Audacity Forum

Is that a microphone recording?
What physical property are you trying to measure?
What do you mean by "the quality of the sound"?

If you make the track taller (drag the bottom of the track down), then you will see more numbers on the vertical scale: firsttrack000.png Yes there should also be numbers in the lower half of the scale like this (below), but the code to do that is difficult and no-one yet has volunteered to do it. _...

Are you trying to play a huge recording that is many hours long?
Are you using an ancient or critically underpowered computer?

Strictly speaking "Audacity" can only clip at 0 dB.
If the audio is clipped below Audacity's 0 dB level, then it is being clipped before it gets to Audacity.

What are you trying to record and what equipment are you using?

Generally you should set the recording level so that there is no clipping.
I presume that you are trying to make some sort of technical measurements rather than recording audio. What are you trying to do?

Due to licensing restrictions, Audacity is shipped without ASIO support. Don't attempt to use ASIO with Audacity because it won't work properly (unless you download the Audacity source code and build your own custom version with ASIO enabled). More info: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_about_...

"dB" is a ratio. It is not an "absolute" measure, but is a measure of something compared to another (compared to a reference), where the reference level is said to be "0 dB". For "sound pressure level" ("SPL" is a measure of "acoustic sound leve...

Instructions for installing FFmpeg are in the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown Installing FFmpeg according to the instructions will allow you to import "normal" M4A files, but as M4A is a "container format" there can be oddball ...

Select the audio that you want to apply the effect to, and apply the effect.
Details about selecting audio here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/auda ... ction.html

What equipment are you using and how is it all connected together?