I sound funny on my Moto Droid...?

[kellbell]

I am on my 2nd Moto Droid & still have people telling me I sound like I'm in a bucket..sometimes I sound normal & other times I sound like Charlie Brown's teacher...any suggestions?

 

[smittythepig]

I recently read a similar thread at Howard forums describing the same thing. Lots of people reporting this. Maybe just a Droid thing?

 

[shadowdude777]

Settings > Call Settings. The "Voice Privacy" option should be off. Is it?

 

[kellbell]

No it wasn't...I'll try that...hope it works! Thanks~will let you know

 

[shadowdude777]

Yeah, the first thing I do when I get a new phone is make sure there are no voice privacy settings or anything like that. They're basically designed to change your voice, so you end up with a substantial amount of distortion in there and it just sounds wrong.

 

[messenger13]

Also, experiment with how you hold the DROID. One time I was holding mine a different way, and my friend asked what I was doing ... He said it didn't sound normal. I changed the way I was holding the DROID and he said, "Ok, that's more like it.".

 

[Haywire]

I didnt know about that sound privacy thing, but mine was checked till I read this thread.. It's now been unchecked. Gotta love the spoonfulls of knowledge you pick up here!

 

[Quake1028]

Also, are you using a case at all? I ask because we were using the back covers that Verizon sells, and had the same issue. People telling us we sounded robotic, tinny, etc. We exchanged the phones and had the same issue. On a whim we removed the back covers and the problems disappeared. I guess it was covering up the 2nd mic that's on the back and that was causing the problem. Just food for thought.

 

[shadowdude777]

The 2nd mic on the back should not be covered ideally. You see where the phone's upper "lip" on the back is? The rubberized part above the camera? Well on the top edge about dead center is a tiny little hole. It looks like a manufacturing defect. It's the 2nd camera. It should be a few millimeters to the right of the 3.5mm headphone jack when you have the phone with the back up.

 

[kellbell]

So, I took the voice privacy off, did no good. Ended up on the phone with Verizon Tech SUpport (Of course, I sounded fine..) He called Motorola & we changed the vocode (?) (changes the way your voice is compressed)...helped I've been told.... I didn't know about the 2nd mike...will take off hard cover & see if that makes better too...Thanks for all the help!! WIll let you know how both end up working...

 

[CRPercodani]

The 2nd mic on the back should not be covered ideally. You see where the phone's upper "lip" on the back is? The rubberized part above the camera? Well on the top edge about dead center is a tiny little hole. It looks like a manufacturing defect. It's the 2nd camera. It should be a few millimeters to the right of the 3.5mm headphone jack when you have the phone with the back up.

2nd mic or 2nd camera? The Droid has neither.

 

[kellbell]

Took the hard cover off the phone (along with changing the vocode & taking voice privacy off) and now I"m being told I sound great! Thanks to all that helped!

 

[shadowdude777]

2nd mic or 2nd camera? The Droid has neither.

A lot of people say that spot on the back of the phone somehow affects the call quality (most say it's a 2nd mic), but perhaps I and they have been lied to.

 

[Quake1028]

Took the hard cover off the phone (along with changing the vocode & taking voice privacy off) and now I"m being told I sound great! Thanks to all that helped!

Did you have the snap on back cover from Verizon? Or something else?

 

[shadowdude777]

So if we extrapolate, this is clearly the way to get the best call quality!

 

[ladybadger2007]

OMG I was on the phone with Tech Support for 2 frigging hours, this is yet another warrenty replacement phone I got it friday and have been told I sounded like a smurf all weekend. They wanted to send me another phone. I unchecked that and viola no longer smurfette. But did Verizon tell me to do this? No good old Phandroid to the rescue again. Thanks guys that at least solves that problem.

 

[shadowdude777]

Besides disabling Voice Privacy, another way to increase voice quality:

Go into the dialer and call to ##PROGRAM and press send. Now for the code it asks you for, type in 000000. Now go to the voice codec option (I don't remember which one it is in the menu and I can't access the menu right now, but it should be around the middle. Option 4 or 5 maybe?). Now change it from EVRC to EVRC-B and exit out of the menus. The phone will reboot.

 

[Quake1028]

Besides disabling Voice Privacy, another way to increase voice quality:

Go into the dialer and call to ##PROGRAM and press send. Now for the code it asks you for, type in 000000. Now go to the voice codec option (I don't remember which one it is in the menu and I can't access the menu right now, but it should be around the middle. Option 4 or 5 maybe?). Now change it from EVRC to EVRC-B and exit out of the menus. The phone will reboot.

Just be aware that EVRC-B doesn't have coverage in all areas.

 

[mixpix]

There is a small hole on the upper-back side of the phone that is suppose to house a very small second mic. It's a tiny little notch where the back panel meets the top frame, around the headphone jack.

Some people have said that if you cover that hole it will screw with the noise cancellation causing you to sound weird.

 

[kellbell]

I had the hard plastic cover from Verizon...since I'm no longer using it, I'm not having probs...

 

[kellbell]

Also..Verizon said they weren't aware of this problem, and I was the first person that they had heard complain about it? WOW...but, told them I wasn't the lone ranger because I saw others complaining about it on forums...they saw, they believed! I think the hard cover was the culprit....

 

[smittythepig]

i don't have a case on mine and i've used it with the privacy thing turned on and off, and my wife says that no matter what the phone sounds terrible. sounds fine on my end.

i think i'll just get a BT headset and hope that helps.