How to stop microphone permission from interfering with audio?

Question

I'm having a very weird issue and it seems to be recent with my laptop (I have an Asus Vivobook if that helps).

Any time I'm using an application that requires the microphone (Google Meet, Zoom, Messenger), if someone is sharing video or audio, I can hear the voices (albeit a little distorted) but I can't hear any music. For example: if a song is playing, then what I hear on my end is just the isolated vocals of the singers, but not the music or instruments. This happens with speakers, headphones connected through Bluetooth as well as through the audio jack (so literally through any medium). I've noticed that if I turn off the microphone permission, then the audio comes through perfectly (but then that means I can't speak through to the other person. So turning it back on just reverts to the initial issue.)

I've tried changing the default input and output device, restarting the laptop, troubleshooting, scanning for corrupted files, using the Task Manager to end tasks that were using audio, but nothing seems to work.

Please help!

Answer 1

Hi!

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

High chance that this is "Microphone enhancements" Windows (and ASUS laptops especially) ship with drivers that try to "cancel out" sounds from the speakers so they don’t feed back into the microphone. The side effect is exactly what you’re experiencing: background sounds (like music, instruments, effects) get filtered out, while voices remain.

You can try these steps if it helps:

Disable "Audio Enhancements" or "Noise Suppression"

• Right-click the speaker icon → Sound settings.
• Scroll to Input → your microphone → Device properties.
• Look for Additional device properties.

In the new window, check the Enhancements or Advanced tab:

• Disable Noise Suppression, Echo Cancellation, or Audio Enhancements.
• Apply and restart the app.

On ASUS laptops, these may also appear as Realtek Audio Console or MyASUS app settings.