See your voice on a live waveform and hear it played straight back
Processed in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Updated on 24 Oct 2026.Two seconds of silence at the start of a meeting is usually somebody discovering their microphone is muted in hardware. Press start, watch the waveform move as you speak, and read the verdict underneath: too quiet, about right, or clipping. Then record five seconds and play it back to hear exactly what the far end will hear. Nothing is written to a file and nothing is uploaded.
The Microphone tab is already open; press Start the microphone check.
Allow the microphone, then say a few words and watch the live waveform move.
Press Record 5 seconds, then Play it back to hear what the other people on the call will hear.
Press Stop and release the microphone; the recording stays in this page and is not sent anywhere.
This page runs the four checks that answer "is my audio working" before a call starts. A tone plays through the left speaker alone, then the right alone, then both together. The microphone shows a live waveform and a level meter with a verdict. And a five second record and play back lets you hear what the other end will hear.
If both channels played the same frequency, somebody with their headphones on backwards would hear the same thing twice and learn nothing. The left tone is 440 Hz and the right is 660 Hz, so a swap is audible even to a listener who cannot reliably tell which ear a sound is in. The third step plays both together at a third frequency, which catches a balance control that has drifted off centre.
The meter reads the level in decibels relative to full scale and sorts it into five bands. Silence below -55 dBFS means nothing is arriving: check that the right input is selected, that no other application has taken the microphone, and that the device is not muted in hardware. Between -55 and -40 is very quiet, and at that level noise suppression on a call will cut the ends off your words. Between -40 and -12 is a good working range. Above -12 is louder than it needs to be, and a peak that reaches full scale is clipping, which squares off the loudest parts of your voice and cannot be repaired afterwards.
The rest of the article, and all 6 questions about Speaker and Mic Test, are on the Speaker and Mic Test page.
Press start, allow the microphone when the browser asks, and speak normally. The waveform should move and the meter should sit in the good band. Then record five seconds and play it back, because hearing yourself catches problems a meter cannot, such as a fan or a keyboard drowning your voice.
Three causes cover almost every case: the browser was never given microphone permission, another application has taken exclusive control of the device, or the input level is so low that noise suppression removes what remains. Silence on the meter here points at the first two; a very low reading points at the third.
Run the channel test, which plays 440 Hz through the left speaker alone, then 660 Hz through the right alone, then a third note through both. Different frequencies on each side mean a swapped pair is audible even if you cannot tell which ear a sound came from.
Clipping means the loudest parts of your voice reached the maximum the recording can represent and were squared off. The result sounds harsh and crackly and cannot be repaired afterwards. Lower the input level in your system sound settings, or move back from the microphone by a few centimetres.
Still stuck? Ask about Speaker and Mic Test and anybody who knows can answer. No account needed.
Same job, other tools: Frequency Generator – Generate a steady test frequency for speakers, headphones or instruments · Audiogram Test – Draw an audiogram-shaped chart from tones you say you could hear · High Frequency Hearing Check – Screen the top tones, 4 kHz and 8 kHz, ear by ear, then test higher with a tone generator · Audio Sweep Generator – Play a slow logarithmic sweep and hear every rattle in the room · Headphone Frequency Test – Hear where your headphones stop, by ear rather than by chart.
On the related tools: Increase Audio Volume – Raise a quiet recording as far as it will go before anything starts to distort.
In the collection Audio Test Tools.