Fix Rift S Microphone intermittent quality dropping (Robot / Metallic voice)
I'd like to request you guys to fix the intermittent microphone quality dropping that a lot of users are facing on the Rift S. Here's a link to show you how the issue shows up:
https://clips.twitch.tv/IgnorantAntediluvianAlfalfaPanicBasket
As you can listen the quality drop occurs just for a few seconds, but it's random and intermittent getting people annoyed in social games like Pavlov VR, VRChat and RecRoom. Hope you guys can fix it somehow. I have opened a support ticket already but they couldn't help me to fix the problem. Thanks.

129 comments
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Anonymous commented
Im tired of this, please make a solution.
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Kris commented
Yes me too. Oculus please pay attention and fix this!
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Hid Oggo commented
The robot voice is like a cancer, it started back in January and it’s progressively gotten worse, just yesterday it went permanently robot and I now resort to my wired microphone on my desk, so I have extremely limited movement. If you’re going to promise me a high quality microphone on a vr headset please commit to it.
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Anonymous commented
I have same problem everyone having. Why don't you sort the problem guys
Some people should let people know oculus vr s this kinda problem so others wouldn't buy as we did. -
Anonymous commented
i'm having the same problem robot voice also accelerated.
i recorded a message in windows with the rifts S it worked fine but when i launch oculus software and try to record again robot fast voice.
it's oculus runtime / drivers related problem. -
Anonymous commented
In my case, it works fine on an HP AMD 3700 but fails on a DIY AMD 3800x with Asus Prime motherboard. Maybe there's an incompatibility that Oculus is not yet aware of
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Anonymous commented
I'm being told by Oculus support that this is *not* a widespread problem and it's just me.
Well, this thread is proof that I'm being lied to.Oculus.. would you like me to post all the names of the tech support people who are telling me that it's MY problem? Would you?
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justin shaw commented
yeah this is bull brand new 2 weeks ago sound like a dam robot.....
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Anonymous commented
I'm also experiencing this problem. It's a shame it seems likes it's being completely ignored by oculus support. This headset has been great apart from this one issue.
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Jack commented
YES im sick of having this problem. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST FIX IT!!!
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TheCerberus 935 commented
@Tim Holdback I HAVE THE SAME F***cking specs and i have the same problem with my voice, this bothers me a lot and it seems like oculus its not taking the responsability about this
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Tim Holdback commented
This problem has been happening for me since the start of this year.
I submitted a ticket to Oculus and got a replacement within a few days. The tech support and I both thought it was a fault with the cable or mic after going through all the troubleshooting.when I got the new headset It was good as new...... for a day. After that the sound came back and sounded even worse. This led me to believe it was a USB port issue (suspected dodgy motherboard USB) So this time I decided to order a PCI-e USB 3.0 expansion card hoping it would finally fix the problem but it didn't.
So now I am left with the conclusion of 'there is no fix' but hopefully that wont be the case. another thought is that i might need to get a better motherboard although that's a lot of money for something that might not fix the problem. I cannot believe this problem still doesn't have a solution.
if it helps here are my pc specs
cpu: AMD ryzen 5 2600
gpu: Sapphire nitro+ rx 580
ram: hyperX fury DDR4 2x 8gb
mobo: gigabyte AB350 gaming 3 -
Neil Elliott commented
This has been happening for a few months for me.
I've already posted here about it.
I bought a new USB card thinking that might resolve it, it didn't.
I bought a new USB mic thinking that taking away the mic responsibility from the Rift cabling may resolve it, it didn't.
Today I tried a new mic using a 3.5mm jack instead of USB thereby eliminating any confusion about which mic was being used or if it was a USB bandwidth issue, it's not, the issue persists.
I love the Rift S but never had this issue with my CV1 and it's left a sour taste in my mouth.The only thing I didn't try in conjunction with the above is to completely disable the Oculus mic in case there was some way this interfered.
However, I have had no issues using a mic with other software including XBox, MS Teams for work and Discord.
Since it's not an issue with USB and only manifests itself when using the Rift service I can only assume it's a software issue.It would be great if Oculus support would respond to this thread...
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Orkel L commented
This is still a problem that has not been fixed.
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Pink Sugar commented
To follow up on my previous post, this is what I've done and how it would show up in the Oculus launcher.
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Pink Sugar commented
I don't know why Oculus haven't said anything about this yet but I know what the issue is, I tested this several times to be certain and the conclusion is actually a little sad.
The issue is with the data bandwidth limitation, though I can't be certain if the microphone is being transmitted to the DisplayPort or the USB 3.0 cable (Correct me on which one it passes through) but here's the gist of it : If you disable the Audio output of the rift S and just use the built-in mic, the random robotic sounds is completely eliminated. This is why I started using bluetooth earbuds for audio output, and kept the built-in audio disabled (even the oculus launcher keeps nagging about having no audio for the headset but it's a notification that doesn't pop up, just a blue dot in the launcher telling me that there's a notification about it).
I've been using the rift S this way for months now and it doesn't bother me really, the earbuds I have last 10 hours per charge so it's fine by me with this setup. But that's a hint for Oculus : Check the data bandwidth through the cables and see which one is getting a bottleneck!
EDIT : I forgot to add that you could do this the other way around as well, disabling the built-in mic and leaving the built-in audio enabled. Then you can go ahead and use your own mic like ModMic for example. This also causes the robotic voice issue to clear up.
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Marek commented
I just got mine a week ago and right out the box, I was having this issue. It's odd. It's not like it happens when I speak loudly or anything it's just completely random. Hoping that it is a software issue that they can fix in the future, I'm very shocked nobody at Oculus even said anything about the issue.
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Inferno Digital commented
I've been through two different Rift S headsets now and neither have had a working mic. they'll show up in windows, I can see the devices, but Oculus can't get any audio input from either one. I've tried updates, reinstalls, the gamut, with no avail. Definitely support this.
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Mr Snakes commented
Can confirm that this also happens with my Oculus Rift S, had enough just going to return it and save up for an Index, which is a shame because besides this and the lack of IPD adjustment it's a perfect easy to use headset with stellar tracking considering it uses inside-out sensors.
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Vincent Warte commented
Just got a brand new Oculus Rift S, and in VRChat everyone is complaining that I sound like a satanic robot, just like in the video. This is ********, this needs to be fixed. I'm not willing to wear another headset just so my mic will work.