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Using Voice Chat
Welcome to Voice in Second Life!
Voice chat is an important soon-to-be new feature of Second Life which will greatly expand the possibilities of our Metaverse and the potential of its citizens. This wonderful communication pathway will open doors into Second Life for people currently excluded by SL's old text-only platform and enable many citizens who are limited by the current status quo to shine. Second Life has been a text-based environment for a long time, however, and some residents well aquainted with and accustomed to the way things were are understandably wary of and filled with questions regarding this pending change to our world. This tutorial presents a simple introduction to Second Life's Voice Chat features and early established best practices in an effort to assuage some of those fears and answer common questions regarding the use of Voice Chat in Second Life.
When you first use a voice-enabled Second Life client, Voice Chat is not enabled by default. Open up your Preferences window from the Edit menu and select the Voice Chat tab to enable voice and set your voice chat preferences.
- Select the "Enable voice chat" checkbox
- Voice volume and stereo balance is proximity based. From the "Hear voice at" drop down menu, choose whether you wish incoming voices to be attenuated by "camera position and camera direction", "avatar position and avatar direction", or "avatar position and camera direction". (The first option is recommended if you are attending a lecture or some other presentation in which audience members are seated close together and the primary speaker is situated some distance away.)
- Select "Use Push-to-Talk mode". This mode enables you to control when your voice (and other noises in your physical environment) are transmitted. Its use is generally considered to be good voice chat etiquette in most situations.
If you do not select this option, your microphone will be always active. A locked open microphone may be desirable in some situations, but, if you keep your microphone live, please make certain that you are transmitting from a quiet environment which is free of babies crying, dogs barking, car tires screeching, coughing, hacking, wheezing, heavy breathing and other background noises. Additionally, please refrain from echoing Second Life noises back into the sound stream. This means that, whenever your microphone is open, you need to be wearing headphones and NOT feeding SL sounds through open speakers.
Note: If you need to lock your microphone open (so you can talk hands-free), there are other options to enable this which can be adjusted more quickly and are therefore preferable to use.
- Select "Push-to-Talk acts as a toggle" if you wish to lock your microphone on and off with one click of your talk trigger. (This option allows for hands-free speech.) Leave this option unselected to keep your microphone off except when you are pressing your talk trigger.
- When using Push-to-Talk mode you can activate your microphone via the on screen Talk button on the Voice tab, by pressing your middle mouse button, or by pressing a talk trigger keyboard key of your choosing. To set a Push-to-Talk keyboard key, press the "Set Key" button, then press the key you wish to use. To revert your talk trigger to the middle mouse button, press the button of the same name.
- Click "Okay" to apply your settings.
Your on-screen Voice Tab provides quick and easy access to the primary voice chat features.
- A volume slider allows you to make a general adjustment of the amplitude of all voice chat.
- The "Talk" button opens your microphone. Hold it depressed to speak while in "Push-to-Talk" mode but not in toggle mode. Press once and release to toggle your microphone on or off while in "Push-to-Talk" and toggle mode.
- Press the key symbol on the Talk button to lock your microphone on while in "Push-to-Talk" but not toggle mode. Press it again to turn your microphone off.
- Press the "Speakers" button to open (or close) your Active Speakers window.
The Active Speakers window shows a list of all residents in your current Voice Channel. By default, avatar names are sorted in speech order with the most recent speaker appearing at the top of the list. Click on the "Name" tab to switch to alphabetical sort order by avatar name if you prefer. Coloured dots beside avatar names indicate the current speakers, with brightness and hue indicating speech intensity.
A green dot in the Active Speakers window and green sound waves above an avatar's head indicate a resident who is speaking within a desirable volume range.
A red dot and red sound waves pattern indicate someone who is speaking too loudly. If this is you, please try adjusting your volume by speaking more softly, moving your microphone further away from your mouth, and/or adjusting the volume control on your microphone.
If a particular avatar is speaking too loudly or too softly for your preference, you can adjust that avatar's speech volume individually. Simply select the avatar's name from the Active Speakers list to highlight it and click and drag on the volume slider at the bottom of the Active Speakers window until a desirable volume for that avatar is achieved.
If you wish to mute a resident entirely, simply select the resident's name, then click the "Mute" button. A red circle with a slash through it will appear in the Active Speakers window beside the name of any resident you have muted.
When communicating via Voice in Second Life, be sure to keep an eye on text chat as well. Some Second Life residents choose not to/are unable to use voice in Second Life, and many successful and enjoyable group chats occur as a mix of voice and typed chat!
Whether you choose to let your voice be heard or not, please respect the right of your Second Life neighbours to communicate via the media/medium which they choose to use. By showing consideration to one another and honouring and supporting each individual's strengths, we will shine together as a community.
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