Rocket Record Difficulty setting and Microphone Issues feedback

I have my Rocket Record Difficulty set at "Hard", and I use an inexpensive headset (Microsoft brand) that I bought on Amazon for $18.  

All in all, it works fairly well, BUT...there are some phrases and letters that seem to be very difficult sounds and letters for the microphones to pick up correctly.  V's, B's, D's, T's and R's often have problems (compounded by the fact that they are pronounced differently from one Spanish-speaking country to another), and I also seem to have troubles with exclamations (like "Ah..." and "Ay..."), and also sentences that begin with "Él".  

There are a few others, and I'm really not sure if there is any way to address the issue.  I don't care to set my Rocket Record Difficulty lower than "Hard", because I am very familiar with the timbre and the timing of Spanish, and I can usually score 100%, but with the examples above, I can sometimes only score 75%.  I can usually let it go as a quirk to the technology of voice recognition, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that it can be very frustrating, particularly when you KNOW you are saying something correctly.  

I'm curious where the rest of you have your Rocket Record Difficulty set at, and what type of microphone you use, and if you experience any of the same issues that I do with the voice recognition.  
 

Hi Yademas, 

We apologize for the voice recognition problem as we are aware that with some phrases the feature has problems rating the recording correctly. Unfortunately, we don't have a way to set them all together and fix the glitch, but if you do encounter a similar issue in the future, please send us an email to support@rocketlanguages.com and we will do our best to fix the phrase so it can be processed accurately. 

Technically, there would not be a need for the microphone to be expensive; we only recommend to use a headset better than the in-built mic and make sure the site has authorization to use it. 

Kind Regards!
 

yadamas: I have some of the same issues as you, as well as some different ones. The thing that used to bother me most is when I take a natural pause in a sentence and the machine thinks I am done. I have tried speaking faster to avoid this, but at the sacrifice of good pronunciation.

I finally came to the realization that the system is imperfect and just does not have the intelligence to know when I am pausing or when I am finished. I have been studying Spanish for several years, I have paid attention to pronunciation so I know when I am speaking a word correctly or not. I am far more interested in speaking correctly than I am in what the machine thinks I am doing.

So I set the difficulty at easy, I speak slowly and clearly enough to be accurate and use good pronunciation, and just don't bother with how the computer rates me. I know when I am on and when I am not. Frankly, the only reason I use Rocket Record at all is to snag the points.

indeed, scarf up those points! (smile). thanks for the heads-up regarding yabla - i'm finding it extremely useful (particularly for the various accents).

i have never used rocket record. the time it takes for the system to recognize (or not) what i say is time i prefer to spend trying to train my mind to think in the language (speed/reflex in responding, thinking through and articulating concepts, etc.).