VoiceAttack does not hear me. But everything else does!?

[Andy Stotzer]

This is the first time I am trying VA since I upgraded my hardware and also from Win 7 to 10.  But Voice Attack does not hear me at all.  But Windows Does.  So does Teamspeak!

I went though all of the Troubleshooting Tips in the Voice Attack Help page:

VoiceAttack not listening at all (Level bar on the main screen is not moving) :
Make sure your microphone is plugged in all the way (this gets me just about every time).
Make sure your microphone switch is on. This is sometimes located on the cord of your headset.
Make sure the volume of your microphone is adequate. Also, make sure that it is not muted in Windows.

 

Additional places to look :
If you are using Microsoft Windows Vista/7/8, go into Control Panel & run the 'Sound' app.
Select the recording tab. Select your input device (will have a green checkmark next to it).
Go to the levels tab. Make sure the volume is adequate (mine is up all the way). If there is a balance button, click it. Make sure that the microphone channels are at adequate levels (mine are both up all the way).
In XP, go to the 'Sounds and Audio Device Properties' app. Click the 'Audio' tab & make sure the proper device is selected in the drop down list. Click on the 'Volume' button to make adjustments to the volume.
Even more :
If you are using Microsoft Windows Vista / 7 / 8, go into Control Panel and run the 'Speech Recognition Options' app.
Select the 'Set up microphone' link. Follow the instructions indicated to set up your microphone.

Everything seems fine.  I don't see any settings inside VA to setup the Microphone.  And I also don't see anything to test VA with.  Other than just running a profile command, which does nothing.

When I go into my microphone properties, I can actually 'Listen' (by clicking the 'Listen to this device' checkbox.  and I hear myself just perfectly.  When I go into the 'Setup the Microphone' wizard, I can see the green bar moving exactly middle of the green section.  And when I am just looking at the Microphone device on the 'Recording' tab of the Sound window, I can see the green bar go up and down just fine.

So, is Windows 10 porked?  Or what could possibly be wrong with this??  Guess I'll try a Reboot now and cross my fingers..

Arggg...

[Andy Stotzer]

Reboot did not help.

I just uninstalled and installed the new Beta.  That also... did not help..  VA hears nothing..

[Gary]

Hi, Andy.

Make sure to go through the steps outlined in this thread:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/voiceattack/0Cksig2tNQk

Hope that helps!

Gary

[Andy Stotzer]

Thanks.  I just checked all of that and it is all good.  The Recording Devices has my only microphone as the default device with the green checkmark.  And I went into the Advanced Settings of the Speech Recognition and selected 'Use preferred audio input device'.   That also did not fix the problem.

It seems that it does not connect to the mic since the soundbar at the bottom of VoiceAttack has never show up when I speak.  And no commands have ever been recognized.

Do, I need to 'Train' Windows Speech Recognition?  And do I need to 'Start Speech Recognition'?  I thought that was so Windows could listen to my voice, and it was not needed for Voice Attack.  But it gives an error when I try to Start it.  "Speech Recognition could not start because the language configuration is not supported.", and it does not open/start.  It says that I need to change the 'recognizer language' in the Speech RecognitionControl Panel, under Advanced Options.  But there is only 1 language in the list: 'Microsoft Speech Recognizer 8.0 for Windows (English - US)'.

[Andy Stotzer]

PS: I found a fix for the failed 'Start Speech Recognition' in control panel.  There is a program called ctfmon.exe that should be run at startup apparently. I just ran it from a Run command, and then tried to Startup Speech Recognition.  And it worked.  It recognized my speech just fine.  It was opening web browsers and responding to my commands...  So, I will need to add that to run at startup in the registry if I need it.  Is that needed for Voice Attack?   

I tested Voice Attack again after I saw that Windows 10 was recognizing my speech just fine.  It still does not hear me..

[Gary]

Hi, Andy.

My guess would be yes :

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-ctfmonexe-and-why-is-it-running/

VoiceAttack relies on the built-in Windows speech engine to do its thing.  The speech engine requires use of the default audio input device on your machine.  You are saying that the Windows Speech Recognition app is working fine and not VoiceAttack?

Gary

[Andy Stotzer]

 Correct.  The Windows Speech Recognition works fine, but Voice Attach does not register my voice when I speak.

[Gary]

You might want to try logging in under a new user account that has nothing else running other than VoiceAttack and the basic Windows stuff.  That way you can eliminate any other applications interfering with your setup.  Outside of that, I'm not sure what is going on because the setup is quite simple: Speech engine listens on default input device channel.

Gary

[Andy Stotzer]

Thanks.  I did create a new account on my Win10 system and tested the mic and Speech Recognition.  Both worked fine.  But VA did not hear my voice.  It would have been helpful if when it says that 'Default audio device detected', that it told me the name of it?  So I would know that it is using the correct device.  Because at this point, I do not see how it can be using the default device with the green checkmark, which registers my voice every time that I talk.

I have a newly upgraded rig about 2 months ago.  I upgraded to an ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme and an Intel i7 6700k cpu.  The mb came with a lot of extra tools.  It also has a built-in SupremeFX audio card built into the mb.  It came with RealTek Audio Manager, Sonic Studio 2, and other stuff.  

The Sonic Studio 2 has some mic options, and I have tested them all, turning them all off.  There was a Speaker and Mic volume buttons, but the mic was disabled!?  I could not get it to work.  That makes me wonder too..  But none of that helped.  I wonder since I am using a USB mic, that maybe it's getting confused since I am not using the mic jack on the mb.  I guess my only option is to contact ASUS, but I have no high hopes about it.  

Thanks for your help.  

God Bless,

Andy

[Andy Stotzer]

I was wondering what the 'VoiceAttackFault.txt' file was?  Is it any indication of some problem?  The file has a Modified date of Saturday.  I think that's when I installed it.  About an hour later I uninstalled and installed the Beta, which I have now..

System.Threading.AbandonedMutexException: The wait completed due to an abandoned mutex.
   at System.Threading.WaitHandle.InternalWaitOne(SafeHandle waitableSafeHandle, Int64 millisecondsTimeout, Boolean hasThreadAffinity, Boolean exitContext)
   at System.Threading.WaitHandle.WaitOne(TimeSpan timeout, Boolean exitContext)
   at . . (String[] )

[Gary]

Is that the text from within the VoiceAttackFault.txt?  That file simply holds unhandled exception info in the event of a crash (when possible).

Gary

[il...@heldan.com]

Exact same thing here...have you found any solution?

[Gary]

Are you running with an ASUS motherboard with all that other software running?

Gary

[Norm Shackleford]

Hey I was having the same problem.  I had razer synapse running in the background for my kraken 7.1.  After uninstalling that software it works just fine.  If you have anything like that on your pc completely remove it and restart to see if thats a reoccurring issue with other software and not just razer synapse

[Norm Shackleford]

PS I have an asus mobo if there is something to do with that as well.

asus maximus hero vi

[Andy Stotzer]

OH MY GOSH!

OH MY GOSH!

TESTING OH MY GOSH!!

and Voice attack replies:

11:02:24 AM - Unrecognized : 'house'
11:02:22 AM - Unrecognized : 'I have a little'
11:02:20 AM - Unrecognized : 'all my gosh'
11:02:17 AM - Unrecognized : 'oh my gosh'
11:02:15 AM - Unrecognized : 'Testing all my gosh'

That's what I said when I closed the ASUS Rog Sonic Studio 2 app from my System Tray.  And then tested VoiceAttack for the 400th time.  (All this was AFTER I said a little prayer to my God of the Universe for help!  He loves to help in the small things like this.)

So, I didn't uninstall it.  I just closed it.  And that fixed it!!

Now I just re-started Sonic Studio 2, and Voice Attack is still Working!

Thanks for all of your help.  For the record, yes I do have an ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme motherboard.  And I did have most of the mb software installed.  In the past (6 years ago) I uninstalled most of the mb software tools because they sucked.  But much of the new ASUS ROG stuff is pretty good.  My favorite is the RamCache.  Once I use an app/game or file, it stays in memory and is loaded lightning fast next time it's used.  My DCS flight sim normally takes 2 minutes to load.  But after I load it the first time, it only takes 11 seconds to load after than.  Until I reboot of course.  So, some of the new ASUS mb tools are pretty good.

Again, I had given up on getting this to work.  I even posted this in the ASUS Maximus VIII Support forums.  Where I will go right now and post this solution (and complaint!).

Thanks!

Snacko

[Matt Reed]

I just came here to say that this is the same with a MSI Z170A Gaming M7

Voice attack did not work at all (exactly the same symptoms as Andy) until I killed the Nahimic sound app from my system tray (provided by MSI).

As soon as I did, and restarted VA, it started working.

I thought I'd post here in case any other MSI types passed by...

[il...@heldan.com]

I have also Asus Maximus VIII mobo and I went and disabled the onboard audio...and like magic VA started hearing my mic.

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[Andy Stotzer]

So, if this was caused by Sonic Studio 2 for me.  And Razer Synapse for Norm.  And what else for others??  

Is the problem with all of the other apps, or VoiceAttack?  

If there are multiple apps that cause VoiceAttack not to hear your voice, then it would seem more likely that the problem was with VoiceAttack, than with multiple other apps all having a bug that causes this one program to fail to get the mic device.  I'm just wondering if the problem is 'not' with Sonic Studio?

[Gary]

I understand your concern.  VoiceAttack uses the Windows speech engine components.  The speech engine simply uses the default audio channel to do its thing... there's nothing more to it.  If something is installed that interferes with that channel, there's not much VoiceAttack (or any other software) can do about it.  I have no idea of what's installed on your machine, and I have no control at all over what other software does (other than learning about it and then offering to maybe stop the process).  I add features to help you as they become necessary ('Disable acoustic echo cancellation', 'Disable adaptive recognition'), and a support forum to help you figure out what is broken.  It's kind of like if I install a piece of software that disables, hijacks or alters audio output and I can't hear Spotify or Spotify's audio gets garbled.  I'm not sure how I could consider that Spotify's fault, nor would I expect that Spotify could even fix the problem.  The problem would be with my setup.  I hope that makes sense.

Gary

[Andy Stotzer]

The crazy thing is, that now that I closed Sonic Studio 2 that 'one' time and saw that VA was fixed, I have never needed to close Sonic Studio 2 again.  It loads when I boot up.  And I have booted up probably 10 times since it started working that time.  And it works now with Sonic Studio 2 running.  It has no more problems it seems..  It's almost as if it finally got connected that one time, and now it can connect every time.

Question:

Does VA always say "Default Audio device detected" every time that it starts?

It only seemed to do that the first time I loaded it after booting up.  From then on, if I closed the app and restarted it, it never would say that again.  I think that it does the same now that it's working.  But I have not checked for that message since then, so I'm not sure..

[Gary]

No... it only does that if it doesn't detect a device and then it does later.  So, if you are using VA and then you unplug your headset and then plug it back in, you'll get a similar message, preceded by a warning box about your audio.  If you are only seeing that message and not the warning box about your audio device not being connected, you probably got the warning box at one time and checked the, 'dont show again' check box.  Normally, you should also see, 'No audio device detected (headset may not be plugged in)' and probably, 'error initializing dictation engine' before you see, 'default audio device detected' in the log.  Something is taking control of that channel and releasing.

Gary

[Raymond Holley]

THANK YOU! This... helped a TON! I don't even really use Nahimic at all, so I'm okay with turning it off.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

[wizrd cece]

I know that if the game is Run as Administrator, then VA must be Run as Administrator as well.  Otherwise, nothing works.

[jim kelly]

Hello, I have the same problem here, (DELL XPS 15 9550...Razer Kraken 7.1). I have a question about uninstalling Razer Synapse.  Does uninstalling synapse mean you loose 7.1 sound?

Should I be installing a third party program if one exists?  

On Wednesday, 6 January 2016 00:26:02 UTC, Norm Shackleford wrote:

[jim kelly]

 Installing the Beta of VA (http://voiceattack.com/beta.aspx) has fixed this for me. After installing VA open the options then click on the "Recognition and Audio" tab and tick the box next to "Disable Acoustic Echo". Thanks to gmagenheimer from https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=224170.

All seems to be working Razer Kraken/Razer Synapse/Voice Attack. All working with 7.1 sound.

[georgie...@gmail.com]

Same problem here, Exiting "Sonic Suite 2" solved the problem. Took me a while to find the solution.

Strongly recommend that this issue should be added to the troubleshooting section of the VoiceAttack manual supplied with the application in order to help other out in a quicker time.

Thanks for the great application, so far now, it works!!

[任柏冰]

Same problem here. I'm using an ASUS GEN VII. when I close Sonic Studio two. Everything works as it should. Good lord....

在 2016年1月6日星期三 UTC+1下午5:14:32，Andy Stotzer写道：

[Gary]

Hi, Snacko.  When you open Task Manager to kill Sonic Studio, how is Sonic Studio listed?  SonicStudio.exe?

I'm going to incorporate a helper message into the software that will explain the issues one may encounter when certain software is detected.  Sonic Studio, Synergy, AVG, etc.  The list will grow, of course ;)

Gary

[Tony Webber]

I am having similar problems with Z97 PO GAMER Board. MS Speech Recognition hears (i.e I can train) my voice but voice attack does not, although the speech recognition will not turn on!

[Gary]

Hi, Tony.

Are you running Sonic Studio?

Gary

[Sir Nomad]

I am having the same problem

Unfortunately I don't understand how to fix it

I can't figure out how to turn Nahimic off

I don't even really know what it is, but I know I have it

I am getting frustrated because I'm sure it is a matter of simply turning it off now that I've read this chain but I don't know how

[Tony Webber]

Hi Gary

Do you mean sonic radar? Unfortunately I am about 200 miles from my PC until Friday.

Tony Webber

M: +44 (0)7770 473774

T: +44 (0)1372 360689

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[Gary]

I'm thinking Sonic Radar would be ok...  It's sometimes installed with Sonic Studio, though.  Sonic Studio has some features that seem to interfere with VoiceAttack.  Trying to get to the bottom of it and be able to provide a decent warning for the users that have it turned on.

Gary

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