Home / Monitoring / Microphone Monitor
MonitoringMicrophone Monitor
Hear your own microphone in real time through your headphones, and catch problems before your audience does.
A microphone monitor routes your own voice back into your ears in real time. The Hear yourself panel above does this in the browser, with a volume slider so you can set a comfortable level.
Microphone Monitor: the full method
- Put headphones on first
This is not optional. On speakers, the microphone captures its own output and builds a feedback howl within a second.
- Start the microphone test
Monitoring routes the live input to your output, so the input has to be running first.
- Open the Hear yourself panel
Turn monitoring on and raise the volume slider slowly from zero until your voice sits at a comfortable level.
- Listen for the room
Monitoring reveals what you have stopped noticing: a fan, a fridge, traffic, a laptop under load. All of it goes out on your calls.
- Check your plosives
Say a sentence full of P and B sounds. If you hear thumps, move the microphone off to the side of your mouth.
- Set a level you can talk over
Monitoring that is too loud makes you speak too quietly. Aim for slightly below your natural speaking volume.
Monitoring problems
- A noticeable echo of your own voiceThat is latency. Check the Latency panel — anything above 40 ms becomes distracting, and Bluetooth headphones make it far worse.
- Monitoring sounds thinBrowser processing is shaping the signal. Turn off noise suppression and auto gain in the console for a truer sound.
- Only one earThe microphone is mono, which some systems place hard left. Use the Headphones panel to confirm both drivers work.
- A rising squealFeedback. You are on speakers, or your headphone volume is high enough to leak into the microphone. Lower it or switch to closed headphones.
Sidetone, and why headsets include it
People speak more quietly when they cannot hear themselves, and more loudly when their ears are covered. Telephone engineers solved this decades ago by feeding a small amount of the caller's own voice back into the earpiece, a technique called sidetone, and good headsets still do it.
Browser monitoring is the same idea with a visible control. Set it just below your natural speaking volume: loud enough that you stop shouting and start hearing your plosives, quiet enough that you are not tempted to whisper.
Frequently asked
Can I monitor on Bluetooth headphones?
Technically yes, practically no. The delay is large enough to be distracting to the point of making speech difficult.
Is zero-latency monitoring possible?
In hardware, nearly — audio interfaces mix the input directly to the headphone output. In a browser, some buffering is unavoidable.
What is sidetone?
The same idea implemented in hardware: a headset feeds a small amount of your own voice back to your ears so you do not shout.
Does monitoring affect what listeners hear?
No. It only changes what you hear. The outgoing signal is untouched.
Related tests
Where to go next: the troubleshooting checklist, why microphones squeal, or measuring round-trip latency.
Tested and updated · Written and maintained by check-mic.com · Report a problem with this page