Audio tips

The single biggest factor in translation quality isn’t the software — it’s how clearly your voice reaches the microphone. A $20 clip-on mic in a quiet room will give you noticeably better results than a $500 microphone in a reverberant hall.

This guide helps you get the best audio into your sessions with practical, proven setups.

Choosing a microphone

The closer the microphone is to your mouth, the better the translation. Here’s what works in practice:

Lavalier (clip-on) microphones are the best all-round choice. They clip to your shirt 15–30 cm from your mouth, move with you as you gesture, and block out most background noise. A wired lavalier with a USB or 3.5mm connection is affordable and reliable. For a deeper comparison, see Choose the right microphone.

Headset microphones give the clearest signal of any common type — the capsule sits right at the corner of your mouth. They’re ideal for loud rooms, outdoor events, and speakers who move around a lot.

Table microphones work when you’re sitting at a desk or podium and staying in one spot. They pick up more room echo than a wearable mic, so stay within about a metre. If this is your only option, designate one speaking position and brief others to pass the spot rather than speak across the room.

Handheld microphones are fine for Q&A segments but less reliable for the main session. The distance from your mouth varies, handling creates noise, and off-axis pickup degrades quality. If you must use one, hold it at a consistent distance and avoid touching the grille.

Wired vs wireless

Wired connections (USB, 3.5mm) are always reliable. No pairing, no battery, no signal drop.

Bluetooth microphones can work, but they introduce three risks:

• Audio compression that can reduce clarity
• Interference in rooms with many Bluetooth devices — phones, watches, laptops all competing
• Battery dropouts that cause glitches mid-session

If Bluetooth is your only option, test the full setup for at least 15 minutes before your event. Check that the live transcript in your presenter view matches what you’re saying. If you’re feeding audio into a live broadcast, wired connections are strongly recommended.

Setting up the room

The translation handles moderate background noise well — air conditioning, distant traffic, corridor hum are all fine. Watch out for three things:

• Hard surfaces. Concrete walls, glass partitions, and empty rooms create echo that confuses the transcription. Soft furnishings, carpet, and curtains make a big difference. Even pulling down projector screens or closing blinds helps. For a full room-setup walkthrough, see Host a multilingual meeting.
• Overlapping voices. Two people speaking at once is the most common cause of translation errors in panel discussions. One speaker at a time gives the best results. A simple “let them finish” rule works wonders.
• Sudden bangs. Door slams, dropped items, microphone bumps — these produce a burst of noise that the system tries to interpret as speech. The transcript recovers quickly, but it may show a brief glitch.

What to watch during your session

The live transcript on your presenter screen is your best diagnostic tool. If you notice:

• Words replaced by similar-sounding words → your mic might be too far away, or the room is too echoey
• Entire phrases missing → you moved away from the mic, or two people spoke at once
• Filler words appearing that you didn’t say → background noise is creeping in between your sentences
• A gap followed by normal text → a loud noise caused a brief interruption

The fix is almost always the same: move the microphone closer to your mouth, or reduce background noise. A cheap lavalier in the right position will outperform an expensive microphone that’s too far away.