Quick question about Voice

Hi folks...just a quick inquiry here as I have never bothered with the voice feature and didn't really want to. But, as a new Mentor it might come in handy for me so.....

I just discovered a mic for my computer...didn't know I had one. However...do I 'need' a head set to use the voice feature? I'd like to give it a try.... just not sure what extra componants I'll need to have or if this microphone is enough to allow me to get rolling.

thanks gang

As long as you've got a mic and speakers, you're fine. The only thing to watch out for without a headset really is feedback. With a headset, you're pretty well shielded against feedback since your head will be in between the speakers and the mic. With just open air in between though, feedback is real possibility, especially if the mic and/or sound card is low quality. I'd suggest being careful how your speakers are aimed and where your mic is placed.

I have an older headset with built in mic that I use for voice. However, I'm pretty sure you can use a stand alone mic along with the standard speakers for your PC.

I like the headset as I get a clearer sound through them. Will be interested to see how it works for you if you opt for just adding the mic

Thanks guys....

I'm really not a big fan of having a voice feature but in the interest of helping people when I'm mentoring, I think it could come in really handy. We shall see LOL I may end up throwing the mic out the window who knows.

If you do find it's helpful though, try looking for a good headset. You will find your voice experience so much better. I do DJing with Voice Over in SL so I have little issues with having a voice feature.

Nice thing about headsets is that background noise is not transmitted into SL. So you don't have to listen to somebody else's TV show or barking dogs.....
Gum popping and mouth breathing still come through nice and clear though

Well, with a good unidirectional cardioid microphone, you wouldn't need to worry about that stuff either. The trouble is most computer mics are cheap and really crappy, so they pick up everything. I do use a headset now, but for years before I got around to buying one, I used a music performance mic, and it was really quiet and crystal clear, much better sounding in fact than any headset mic I've every heard (no surprise there, really).

The only reason I went to headset was when I got my big drawing tablet, I no longer had room for the mic stand on my desk. If it weren't for that, I'd still be using it.

I'm not saying everyone should go out and drop a hundred bucks on a nice Shure SM58. I just happened to have a milk crate full of performance mics lying around from a previous life (I wanted to be a rockstar when I grew up, didn't work out). But just so everyone knows, mics of that caliber do work beautifully for this sort of thing. You just can't expect the same performance from the $19.95 CompUSA special.