The Voices in My Head

Just a few random hints on how to make voice work for you in SL.

• Make sure your microphone is plugged in properly.
• Use a headset. Separate microphone and desktop speakers will cause audible feedback.
• Turn off your main desktop speakers. if you don’t, your microphone will pick that up and cause feedback. That can be very unpleasant for anyone near you. This can’t be repeated enough. Especially since it will sound like you are repeating everythng you, and everyone else, says.
• Make sure you have no background noise in your room when doing voice. No one wants to hear your TV, your favourite radio station, your screaming kids, your mother telling you to wash the dishes, or those police cars rushing outside.
• In your windows control panel, open the “Sound & Audio Devices” window, look at the “Volume” tab. Click on the “Advanced” button that is in the Device Volume box.
• Make sure the master volume is at or below 50% of maximum. If it is too high, feedback will often result.
• Within the audio input controls, make sure the master volume is at 100%, and the microphone volume at about 75%.
• Obviously, linux and mac users don’t have control panels that work in the exact way described above, if at all. Alas and alack, I lack both of those, and can not offer specific advice there.
• After you have checked all the sound settings above, run the voice setup wizard that is inside SL. It can be found in edit/preferences, and then clicking on the “Voice Chat” tab.
• Inside the “Device Settings” button, make sure both input and output are set to your main sound device. If you use a voice changer program, make sure the input is set to that program.
• It is highly recommended that you use the push-to-talk settings. Without that, SL will constantly broadcast every cough, wheeze, and nose-scratch to the world at large. This can be a little bit obnoxious to some. Make sure the “Use Push-to-Talk in toggle mode” box is ticked, then press the “Set key” button to choose a key. I normally have the F12 key set for this purpose, as it never gets used for anything else.

Oh, there are a bunch of other settings, but it is mostly common sense, I think. If something isn’t clear here, feel free to leave a comment highlighting the issue, and I’ll try my best to improve this article.

This is the first in a series of articles I plan to post in this blog, detailing some of the things a new avatar can do to make their Second Life more fulfilling.

Today’s topic: the profile.

Right-click on one of the mentors in Orientation Island. You can tell who the mentors are, because they have the title “Second Life Mentor” hovering above their name. Look at the profile. There’s usually quite a lot of text, telling you when that avatar started SL (yes, we are SL addicts), what groups they are in, a little bit about them, and so on. Click on the tabs at the top of that profile window, and you can see even more information about that person. Do the same thing on a non-mentor in orientation island, and you will see a comparatively empty profile.

People like to fill these spaces out because it helps to find people with similar interests, and if you have ridiculously large friends lists like I do, it helps to remind them who you are. Many people all but refuse to talk to newbies who have an empty profile, simply because they have no idea what that person is like. After all, woudl you spend a lot of time and emotional energy on a new person you know nothing about, or a new person who is willing to say something about themselves up front? In that context, although SL is NOT a dating site, similar social networking rules apply - a person with an empty profile will get passed over.

So, what is to be done?

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