Friday, March 9, 2012

2013 1stHELP: Voice.

Voice. 2012
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These instructions apply to Viewer 3.2  and above.  Some details may not apply to other viewers.

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Vocabulary - voice and sound specific
  • Voice system: system that lets you hear people talk and speak to them
  • Sound and media panel: (Me--Preferences).  Turn on voice, set options
  • Speak button: Toggles you voice on, off.  Bottom left
  • Nearby voice list:  Shows people in range with voice on.  Shows who is speaking
  • People window:  Slide-in window from right, tab with heads.  Shows information about people.
  • Local Voice: Voice connection set up when people (avatars) are near each other. open to all people nearby
  • Voice call:  Like a private phone call.
  • Mute: Turn off communication (voice, text, im) from a person/avatar.  Right click on the avatar, click block.
  • Toggle: Turn something off and back on.  First response to tech problems. 
  • Shared media: A web page on a prim.  It can play audio or show video. 
  • Sound media: Audio player on a parcel that plays a sound stream from the web. 
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Voice system
The voice system is probably turned on for you. If so, you may hear people around you talking.  If you see a white dot over your head and don't hear people near you talking, look for the white dots over the heads of other people.  
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If you see green waves coming from any of these dots, that person is talking.  If you don't hear that person talking, zoom in on that person.  And  check your speaker or headphone and  your volume (hover your cursor over the speaker at the upper right of your window).
 See, Zoom, roam, and tag 

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If you don't see any white dots, you may not have voice turned on.  Go to Preferences (Me button, upper left), Sound and Media tab and be sure that the Voice chat option is checked.
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Sound & Media
Preferences, Sound & media tab
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- If you still have problems: 
Talk
If you hear other  people speak, you can speak youself.  You just need a microphone.  The best thing to get is a set of headphones with a boom microphone attached.   A set like that will sell for about $20 USD at electronics stores in USA.

CAUTION --------------------------CAUTION
If you leave your microphone on, you are bringing everyone near you into your room.  They hear your private conversions. They could even record your conversations.  
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Red waves
If the waves over your head sometumes turn red, you are talking too loud for the setting and position of the microphone.  Talk more softly or move the microphone farther from your mouth.  Below your chin or pointing at your nose is probably a good position.   Think of the microphone as a person's ear.    If your voice system produces annoying sounds,  other people will mute you.
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Check or adjust the volume of your microphone in  Second Life 
Me-- Preferences--Sound and Media--input/output devices.  Follow the instructions. (NOTE This will temporarily break your connection with voice.)  
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Loudspeakers
If you are using loudspeakers you will have to turn off your microphone when other people are talking.  Otherwise, they will hear their own voices as picked up by your microphone.  That will bother them a lot.
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Volume of a person
To adjust the volume of a person, zoom in on the avatar.  The volume will go up as you get close. Hover the cursor over the person and a green info button will appear.  Click on the info button, use the volume slider to adjust the volume as needed,
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Private voice call in IM 
You can make a prvate call, much like a phone call.    Click on the avatar, select call.  
  • Or find person's profile in search, 
  • Or on your friends list  (People window).
  • Or on the nearby people list  (People window).
Click on Call.  If the call goes through, you will be disconnected from local voice and connected in private conversation with the other person.
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Mute
To mute a person who annoys you:  right click on the avatar, select block.
Or
Hover the cursor over the name in the list of people nearby:
V3.2 People button  (2 heads)
Click on the green dot, select mute.
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Parcels with voice off
In some parcels, voice may be turned off.  Voice is often turned off for a musical perforrmance to keep open mics from interferring with the performance.   The owner of the parcel can turn voice on and off in that parcel, with an option in the About land panel.
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Other sounds.   
You have several sound channels that you can set independently.  So when you hear sounds, don't assume they are coming in on the voice channel  The link below leads to a description of all the sound channels.
What you need to hear/see audio and video 
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Minor matters
Turn off typing sounds --
 Me--Preferences-- Chat-- uncheck Play typing anim when chatting.
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Lips moving with talking (so you see all avatar lips move when they talk)
Me--Preferences--Sound and media-- Move avatar lips when speaking, check.


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