Accidental (But Awesome) Recording Phenomenon

I use Adobe Audition to record dialog for an animated web series that I create.  For years I had difficulty getting clean recordings due to background sound.  As many know, without an actual recording studio, it is difficult to have a completely quiet place to record.  It never fails, when I would try to record, someone was running the vacuum, mowing the grass, banging pans, etc.  Even the sound of a fan or air conditioner is bothersome.  Well… I no longer have that problem.  I bought a new laptop, with Windows 10.  Surprisingly, I found that when I recorded audio, it will ONLY pickup voices.  It will NOT pickup any other sound.  I can literally clap my hands right into the microphone and it will NOT pick up the sound. I can bang my hand on the desk and make the loudest sound possible and it will NOT pick up the sound.  It is amazing. I can run the air conditioner and it will NOT pickup the sound of it.  As I noted, it will ONLY pickup voices.

I tried to do some research on this.  Apparently this same phenomenon was happening to some others with HP Laptop (Envy x360 and Windows 10).  I read about online music teachers that could no longer record the sound of guitar or piano as it would ONLY record voice, not musical notes. For those people it was not helpful. However, for people recording mostly voices, it is a game changer!

So to make a long story short… this recording phenomenon can be VERY BENEFICIAL to certain recording artists. As I noted, for me it has been awesome.  Yes, there has been times when I wanted to record a weird sound such as a sigh, groan, a sneeze; and it doesn’t always record properly.  For those sounds I use a different recording device.  However, to record voice audio, it is amazing. 

Now to my problem.  I cannot upgrade to any other version of Windows.  This phenomenon only works with this particular computer, with these particular components, with this particular version of Windows. I upgraded to Windows 11 and lost this awesome feature which was VERY upsetting to me. I tried everything… many different computers and setups, but I could not get the “phenomenon” back. I finally resorted back to Windows 10 on my HP Laptop and got it back.  I don’t think it is just a Windows 10 issue. I think it is a combination of Windows 10 with this particular HP Laptop (Sound Board??).

I think if this feature / phenomenon could be recreated and infused as an option, it would be an awesome feature for many people making voice / dialog audio recordings.  I know there settings such as noise reduction and clean up of audio after the fact or noise gates when recording. However, this particular “phenomenon” blows all that out of the water. My hope is that someone can figure out how it works and hopefully recreate it so that I can use it on other computers and with upgraded versions of Windows.