OT: Skype volume bouncing

I have Skype calls regularly from Hong Kong, Auckland and Erfurt without any such "AGC" issues. I do, occasionally, have a noisy connection... cured promptly by a re-connect.

So I'd just chalk it up to the weekly Joergism >:-} ...Jim Thompson

^^^^^^^^

Very close!

Two re-connects during this call, no change.

How? There ain't nothing on this side that could do that. There is no AGC anywhere in here other than in my EMC gear.

A "Joergism" is an event, unexplained by any scientific thought >:-} ...Jim Thompson

Voodoo? That's what clients sometimes said after EMI miraculously disappeared after I came out of their machine shop, without a change in the BOM.

I've seen it before and I don't think it's a problem at your end.

In one case, I only had to disable the +20dB microphone audio gain boost in the Windoze XP audio control panel. It had much too much input level for the AGC in Skype to do an effective job. I also see such anomalies when users have multiple audio input devices (laptop built in mic, headset, USB camera, speakerphone, SkypePhone, etc) with radically different sensitivities. Settings that work for one device, sometimes don't work as well for others.

Have the other party go to: Tools -> Options -> Audio Settings and have them watch what the mic audio gain marker does when talking into the mic. You should see the green audio level bar graph go up and down normally. If it's pegged at either end, there will be problems.

Next, ask them to dial "echo123". Talk for 10 seconds when prompted and listen to the playback. If the audio is bad, it's probably a local problem:

Thanks, Jeff, now that's finally really good advice. On my Skype it's just called "Echo/Sound Test Service".

Hopefully, that doesn't mean that all my previous advice was not so good.

That's the title, which can be edited. Mine is labeled "Skype Test Call". I specifically suggested "echo123" because of problems with the rather large number of Skype accounts crafted to be similar to "Echo Test Service" or "echo" something. Try: Contacts -> Add Contact -> Search Skype Directory and search for any of the aforementioned terms. Most of the similar names will deliver a recorded sales pitch. It's really easy to select the wrong test server.

Unfortunately, Skype has removed the "Display technical info during calls" feature, which was very useful but somewhat difficult to interpret.

Not at all. That was just in relation to Jim's comment in this thread "So I'd just chalk it up to the weekly Joergism" which was not so helpful :-)

Aha, thanks. I did not know there are several echo services.

Yeah, that happens with most things software-related these days, they are being dumbed down on the technical side. One of the reasons why I tend to hang on to older SW versions. Often they are simply better.

I'm sorry :-( Maybe it was a Joergasm instead ?>:-} ...Jim Thompson

Far end Speakerphone. Tell them and hope they try another. Very common problem, problem combination of VOX and poorly implemented TX leveling.

?-)