their microphone louder...
which includes babies crying in the background, dogs barking, fans, air conditioning, car horns, everything. It'll make all
the shitty grainy noise of their microphone come through all the clearer, so it's a mixed blessing. If only they made soundcards
and CPUs good enough to denoise everyone as well.
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