How to make your mic sound bad?

While normally we want our mics to sound great as it communicates our voice to the other person. Sometimes, we may intentionally want it to sound bad. 

At times, you find yourself stuck on a call with your boss or a friend with their endless jargon. You cannot disconnect the call and just wish for a way to end the torture. In such cases, you may wonder how to make your mic sound bad.

Through this article, we will discuss the different techniques you can use to make your mic sound worse.

Make your mic sound bad – using a magnet.

If you use the mics of your headphone, earphone, or some other cheap mic. You can make your mic sound bad easily using a magnet. Do not try to use this trick with expensive devices as it may cause some permanent damage.

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Magnets interfere with your sound frequency and produce distorted output. You can perform this trick with any magnet regardless of its size. Simply follow the steps mentioned below:

  • Keep a magnet handy before the call or presentation and identify the location of the mic of your device.
  • Turn your mic ‘on’ when you are asked to speak.
  • Slowly move the magnet around your microphone in any direction- back and forth or in a circular motion.
  • The magnet’s movement interrupts the magnetic field of the magnet present inside your mic.
  • This interruption makes your mic malfunction.
  • Turn your mic ‘off’ before you remove the magnet from your mic’s range.

Some high-end headsets or a good quality mic may have additional protection against such maneuvers. This trick may not work in that case. Make sure to take a trial run before you actually try it in an important call or meeting

How to make your headset mic sound bad using paper?

One of the best and safest ways to make your microphone or headset sound bad is by using paper. Start by removing the sponge or the cat fur from your mic. bring your mic as close as possible to your mouth when speaking.

Place a perforated paper sticker over your mic. This will let some sound pass through the paper and reach the mic while also creating disturbances. This trick produces a distorted sound very accurately and is one of the best ways to make your mic sound bad.

Make mic sound bad by playing external sound

Sound travels in the form of waves. When multiple sound waves mix, these waves may join together to produce a completely different sound. Producing different sounds together is an effective way of making mics sound bad.

Follow the steps below to make your microphone sound appear bad:

  • Download a loud and high-pitched audio file and save it in an easily accessible folder.

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  • Start playing the sound near your mic during an online class or a meeting.
  • This works best if you play the audio on a different device
  • While the audio plays externally in the background, speak into the mic. Speaking in a distorted manner will worsen the voice quality of your microphone.
  • You can then go on to turn off your mic suddenly to create an impression of mic failure.

This would drastically affect the voice quality, clarity, and loudness of your mic. This also keeps your mic safe in case you want better sound some other time.

How to make your microphone sound bad

There are both temporary and permanent ways to make your mic sound bad. You should apply these methods with caution as it may result in a terrible sound quality for the listener. We have discussed some other practical ways to make your microphone sound bad below:

Reverb

You can add reverb to your audio by recording sound in an echo-generating environment. A large empty room with very little furniture is apt to create this effect. You can also replicate this effect in small closed spaces such as washrooms.

You can use applications such as Audacity to add this effect while recording.

EQ (Equalizer)

You can alter the Equalizer by cutting different frequencies to produce an unpleasant mic sound effect. You can add the effect while editing your audio.

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Cutting high-end frequencies produce audios that are impossible to understand. If you eliminate low-end frequencies, it will make the audio sound fade by removing warmth from the audio.

Adjusting low-quality audio settings

You can customize your audio settings easily on your PC. It can be done easily on both Mac and Windows Operating systems. Alter the settings to downgrade the mic volume and sensitivity to make your mic sound bad.

Export in poor quality 

After recording your video, you have to export it for further manipulation. Export your audio at the lowest bit rate possible for the worst results.

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Besides these methods, there are a range of other ways to produce distortion while recording your audio. If you don’t wish to use these effects, follow the different methods provided below to make your microphone sound distorted:

Other Methods on How to make your mic sound bad

There are multiple ways to produce distortion and interference to the audio while using your mic. We will discuss some easy methods to produce distorted sound through your mic:

Speaking close to the microphone

Speaking or shouting into the mic can create an audio clipping effect. It will cause distortion in the sound for the listener. You should try speaking very near to the microphone, almost touching it, to produce a distorted sound.

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If you have a pre-amp software, you can increase the gain knob to make your audio louder. This will result in an unpleasant audio experience. You can also add some volume later in the post with any audio editing software.

Breathing into the microphone worsens mic sound quality

Have you noticed how awful audio sounds when you record outside on a windy day? You can replicate the same by recording outside keeping your mic in the direction of the wind. 

The microphone is sensitive to wind hitting the mic, hence air blowing from your mouth will also cause distortions. You can produce a bad noisy effect easily by breathing heavily into the diaphragm of your mic.

Adding background noise creates a bad sound in the microphone

You can create noises in the background to make your mic sound worse. The sound coming from running televisions, music systems, fans, traffic honks, open windows, etc. work well for creating background noise.

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You can just play the noisy audio while recording or during a call to produce bad sound. You can also add noise later to your audio while editing to get the desired distortion.

Intentionally degrading mic sound quality by making clicks by mouth  

Making noises from your mouth such as clicking sounds while using the mic also works well to make it sound bad. You can do so by touching the roof of your mouth with your tongue and smacking the lips. This will successfully create an unpleasant listening experience for the listener.

Conclusion

Understanding the science of how sound works makes it very easy to create deception of bad microphone sound. We can easily interfere with sound if we understand how the audio is processed and transmitted in the microphone.

You can easily corrupt your mic sound in a fun and easy way by being innovative and logical.

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We discussed some of the most practical methods on how to make your mic sound bad in this article. If you still fail to create the worst-sounding mic, you should try to break your mic. Devices with built-in mics have protective mesh over them.

If you puncture the mesh with a pointed object and keep pushing, your mic will get damaged. Once done, your mic will never produce a good sound. It may even stop working completely.

Intentionally damaging the mic would also terminate the warranty on your device so use this method with caution.

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