A noise gate mutes everything below a volume threshold you set. An expander turns that quiet stuff down without shutting it off completely. If your room is noisy and you want silence between sentences, the gate wins. If you record with two mics or just want a more natural sound, the expander is usually the better pick.
Great audio is about your process. This guide is a full audio enhancement walkthrough that takes you from a flat, roomy, amateur-sounding mic to a clean, professional one, using the gear you already own. From how to position your mic to the proper setup, you’ll know technique beats hardware almost every time.
EQ sounds like studio-engineer territory, but it’s really just a volume knob for specific frequencies. Once the basics click, you can use it to clean up a muddy voice, sharpen game audio, or make a playlist hit harder. From your microphone to your audio mixer, the purple EQ setup can make your audio better.
Microphone sensitivity is how efficiently a mic turns sound into an electrical signal. It’s printed on the spec sheet as a negative number in decibels (like -34 dB) or as a transfer factor in millivolts per pascal (mV/Pa). The closer that decibel number is to zero, the more sensitive — and the more output you get for the same sound.
Stereo sends sound through two channels — left and right — to build a precise soundstage in front of you. Surround uses extra channels placed around you to wrap you in 360-degree audio. If you mostly listen to music or play competitively at a desk, the stereo usually wins. If your nights revolve around films and cinematic games, surround earns its keep.
Most CS2 players copy a random pro config and still wonder why the game feels off. This guide walks through the best CS2 settings that actually move in 2026 — frame rate, visibility, sensitivity, crosshair, and the one area nearly every guide rushes: your audio. Dial these in once, then stop fiddling and start winning rounds.
That little 48V switch on your audio interface isn’t there for decoration — it controls phantom power, the electricity that brings condenser microphones to life. Flip it for the wrong mic, though, and you could fry a ribbon mic in seconds. This guide breaks down what phantom power actually does and how to use it right.
Microphone gain is the amplification stage that decides whether your recording sounds polished or amateur. Set it right, and your voice sits cleanly above the noise floor. Set it wrong, and you’re either chasing hiss or suffering clipping. With some easy steps, you can set your mic gain for your different usage.
Streaming CS2 doesn’t just require opening OBS or CS2. You need to juggle OBS encoder settings, in-game video tweaks, and audio level. This guide walks through everything you need to stream CS2, from scene setup to the CS2 tweaks.
Microphone specifications are the technical numbers that describe how a mic captures sound, including its polar pattern, frequency response, sensitivity, max SPL, and self-noise. Knowing how to read them helps you pick the right mic for your voice, instrument, or recording environment instead of guessing based on price.