Now that we have an in client Mic test option, I'd like to improve it to allow hearing the test recording as other clients will hear it rather than just a straight playback of the raw input.

In my case, I have my Mic already leveled and balanced in Windows, so that I don't clip even when I get loud, but have a good level for normal talking. I recently discovered when watching clips I'm present in that I sound overly loud and distorted, clipping, which made no sense. To test I recorded a VRC client in OBS that I joined on and talked at while face to face. This showed there was noticeable gain applied to the output the listener was getting, and I could hear the muffling of my voice from the clipping and heavy compression. I had to back my Mic down to 50% in VRC to keep from clipping on the listener's side. Testing my Mic using VRC's option in the voice menu I sound clean and kinda quiet to myself even with the VRC Mic output set to 100%, no compression, no gain noted. (Test client audio settings were confirmed, 100% voice, 100% base, no earmuffs/etc.)

Having an option for the Mic test recording to go through the whole audio chain and be played back as if from a speaker approximately a foot or so away would have allowed me to catch this locally. It would also allow for much quicker fixing of my settings. Mentioning this in one of my Discords, another friend noted they we experiencing the same sensation of their voice being overly gained up in VRC as well from other's perspectives.

I did confirm that with the Steam Audio Beta as of today (10/10/25) there is more overall gain applied compared to the mainline client on the talker's end. For the listener the only noted change when going from mainline to SAB was my voice came through with a wider freq range, primarily noticed with more lower frequencies making it across, no appreciable gain from changing the listener's client. Again, being able to hear the whole audio chain in a test would simplify this testing.