Can You Use a USB Mic with Xbox Series X? Yes!

So you want to know if you can use a USB microphone with Xbox Series X. Using a USB microphone with your Xbox Series X will vastly improve your voice chat quality in party chats or when you’re streaming on Twitch.

As someone who has a USB Mic, I took it upon myself to try and get it working with my Xbox. learned a few interesting things that I’m going to share with you.

Why would you want to do this? Well, maybe you have a perfectly good set of headphones (without a microphone) and a USB microphone. You probably don’t want to have to buy yet another headset.

But that doesn’t have to be the case. You can impress people on Xbox voice chat with your buttery smooth voice using the steps outlined below.

Can You Use a USB Mic With Xbox Series X?

xbox microphone splitter

Officially, the Xbox Series X does not support USB microphones. However, you can use a USB microphone with your Xbox Series X by using an audio/microphone splitter and a male-to-male aux cord or through Remote Play. 

It only works if your microphone has a 3.5mm port.

Look:

It’s not the most elegant solution. I would personally recommend buying an Xbox-certified headset (such as the Hyper Cloud X) because it’ll make voice chatting a lot easier.

In short, if you head out and buy these cables, don’t hold it against me if it does not work.

Now I’ll explain how to use a USB mic with an Xbox Series X.

How to Use a USB Mic with Xbox Series X

Use Remote Play

An easier way to get a USB Mic working on Xbox is to use Remote Play on a PC or laptop. I’ll show you how to do it.

First, make sure your microphone is plugged into your PC and set as the default voice device.

Next, type Xbox into the Windows search bar and open the Xbox app. Next to your profile picture on the top left corner, click on the console icon to launch Remote Play.

Once it connects, On your PC, hit Windows Key + G to open Xbox Game Bar. In the top menu, click on Audio, then Voice, and select your USB microphone.

voice devices for xbox gamebar

Open the Remote Play window and join an Xbox party. Now the audio should be coming from your PC’s USB microphone and it will sound much better.

Just keep in mind, the performance of Remote Play highly depends on the speed of your internet connection. It’s recommended to use an ethernet cable with your PC and your Xbox.

You might also notice image compression loss in games and some stuttering from time to time. For the most part, it works good with a wired connection.

Use Audio Splitter Cables

This will only work if your microphone has an audio out port, similar to this picture:

headset audio port

To start, you will need a few things.

The links below take you to Amazon, although you can find the same cables in most hardware stores.

  1. A male-to-female audio/microphone splitter cable
  2. A male-to-male three-prong aux cord (a two-ring could work too, depending on the mic)
  3. A USB microphone with a 3.5mm port and a volume control knob (I like the HyperX Quadcast S)
  4. A non-USB microphone should work too (no need for the male-to-male aux with a non-USB Mic)

Note: You could also do this with a microphone that connects with a 3.5 mm microphone cable.

Once you have these cables, it’s a matter of putting them all together.

Connect the splitter to the 3.5mm port on your controller. Next, connect your headphones to the audio side of the splitter.

From there, connect the male-to-male aux cord to the microphone port on the splitter and the other end to the 3.5m port on your USB microphone.

Make sure all the cables are firmly in place and the USB microphone is connected to a power source.

Note, that some headsets that have a built-in microphone might conflict with the external microphone when using a splitter.

How to Test Microphone Audio on Xbox Series X

Test the audio. Start a party on Xbox and see if the circle around your name lights up. You can also test your audio through a microphone-testing app or have someone join your Xbox party and report back.

Xbox USB Microphone Not Working

I noticed with my headset as the audio output, the USB microphone audio was terrible. The reason for this is that if your headset has an attached microphone, and you try to connect another external microphone through the controller, the two will cancel each other out. Your headset might have a switch to disable the headset microphone.

If your USB microphone has a 3.5mm mic output port, that would be best. On that note, cheap microphones like this clip-on microphone that only uses a microphone cable should work too.

A common issue with this setup is you might hear a lot of feedback and static. I had an issue where whenever my microphone connected to the Xbox would pick up my voice it would all be garbled and horrible.

But sometimes when I would fiddle with the knobs on my microphone my voice would sound better.

Here are some things to try:

  • Turn your microphone off and back on
  • Reconnect wires
  • Make sure wires are fully inserted (should hear a click)
  • Try a different USB port
  • Plug a USB-C cable into your Xbox controller
  • Adjust your microphone’s gain knob

If your microphone has a gain knob, try fiddling with that too. My microphone has a switch for PC and Monitor, only the Monitor mode works on the Xbox, but I constantly hear my own voice.

Your microphone could be different.

Fix for Static on Xbox using External Microphone

I found a potential fix for my microphone. I was using the three-ring male-to-male cable to connect the splitter to the headset port on my microphone.

After some troubleshooting, I noticed that if I slightly disconnect the aux cable from the microphone slot on the splitter, so it’s half-in, the microphone works perfectly fine with my Xbox.

connect usb mic to xbox controller
Connected like this my microphone worked perfectly.

It seems to me that only two rings of the cable need to be inserted into the splitter. Of course, that may be because my microphone is in monitor mode, it’s the only one that works.

Maybe that’s just an issue with my microphone, but either way, disconnecting the cables like that cleared up the static and it sounds wonderful. Except for the fact I hear an echo of myself.

I know what you’re thinking:

Why bother with all of these cables and issues? I know it’s annoying to have a bunch of wires hanging out of your Xbox controller. Unfortunately the only alternative would be to buy a headset specifically for Xbox. A headset makes things easier, that’s for sure.

With a wireless headset, you won’t have to deal with cables hanging out of your controller, and you’ll be able to voice chat with no issues. As for headsets, I like the HyperX Cloud X wireless gaming headset, but almost any Xbox-certified wireless headset will do the trick.

Conclusion

You can get a USB microphone to work with an Xbox series X but you might need to do quite a bit of troubleshooting and fixes. I got mine working by slightly disconnecting the three-prong aux cord from the splitter.

Once again, to avoid all this drama, just buy an Xbox-certified headset that has a built-in microphone, it will work much better.

Wondering if you should buy an Xbox or PS5 controller? Read this article! 

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