Mic Test: Check Your Microphone Level in dBFS (OBS, Yeti, Mac)
Free online mic test: see your microphone's real input level in dBFS on an OBS-style meter, find out if you are too quiet or clipping, measure room noise, record and play back 10 seconds, and test your speakers left and right. Private.
Everything happens in this browser. Your voice and recordings are never uploaded.
Input level
Target for a voice: average about -18 to -12 dBFS while you talk, loudest peaks about -6, never touching 0 (the shaded band on the meter). The meter is drawn like OBS's: green to -20, yellow to -9, red above.
All off = the true level of the mic, like OBS hears it. Turn them on to hear what Zoom, Meet or Discord might do to your voice.
Noise floor
How loud is your room when you say nothing? Press the button and stay quiet for 3 seconds.
Record and listen
Record 10 seconds, then play it back with headphones to hear yourself as viewers will.
Spectrogram
Low sounds at the bottom, high at the top. A steady line near the bottom is usually hum from power or a fan.
Speaker and headphone test
Check that left is left, right is right, and how high and low your speakers or headphones can play. Start with the volume low.
Why OBS shows your mic at max but you still sound quiet
There are three volume steps between your mouth and your stream, and only the first two can make you louder:
- The microphone's own gain. A Blue Yeti has a gain knob on the back. This is the best place to set your level.
- The computer's input volume. On a Mac: System Settings > Sound > Input, pick the mic, and move the Input volume slider. This is applied before OBS sees the sound. If it is low, everything after it is low.
- The OBS mixer fader. Its top is 0.0 dB, which means "no change". It can only turn you down, never up. So "the fader is at max" does not mean "loud".
OBS's meter shows the level in dBFS after its fader. This page shows the level the browser gets from the mic, which is the same point OBS starts from.
How to get louder, in this order
- Turn the Yeti's gain knob up until your normal voice sits in the target band (or the Yeti's own light stays green).
- Raise the macOS Input volume (System Settings > Sound > Input). Many Macs set a USB mic quite low the first time.
- Still quiet? In OBS, right-click the mic > Filters > + > Gain and add a few dB. Add a Limiter at about -3 dB after it so loud laughs don't clip.
Speak 10-20 cm (4-8 inches) from the mic, into the side of a Yeti (it is a side-address mic), not the top.
Questions
What is dBFS?
Decibels relative to "full scale", the loudest sample a recording can store. 0 dBFS is the ceiling; everything else is negative. -6 dBFS is about half the maximum, -20 dBFS is a tenth.
Why turn off automatic gain control?
Automatic gain control (AGC) quietly turns your voice up and down for you. Video-call apps like Zoom, Meet and Discord use it, so a quiet mic can sound fine there and still be quiet in OBS, which has no AGC. Test with it off to see your real level. In Zoom, untick "Automatically adjust microphone volume" if it fights your settings.
Peak or average: which number matters?
Both. The average (RMS) is how loud you sound; the peak is how close you come to clipping. A good voice level has an average around -18 to -12 dBFS and peaks around -6.
Why does the browser ask for the microphone?
It has to, to hear anything. The sound stays in this tab: nothing is recorded unless you press Record, and the recording stays on your computer.
The list has no names, only "Microphone 1"?
Browsers show device names only after you allow the microphone once. Press Start, allow it, and the names appear.