Audacity recording

[gladsaxisme]

For quite a while now I have been wondering why I sound so rubbish when I have recorded on Audacity and sometimes recordings have been very crackly and distorted and mostly just plain flat sounding, I have just found the reason why I believe.

When I have been recording I have compressed the backing track recording so it fits in one window so you can see the whole of the recording, and then recorded my take in the same compressed window it would appear that audacity can't put all the info into the recording when you do it like this and only uses part of the info supplied by the mic so you get a very dull recording, I have just done a recording today with the recording running through lots of windows or fully expanded so to speak and it is completely different with lots more character, I doubt this is going to make me into a saxophone god but I'm hoping there will be a big improvement, hope this helps other novice recorders ...John

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

I to am finding my feet with Audacity, the reason my sound was so bad was that I had the mixer and mic somehow running through the inbuilt sound module on the pc rather than the 10-10 sound card, got that part sorted and yes its much better but I'm still not 100% happy with the sound, ideally I'd like to get the sound somewere close to what Davey or Ian produce, I'm not talking about playing ability but the actual sound they get but that seems a long way off yet.

I managed to upload this months BOTM to Audacity last night, played it and played along to it... no matter what I did I could only just hear the sax in the background so am guessing I need headphones to listen to the backing then record the sax part separately and then somehow blend the two together? this will be my next step! if you know how to do this please let me know!

 

[gladsaxisme]

I to am finding my feet with Audacity, the reason my sound was so bad was that I had the mixer and mic somehow running through the inbuilt sound module on the pc rather than the 10-10 sound card, got that part sorted and yes its much better but I'm still not 100% happy with the sound, ideally I'd like to get the sound somewere close to what Davey or Ian produce, I'm not talking about playing ability but the actual sound they get but that seems a long way off yet.

I managed to upload this months BOTM to Audacity last night, played it and played along to it... no matter what I did I could only just hear the sax in the background so am guessing I need headphones to listen to the backing then record the sax part separately and then somehow blend the two together? this will be my next step! if you know how to do this please let me know!

Obviously as you know I'm no expert but when you have the backing in audacity make sure its fully epanded and not showing the whole tune in the one window and can listen to it at any volume you want what I do is press pause then the record button and another record track opens underneath your backing track now along the top there are drop down boxes and you can choose how your getting your input from the mic,try a few of these to see which works best,also along the top you will find an input volume window I set this at .5 I also start the record monitor another drop down box under a little mic directly under the sound monitor,then its release the pause and off we go hoping for the best, hope this helps in some way ....john

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Thank you John, just had a pm from Chris explaining how to go on, reading that plus reading your post it's all beginning to make sense to me know, think I'm going to be ordering a Rode NT 2000 condenser mic later and possibly a set of head phones so hopefully I will be banging something out within the next few days! nice one John and thanks again..

 

[Taz]

I don't know if this will help or hinder people trying to use Audacity, but here is a photo list of how to do it.

First open Audacity, then go to File in the top left hand corner



Then drop down to Import and slide across to Audio



Now you need to know where your backing tracks are stored. As you can see, mine are in My Music (Windows 7)



Then you wait for the track to be imported. Once you hit the record button, another "empty" track will open underneath your imported track. As you play, you can see the blue sound wave appear as you play.



You can now adjust the volume levels of each track by looking to the left of the selected track and moving the volume slider left or right. By going to the menu at the top of the screen, you will find the Effects tab This will open a pull down menu where you will find Reverb



Clicking on the Reverb will open a box. In the bottom left hand corner is an option to load presets.



These are the options that my version of Audacity gives me. I find that a Medium Room works quite well



I hope this helps

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Excellent Pete, many thanks

 

[daveysaxboy]

I to am finding my feet with Audacity, the reason my sound was so bad was that I had the mixer and mic somehow running through the inbuilt sound module on the pc rather than the 10-10 sound card, got that part sorted and yes its much better but I'm still not 100% happy with the sound, ideally I'd like to get the sound somewere close to what Davey or Ian produce, I'm not talking about playing ability but the actual sound they get but that seems a long way off yet.

I managed to upload this months BOTM to Audacity last night, played it and played along to it... no matter what I did I could only just hear the sax in the background so am guessing I need headphones to listen to the backing then record the sax part separately and then somehow blend the two together? this will be my next step! if you know how to do this please let me know!

Yea headphones, download track in audacity, press record and you can hear both sax and track. Theres soooo much stuff on youtube that takes you step by step through all this. Its simple once you know but you need to learn how 1st :shocked: no escaping the learning curve. Forget about blowing tomorrow and spend a couple of hours on youtube and your sorted.

 

[daveysaxboy]

Word of warning your in for a treat with the dreaded LATENCY ..... if your starting recording on this new system I think it will be well out of time,sax with track. Its the milli seconds it takes the sound to bounce through each phase. Again youtube will save you but its a mare at 1st until you get your system locked in to speak. Just keep plugging away.

 

[DavidUK]

When playing back a recorded song in Audacity so as to try and learn it, is there a way of slowing it down whilst maintaining the pitch? I can't see how to slow it without the pitch changing? I've downloaded an Android app to my phone - ASC - which promises to do this but it's a hassle to have to record to Audacity then transfer to my phone (not sure how to do the latter anyhow on my HTC One X+).

Thanks for any help. BTW I was in the middle of saving "Georgia on my mind" to Audacity when I spotted the thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRgWBN8yt_E
This sounds like a good version to try to follow, unless you know better naturally. ;}

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

OK folks...that's all me money spent! just hope I can do it ok otherwise you lot will have to come round and do it for me!

 

[altissimo]

When playing back a recorded song in Audacity so as to try and learn it, is there a way of slowing it down whilst maintaining the pitch? I can't see how to slow it without the pitch changing?

click on the Effect menu and select 'Change Tempo' - but please be aware that it will process the audio, so be careful if you save it and rename the slowed down version, so you don't overwrite your original track

 

[Colin the Bear]

When playing back a recorded song in Audacity so as to try and learn it, is there a way of slowing it down whilst maintaining the pitch? I can't see how to slow it without the pitch changing? I've downloaded an Android app to my phone - ASC - which promises to do this but it's a hassle to have to record to Audacity then transfer to my phone (not sure how to do the latter anyhow on my HTC One X+).
;}

Try this

http://gb.abrsm.org/en/exam-support/practice-tools-and-applications/speedshifter/

 

[jazzdoh]

I am a complete numpty with this sort of stuff (computer music programs that is)but am hoping for either a usb mic or usb audio interface in santa's sack this year,is there a best way to go regarding these 2 options?

Thanks in advance

 

[DavidUK]

click on the Effect menu and select 'Change Tempo' - but please be aware that it will process the audio, so be careful if you save it and rename the slowed down version, so you don't overwrite your original track

Whatever percentage I put in the "Percent Change" field it doesn't slow it down. Tried 50, 10, 0.1. What am I doing wrong?

Aha.... you have to use a MINUS percent to slow it down. No such thing as a minus percent really, but there you go! Sorted now thanks.

 

[gladsaxisme]

WOW Pete I hadn't realised you were a PC genius how do you get all those windows showing, I will be working my way through them to try to enlighten myself on the recording processes, thanks ....John

 

[Taz]

They are "screen shots" John I hope they help, but if you want any more help, just ask.

 

[Alc.]

I downloaded tracks to Audacity but cannot get sound! And Ebay no longer has Realistic 33-103 mic in stock.

 

[llamedos]

Reading the complexities of recording as expounded above makes me wonder how the hell Les Paul managed without the benefits of Audacity!

Hats off to those who can understand and execute all of this.

Dave

 

[Alc.]

Les Paul was either an extremely brilliant guy...or a nut. I sometimes wonder, as he drove Mary Ford away from him. Not smart.

 

[gladsaxisme]

I downloaded tracks to Audacity but cannot get sound! And Ebay no longer has Realistic 33-103 mic in stock.

No expert,in fact a bit of a PC dinasaur but I think you need to watch what your selecting in the drop down boxes where the mic and speaker are to get the sound going to the right place .....hope this helps ......John