howto handsfree ventrilo (no ptt)?

[zenga]

F9 has ever been my Push to talk button outside raids and pvp. As a raidleader I used my instant ghostwolf key on my mouse as my PTT button so I don't lose precious dps time by moving my hand. But with all new abilities and that we have ghost wolf back; I've kinda used all my mouse buttons. Besides, I never really got used to use ptt on my mouse while playing. So ...

I'm looking for a good way to use vent through voice activation, which will only be in raids and pvp. However I use a cheap logitech headset with a mic attached to it. And one way or another, it's pretty hard to get voice activation working in a decent way. Not much of an audio / voice / vent specialist, so hence my question:

Anyone can give me some good advice (settings, a guide, what to watch out for ...). If my headset / mic is the issue, I might look into replacing it / upgrade it. However, my mates says that they can understand we very clear on vent, so not sure if that is the issue.

Cheers

[HPAVC]

The better the microphone the better voice activation will be, mostly the blocking out the game noise and keyboard stuff. This is mostly why vent's settings have mileage will vary written all over them.

Its not clear if you have tried using the vent voice activation or not from your post, its pretty easy. Especially if you can login twice to vent and test it out on another computer playing the sound back to yourself to make sure you are understandable, bang on the keyboard a bit and so forth, without doing the embarrassing 'can you hear me now' stuff over and over.

Btw, if you have a cellphone handsfree set, you might give that a try if your computer has blue tooth. That's what I use and it works great. I use the motorola sd10-hd.

[Scelesti]

Ventrilo's voice activation can be really annoying with the settings. If you have too long of a delay, then you can stop talking and won't be able to talk again for x seconds. My problem always was I would talk at different volumes and sometimes it wouldn't pick up.

One way to check the way its working is to just watch on your screen as you talk to see if your Mic is queing up. Your sound settings won't change in any way, assuming you're using the same headset.

[Zugdud]

Another option is using a foot pedal as your push to talk key, have you considered one?

[HPAVC]

Ventrilo's voice activation can be really annoying with the settings. If you have too long of a delay, then you can stop talking and won't be able to talk again for x seconds. My problem always was I would talk at different volumes and sometimes it wouldn't pick up.

One way to check the way its working is to just watch on your screen as you talk to see if your Mic is queing up. Your sound settings won't change in any way, assuming you're using the same headset.

With a good headset the silence delay in vent's settings should be removed and it shouldn't pickup mundane breathing, sighs.

He can buy one and return it if it doesn't work out.

[zenga]

@HPAVC

1. That makes indeed sense. I'll have to do some research as to which headsets have the best microphone.
2. Yeah I have tried using vent 'handsfree' a while ago, and I didn't came through at all (or very little). Have comps enough to give your idea to test it a go though.
3. I do own a cellphone, but it's like 6 years old, but it still does it's job (make 1 call every other month). So i'm afraid thats no option.

@zugdud

Yeah I've considered a pedal. Even have used one in the past. And it's the same distraction to me: when I have to push / click / kick something, my game performance drops. It might be hard to understand and sound weird, but I just wanna be able to talk when I see something, without having to go through a process. At least thats my aim.

As to what isthisspam mentions: does other vent like software (teamspeak, mumble?) handle the handsfree concept better that you guys are aware off? Still think vent is pretty configurable. For example the low/high volume between different people was annoying, very annoying, but then I found some settings somewhere on the web to 'normalize' everything. Hence why I think/hope this can be solved. Can't be the only player in the world who do not likes ptt.

Thanks for input so far.
cheers
z