Microphone too quiet without mic boost

[Qu9ke]

I am currently rockin' the Sennheiser HD 598 headphones along with a ModMic 4.0 from Antlion which I've heard good things about. Anyway my problem is that my microphone, unless you crank your speakers up to 100, is very quiet without the assistance of mic boosting. However, with boosting I get an incessant crackling and buzzing in my ears along with everyone else who has to listen to me lol. Is there any way around this little dilemma? This isn't about just this specific microphone either. My previous headset which was a usb headset went through the same thing. My ModMic as well as my headphones are plugged into a Xonar Essense STX soundcard which is supposed to be top of the line. Anyway any assistance is appreciated.

 

[weez82]

Have you tried the onboard audio mic input? Does this happen with all the voice programs you use?

EDIT: make sure that the mic/line input is set to mic in the asus software or windows drivers. I dont have a Asus card so I dont know if there is that option but there should be

 

[Morbus]

Also, make sure you're connecting the mic to the proper input. Line in may behave differently.