DraStic

Just got this fired up for my kid, and sadly the microphone doesn't seem to be working. Drastic is currently running on a kindle fire. The microphone on the kindle fire works fine. However she needs to say the dog's name and it won't register at all. I partially got something to happen by bringing up the menu after pushing the button to start the microphone on the DS, then I pushed the right controller button to make the microphone "active" or whatever that is.. but all I got was just a bunch of static and not a recording of the dog's name.

Otherwise drastic has been working like a champ, but my kid is really into pets and would love to play this game. Any ideas on how I can get this mic working?

Maybe the Microphone sensitivity is too low. Try increasing it a bit and tell me the results.

dsattorney wrote:Maybe the Microphone sensitivity is too low. Try increasing it a bit and tell me the results.

I'd tried that already and set it to the highest level it made no difference. Is there any kind of in app testing option that can be done to make sure the app is listening to the microphone properly?

I think Pokémon Black and White (and Black and White 2 in consequence) have a Mic Test option to check the Microphone is working correctly. Try that. If the Mic works correctly, the Jigglypuff on the bottom screen will do something.

dsattorney wrote:I think Pokémon Black and White (and Black and White 2 in consequence) have a Mic Test option to check the Microphone is working correctly. Try that. If the Mic works correctly, the Jigglypuff on the bottom screen will do something.

Okay I put that on the fire. Even set to the highest level sensitivity, it's a bit off. Like my normal voice doesn't seem to set it off at all. I have to be pretty close and use a pretty sharp voice to get jigglypuff to respond to something. However while I'm typing on my mechanical keyboard here I notice jigglypuff doing all kinds of dancing. My kid's voice might be a bit soft for this so that's why it isn't registering.

Any other ways to boost it? Alexa doesn't seem to have any issues hearing anything on the device.

Maybe the feature "Simulate Microphone Noise" will help.
Go to Options and Virtual Gamepad, there pick one of the special buttons and select "Simulate Microphone Noise".
A new button will appear at the top of the screen, you can use it to enable and disable that feature.
Try the microphone with that feature on, also when is off to check any difference

That button only works when it is held on. Tried it just some seconds ago with the Mic Test option in B&W. When I hold the button, the Jigglypuff does something. But if I release it, it stops.

SSUPII wrote:Maybe the feature "Simulate Microphone Noise" will help.
Go to Options and Virtual Gamepad, there pick one of the special buttons and select "Simulate Microphone Noise".
A new button will appear at the top of the screen, you can use it to enable and disable that feature.
Try the microphone with that feature on, also when is off to check any difference

From what I've read, that only simulates blowing in the microphone, so that you don't have to. In the case of nintendogs you need to say the dogs name and it will start to learn its name so you can call it. It isn't simply taking random noise. I'll give it a shot, but I'm not sure that will do anything. I'll check the voice recorder on the device just to make sure it isn't a mic issue, but a couple things I tried with alexa worked fine.

crossmr wrote: From what I've read, that only simulates blowing in the microphone, so that you don't have to.

And you are correct about that.

dsattorney wrote:

crossmr wrote: From what I've read, that only simulates blowing in the microphone, so that you don't have to.

And you are correct about that.

We had given up a bit on that and gone back to it. If my kid says the name quite sharply and loudly it will register, but when it plays it back, it sounds like garbage. A lot of noise, really garbled, you can make out what is being said, but barely so I suspect it won't work that well for the dog's name. We tested the normal voice recording function on the tablet and that seems to record fine, so I don't think it's a problem with the tablet mic. I think it must be related to drastic. anything that can be done to clean it up at all?

Edit: In a moment of clarity I realized what the problem was. Apparently it's fine for things like Alexa, but the kids case that is on the fire tablet was actually on top of the microphone hole. Removing the case or using earphones with a mic on it seems to have fixed the microphone issues.