Improve record quality

Hi all,

I’ve recently started using Audacity.
I’m using an online tools to convert text-to-audio and using Audacity to record the audio. My problem is that I’m not able to improve the quality of the record: it sounds very different after recording than what I ear when playing from the browser.

Is it possible to improve the audio (what filters and effects should I use?) or do I need to change something in the settings while recording?

Thank you in advance.

You should improve the original recording. It’s possible to record a laptop built-in microphone by accident and that won’t sound very good. It’s also possible to use a computer’s voice and conference processing by accident and that won’t sound very good, either.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_audio_playing_on_the_computer.html

Koz

I don’t know what online tool you use to do TTS, but there are several TTS programs available that have a built-in recorder. Have a look here:

http://download.cnet.com/windows/text-to-speech-software/

“Text to Wav Converter”, fi seems very popular, free and very capable.

Hi.

Thank you for your suggestions.
I’ve already followed the recommended steps for recording from the computer, but the result recording it’s always the same: muffled.

If there are some filters/effects that I can use to improve the sample sent, please let me know.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

The audio quality is because how the audio was recorded… You should improve your microphone. It’s like your asking for software to edit your audio quality, to improve it, but that’s like walking backwards because your laptop’s internal microphone is the problem…

Hi
Firstly, you should use “WASAPI” as your host and loopback as input device.
This gives the best result - superior to e.g. stereo mix.
Secondly, check if any Windows enhancements are enabled (somewhere in the sound control panel).

After those steps, the voice should be the same as heard on the website.

You should increase your settings from 16 bit to 24 bit in your Preferences under “Quality”. When you render / export, make sure it is at least 128Kbps. Some say 96Kbps will do, myself, I stick with 128. I also leveled your example to a -16LUFS. This is really the best you are going to get, from the example you provided. You will need to be the judge to see if you think it sounds any better.

Best to leave it at the default “32-bit float” setting. Audacity works internally in 32-bit float format, so by using this as the track format avoids repeatedly converting the format.

Thanks Steve. I did read that somewhere and as they were explaining it, it got very complicated. It was language I really did not understand towards the end. Their last statement in the articles was, “When in doubt” set your DAWS to 24 bit. I will make the change in Audacity to 32-bit float, soon as I post this.

As a general rule, the project format should be set as high as possible. for some DAWs that’s 24-bit, but for Audacity it is 32-bit float.