Recording in Audacity causes distortion
September 17, 2013 4:59 AM Subscribe
I'm in the middle of a project creating educational podcasts to be distributed as part of a digital curriculum. Halfway through the project, literally in the middle of a podcast, my audio quality went from being ok (or at least comparable to other recordings that the company has) to sounding like I'm recording things underwater. I'm using Audacity on Windows 8, and haven't touched the settings of either--any suggestions would be helpful!
This (mp3, tiny) is an example of what's happened. The first three seconds are what it should sound like. Then I paused, and took a drink, and hit record--and got the next five seconds. I didn't, to the best of my knowledge, change anything, and no amount of microphone adjusting makes a difference.
My Audacity settings look like this, which I believe is the default for the program. I even went so far as to uninstall the program and reinstall it, hoping that doing so would magically reset things.
These lessons were on a tight timeline to start with--there are about forty twenty-minute podcasts that my partner and I were meant to get done within about a week--and I'm freaking out a little bit about losing time. Help!
This (mp3, tiny) is an example of what's happened. The first three seconds are what it should sound like. Then I paused, and took a drink, and hit record--and got the next five seconds. I didn't, to the best of my knowledge, change anything, and no amount of microphone adjusting makes a difference.
My Audacity settings look like this, which I believe is the default for the program. I even went so far as to uninstall the program and reinstall it, hoping that doing so would magically reset things.
These lessons were on a tight timeline to start with--there are about forty twenty-minute podcasts that my partner and I were meant to get done within about a week--and I'm freaking out a little bit about losing time. Help!
oh you know, I just listened to the mp3. Should have done that first. It doesn't sound distorted, only that she's quieter or farther away.
Try adjusting the volume of the microphone in Windows 8. Instructions here.
posted by royalsong at 5:26 AM on September 17, 2013
Try adjusting the volume of the microphone in Windows 8. Instructions here.
posted by royalsong at 5:26 AM on September 17, 2013
It sounds to me like Windows switched recording devices-- the first part went into one mic, and the second part went into another, inferior mic.
Check which mic is currently set as the recording device. To do that, it's probably as simple as following the first two steps in the linked Instructions above:
1: Click StartStart button, type mmsys.cpl in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
2: In the Sound dialog box, click the Recording tab.
After that, set the correct mic as a recording device. Make sure your good mic is connected, hot (use the meter displayed in the mmsys.cpl), and not muted with any switch on the mic itself.
You can even right-click on other mics/devices and disable them. Be sure to re-enable them later-- you can't know when you'll need them and you'll be banging your head against the wall to get them working when you do if you forget disabling them here. I'm not speaking from experience or anything.... nope.
posted by Sunburnt at 5:41 AM on September 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Check which mic is currently set as the recording device. To do that, it's probably as simple as following the first two steps in the linked Instructions above:
1: Click StartStart button, type mmsys.cpl in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
2: In the Sound dialog box, click the Recording tab.
After that, set the correct mic as a recording device. Make sure your good mic is connected, hot (use the meter displayed in the mmsys.cpl), and not muted with any switch on the mic itself.
You can even right-click on other mics/devices and disable them. Be sure to re-enable them later-- you can't know when you'll need them and you'll be banging your head against the wall to get them working when you do if you forget disabling them here. I'm not speaking from experience or anything.... nope.
posted by Sunburnt at 5:41 AM on September 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Actually, I think that royalsong got it--it hadn't even occurred to me that the mic itself could be the problem, as I didn't even take off the headset when I paused. Testing the mic on Skype gets that same weird, underwatery sound. I'll go to OfficeMax this evening and buy another mic to verify, but I suspect that this is resolved. Thanks! Man do I feel dumb.
posted by MeghanC at 6:01 AM on September 17, 2013
posted by MeghanC at 6:01 AM on September 17, 2013
The phone-plug is a century-old design, and predates the lessons about self-wiping contacts that've been learned and utilized since then. Oxidation and crud can easily affect a connection. Rotating the plug slightly, or removing/inserting it a few times, can help. See if you can cause the problem by rotating or jiggling the plug.
Also, the signals sent over these connections are miniscule, usually millivolts at microamps, and have no ability to "punch through" corrosion. (There's no "sealing current".) So this is pretty much endemic to the design.
If the headphone jack on your laptop is shot, consider pairing a Bluetooth headset and recording with that mic. The CVSD voice codec is pretty awful (better than a phonecall but not by much) but it might work as a fallback.
Or, get an external USB soundcard (first/cheapest one I could find at a nationwide chain). Or a native USB microphone.
posted by Myself at 8:16 AM on September 17, 2013
Also, the signals sent over these connections are miniscule, usually millivolts at microamps, and have no ability to "punch through" corrosion. (There's no "sealing current".) So this is pretty much endemic to the design.
If the headphone jack on your laptop is shot, consider pairing a Bluetooth headset and recording with that mic. The CVSD voice codec is pretty awful (better than a phonecall but not by much) but it might work as a fallback.
Or, get an external USB soundcard (first/cheapest one I could find at a nationwide chain). Or a native USB microphone.
posted by Myself at 8:16 AM on September 17, 2013
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If not, if it's always distorted since this first happened, then I bet you that your microphone is broken somehow. First unplug and replug it back in, if it still sounds off try a different microphone and see if you get the same problem.
posted by royalsong at 5:24 AM on September 17, 2013