Iris Clarity hands-on review: Your personal cone of silence

Iris Clarity hands-on review: Your personal cone of silence

MSRP $10.00

“Iris Clarity lets you create your own virtual bubble when you want to be heard in video conference calls.”

Avg

• Simple installation

• Effective sound isolation

• Wide range of compatibility

• Windows and Mac ready

• Can work with noise canceling headphones

Against

• No mobile app

• Certain applications are not compatible

• expensive

If there’s one thing the pandemic has highlighted, it’s background noise. All those video conferences and interviews with the echoes of children, pets, and various other ambient sounds in the background put more emphasis on being able to block them out.

That’s where voice isolation comes in, and Iris Clarity is software built to do just that, by creating a virtual bubble that keeps one’s voice audible while ignoring everything else outside of it. Does it work or does that bubble burst too much to be an effective barrier? Let’s listen to find out.

Compatibility and setup

IRIS Audio

Developed by Iris Audio, Clarity is desktop software for Windows and MacOS that essentially acts as a plug-in for other applications that require access to your computer’s microphone and speakers. The idea is to block background noise when using popular video conferencing apps, such as Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Slack, Hopin, and several others. It does this through artificial intelligence that cuts out peripheral sounds to focus on the person’s voice instead.

Think of it the way a cardioid microphone works, where the sound sensitivity follows a narrower pattern facing the person speaking. In this way, the sensitivity is more linear, although it can pick up some sounds from the side. With Clarity enabled, the “bulb” around the person speaking should be tighter, so that only their voice can be heard by others in the call. It works in standard proximity to a computer, allowing everything to feel natural when you’re talking while sitting or standing in front of it.

For the apps it works with, setup wasn’t difficult.

In theory, this would apply to any desktop application with access to a microphone and speakers, but that’s not necessarily the case. For example, WhatsApp and FaceTime use system settings that do not allow you to change the audio input and output. Same with Zendesk. If your application doesn’t allow you to change the input and output, there’s no way to get it to work with Clarity.

For the apps it works with, setup isn’t difficult. A simple download and installation places the app as a widget on the Windows taskbar or the Mac menu bar. Microphone and speaker sliders with drop-down menus allow you to select a device for each. If it’s the computer’s own microphone, you can do this. If you are connecting an external microphone, you can select it instead. The next part is to enter the Settings whatever application you will use for video chat and select Iris as the microphone and speaker control. Once this is done, Clarity is applied to the audio within that application.

Details

IRIS Audio

There’s one thing Clarity definitely doesn’t do despite its name, and that’s improve existing sound quality. There is no virtual digital-to-analog converter (DAC) or AI-based equalizer to improve overall fidelity. The whole point here is simply to allow people to be heard without any distractions going on in the background – something that has probably been the subject of many a joke within organizations that have been doing virtual calls over the past two years.

What’s interesting is that it works bi-directionally, meaning that when you have Clarity on, the person you’re talking to will also benefit from it. You would hear them with the same isolation that they would hear from you. This creates an interesting situation during multi-party calls. Basically, whoever has Clarity will apply voice isolation to anyone they talk to or hear.

The isolation worked every time I tried it.

The only catch is that the two participants are speaking directly to each other without clarity in this scenario. Since neither of them have Clarity, they won’t hear any voice isolation from either side. This makes for a unique setup where a Clarity user will feel like they’re hearing everyone talking to them in isolation, while others will hear a mix, depending on who’s actually speaking.

Clarity doesn’t have a mobile version, but if you’re using a mobile device to make a call and the person you’re talking to has the software enabled on their computer, you’ll both benefit from improved audio.

To talk

IRIS Audio

The isolation worked every time I tried it, although the type of background noise can make a difference. A screaming siren from an ambulance or fire truck will almost certainly break through the bubble if it’s close and loud enough, although it will still be muffled. This was a rare occurrence for me, and I generally didn’t encounter any problems using Clarity. If I were outside on my balcony, the wind would be the biggest challenge, as the gusts effectively penetrated the bubble and damaged the insulation. A revving car with thick exhaust pipes might also screech, but I was surprised by how much the app reduced it.

It tempted me to see what apps I could use with the Clarity, and sure enough it worked with Audacity and Final Cut Pro, allowing for good quality audio to be recorded without the ambient stuff seeping through. This is quite crucial in confined spaces where acoustics can be a problem, like in a hotel or a room at home surrounded by wood and windows. The key is that the Clarity passes through the input and output you choose, so if you’re using a really good mic and speaker, you don’t lose quality in any case.

If you think noise-canceling headphones can do what the Clarity does, that would only be true for your ears.

One of my complaints was about the overall stability of the app. I had to uninstall and reinstall it twice because it stopped responding. It followed after the second install, so I’m going to assume that at least part of that problem has to do with how fresh it was when I tested it, given that it only launched in April 2022. I’ll update this review if it turns out to be a general problem.

If you think noise-canceling headphones can do what the Clarity does, that would only be true for your ears. Wearing a good pair of ANC pods may block out noise for you, but it does nothing for the person on the other end of the call (unless those pods of yours also have stellar noise-canceling mics). If they can hear the same ambient sounds you’re trying to cancel out, then the effect is technically one-way. In this case, using Clarity together with ANC headphones or earbuds allows you to better manage the call because it’s like a two-way street. You only hear each other talking, while the headphones cancel out all the noise going on around you so you can hear them better.

Competitive options

Apple

While using Clarity, it reminded me that Apple has a similar feature it aptly calls Voice Isolation that you can enable on many VoIP calls. It actually works on Mac (MacOS Monterey or later), as well as iPhones and iPads running iOS 15 or later. The caveat is that you have to enable it during the call, and even then you run into a guardrail. It will work fine in FaceTime on all three devices, but does nothing with Zoom on the Mac, despite working on the iOS app. It works well on WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, Instagram and Snapchat, but not on TikTok. It can’t run on anything browser-based, so if you’re using either of those platforms on a Mac, you’ll need their desktop apps to make it work.

Clarity has an advantage in that way because it can work with browser-based apps, so you’re fine if you prefer to use Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and any other VoIP platform that allows virtual conferencing in the browser. It’s also quite versatile, considering it works with hundreds of different applications, including screen and audio recording utilities.

Although I have yet to test it, Krisp uses a very similar AI-driven concept to achieve the same results as Clarity. Setup and implementation are largely along the same lines, but differ somewhat in metrics, such as how Krisp offers real-time data collection for engagement and talk time, among others.

Price and availability

Iris looks at both individual users and teams, which is why pricing tiers reflect how many people will ultimately be involved. A freelancer working from home can use a personal plan for £8 a month (about $10) or pay an annual rate of £60 (about $75). Those rates remain the same per person under the Team Plan for anywhere between two to 200 users. Businesses looking to deploy it to more than 200 users should contact Iris to get a quote.

A seven-day free trial applies equally to all levels, allowing you to try it out first before committing to paying.

The point? Setting aside money for this really depends on your circumstances. If you make a lot of virtual calls, and not always from the same location, Clarity can prove to be very useful. This is also true for companies that might want to apply it to their employees. If you’re only going to use it occasionally, it’s hard to justify paying that much.

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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn