6 replies to this topic

[iBotModz_Bot]

From eurogamer.net:

The quality of sound that comes through Xbox 360 headsets will be significantly improved when Microsoft updates the Xbox 360 this Fall.

The refresh, designed to coincide with the launch of Kinect, will upgrade the codec and audio infrastructure that underpins the quality of voice communication from Xbox 360 to Xbox 360, and should make for clear chat between gamers when they play online, Xbox Live Studios boss Jerry Johnson said at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival this afternoon.

"The codec we used when we first launched was a low bit rate codec and we stuck with that," Johnson explained.

Full Story: eurogamer.net

View the full article

[iBotPeaches]

I hope I don't hear people exhaling or breathing heavily now.

[Lockon]

They can't 'fix' the breathing because of the mics. They need new mics in order for this to work. Thus better marketing scheme.

[matty0]

they can improve this with an update... im a sound tech the current mic's are transmitting a signal at either 11khz (kinda phone quality) or 22khz (radio standard). the actual mics they use in the headsets (as with most equipment) can be used at up to 44.1khz. but they chose to keep it lower due to the higher kbps requirement. i believe xbox uses an altered wma format for audio (feel free to correct this) but if they were to move onto mpeg audio (.mp3) or even ogg vorbis (.ogg) or if we were hugely lucky, but they would never do it, advanced audio coding (.aac - apples fav) we could see dramatic sound quality improvements for little (or none at all if they have a good enough compression) file size increase.

dont get me wrong, what i expect to happen is that the audio (which i think is at 11khz) will be bumped up to 22khz and they will keep there crappy wma codec. this will improve sound quality, but make the network strain more... i hope microsoft considers changing to a different codec...

(if you've ever been in a game whilst using the headset you have probably noticed that when lag starts the first thing to go is the chat audio... this suggests a need for improvement to me...)

feel free to call bullshit on me. i could care less, just my input.

oh and btw lockon, they can get rid of the breathing very very easily. apply a band pass filter between about 10 and 12 khz. you'l remove it to the point where the crappy speakers would make it just about inaudible.

[Lockon]

they can improve this with an update... im a sound tech the current mic's are transmitting a signal at either 11khz (kinda phone quality) or 22khz (radio standard). the actual mics they use in the headsets (as with most equipment) can be used at up to 44.1khz. but they chose to keep it lower due to the higher kbps requirement. i believe xbox uses an altered wma format for audio (feel free to correct this) but if they were to move onto mpeg audio (.mp3) or even ogg vorbis (.ogg) or if we were hugely lucky, but they would never do it, advanced audio coding (.aac - apples fav) we could see dramatic sound quality improvements for little (or none at all if they have a good enough compression) file size increase.

dont get me wrong, what i expect to happen is that the audio (which i think is at 11khz) will be bumped up to 22khz and they will keep there crappy wma codec. this will improve sound quality, but make the network strain more... i hope microsoft considers changing to a different codec...

(if you've ever been in a game whilst using the headset you have probably noticed that when lag starts the first thing to go is the chat audio... this suggests a need for improvement to me...)

feel free to call ******** on me. i could care less, just my input.

oh and btw lockon, they can get rid of the breathing very very easily. apply a band pass filter between about 10 and 12 khz. you'l remove it to the point where the crappy speakers would make it just about inaudible.

I'm a human tech, You can't fix a humans voice with a codec. There will always be heavy breathing. But hey...Better breathing sound xD. Even PC mics are the same... I still hear breathing. At the end, Its the person its self and the only fix is the exercise all the fat away.

[Randomrocket]

... im a sound tech

So do you know a way to play music through an XBL party? haha.

[matty0]

I'm a human tech, You can't fix a humans voice with a codec. There will always be heavy breathing. But hey...Better breathing sound xD. Even PC mics are the same... I still hear breathing. At the end, Its the person its self and the only fix is the exercise all the fat away.

all sounds lie within a frequency spectrum. breathing and other sounds of that pitch/timbre lie within the 10-15khz range. if you were to cancel them out with a filter (which could be implemented into a codec) then you could remove the sound of breathing.

So do you know a way to play music through an XBL party? haha.

yes easily, all you need is a 3.5mm (standard audio jack) to a 2.5mm (mini jack) converter. this will allow you to plug any standard mp3 player, ipod, better headset into the controller. it may not work with upstream audio (sound coming into the jack) but damn near definitely you'd be able to send the audio