How to balance game and chat audio

Game audio louder than your chat audio? Don't let your friends get drowned out, learn how to balance.

If your game and chat audio are constantly fighting for your attention in your headphones you may need to take some time to readjust those levels. It can be uncomfortable, or even disorientating, to have the game and chat audio improperly balanced, or you might miss out on that crucial call from a teammate that gets you killed. Here’s how to get your game audio and chat audio on the right level.

Balancing Game and Chat Audio On PC

If you’re playing on PC there are a few different ways to balance out the volume of your game and the friends you’re chatting to at the same time. They all depend on where each source of the audio is coming from. If the voice chat you’re using is in-game, you’ll need to enter the game’s audio settings and look for separate sliders for “Voice” and “SFX”. Lower SFX while keeping Voice steady until you can clearly hear your teammates at their normal volume over the loudest sounds in the game, like explosions.

how to balance game and audio chat quadcast s
The HyperX QuadCast S

Are your friends having trouble hearing you? Some microphones like the HyperX QuadCast S come with gain control dials that you can physically adjust to raise or lower your volume. The handy tap-to-mute function will also stop your voice from being heard when you don't want it to be. Otherwise, you'll need to adjust your microphone gain in software like NGENUITY or in your PC's general sound settings.

If you then find that you’re having trouble hearing small audio indicators like footsteps because the SFX volume is too low, then bring the entire system’s levels up by increasing the PC volume manually. You can do this by either using the system volume mixer or by adjusting the volume directly from your keyboard or headset’s volume controls, like the ones on the control box on the HyperX Cloud Alpha S or built into the HyperX Alloy Elite 2.

The HyperX Cloud Alpha S control box

If you’re using a separate program for voice chat from the game itself, you can balance audio by using the system volume mixer. Right click the speaker icon in the toolbar and then open the volume mixer. Here you can adjust each program running on your desktop individually. Increase or decrease the voice app and the game to balance out the audio. If you are using Discord, there are even per-person volume options so you can balance out different members of your team based on their unique microphone characteristics. Right-click a user and use the volume gain slider to increase or decrease the volume of their voices.

Balancing Game and Chat Audio On Xbox One

For balancing on Xbox One, open the Xbox Guide Menu using the guide button and use the Headset Chat Mixer volume slider to control the level of game audio sent to your headphones, hopefully a capable pair, like the CloudX Flight. If you've connected a QuadCast S to upgrade your own microphone quality, you'll still be able to use its built-in gain control to bump or lower your own volume as well.

That should be all you need to make sure that your game and chat audio mix is balanced correctly. Now you can hear your friends and enjoy gaming together!

Nicole is a fan of gaming, music, and movies. Feel free to reach her at nicole.castillo@allgamers.com for questions, concerns, or just good music and movie recommendations!

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