Audacity not recognizing AT2020

Audacity 2.3.2, won’t allow me to ‘Enable’ various Built-In Effects, both Select All → Enable → OK or (click plugin) → Enable → OK. I’ve tried a number of times, closed and re-opened the program; doesn’t matter. When I say “won’t allow me to Enable”, I should clarify, that I’d DOES allow me to ‘Enable’ those effects, but they don’t appear under the Effect tab (listings) once I scroll down. And when I go back into Add/Remove Plugins, even though I just enabled something, it’s back to being disabled.

I’ve searched the forum (and via Google re-directed back to this forum/older threads), found two in particular, neither one fixes the problem.

Also, while I can access ‘Equalization’, but after going into ‘Manage’ I can’t import (greyed-out) Benson2.xml.

BTW, I apologize (Trebor) for incorrectly reading about Benson2.xml, and not needing Voxessor and TDR Nova. I have a tendency to read things incorrectly (especially anything that’s technical), and I have to write things out, slowly process what it is that’s in front of me, and hopefully come to a clearer understanding of what was said or presented to me. I took the better part of Monday writing out everything, just to make sense of what had been written throughout the thread. Some things come to me easily, other things, not-so-much.

Voxessor is one of the worst purchases I’ve ever made, and the lesson learned is that you don’t throw money at a problem.

There’s a hidden Audacity folder which allows information to persist from one installation to the next,

C:\Users\YourNameHere\AppData\Roaming\audacity

If you rename that hidden folder to, say, “audacity-2022”, a new folder will be created allowing you to start Audacity afresh, (the folder contains plug-in information which may now be incompatible as you’ve gone back in time from Audacity 3 to Audacity 2).


After you start Audacity 2-3-2 afresh (see above) “Benson2.xml” will take about 10 seconds to install, after you click on “OK”, as it contains a lot of points.
installation of Benson2 EQcurve in Audacity 2-3-2.gif
The booth boxiness issue is a real-thing, rather than my imagination:
here a recording made in >$3K booth needs some EQ to remove boxiness …
https://youtu.be/T9g7bpOJ4l4?t=1212 [headphones recommended to appreciate the difference ].

When you tell that you think that it can be “very” good, that’s very exciting.

Remember my note that you’re having way too much fun with this?

You are playing three people: Voice Artist, Recording Engineer, and Producer. This is where the Producer picks a date. “If we haven’t resolved this at such and so date, we’re going with what we have and start cranking out content.”

It sounds good, better than most on YouTube, but it could be very good

It can also be a very good retirement project.

Ian is a voice artist living in Hollywood (just off La Brea if you’re counting). We got Ian up to producing consistent high quality voice work and it only took us just over a year. He has the forum record.

Koz

Well, I’m satisfied with where I’m at today. I’ve been using up far too much time over the past 12 months, and I’m VERY happy with what I was able to learn over the past several days; I wish I would have attacked/addressed these specific issues over the past 5 months; even stretching back to November 2021 to be honest.

Just to add, I tested out both chains (Koz and Trebor), and loaded both audio samples onto YouTube (set to private but I have samples of the audio below).

  • Tools → Apply Macro → YouTube-14LUFS-Mastering-Macro uploaded onto YouTube (via Stats for Nerds [right-click on the screen]), Volume/Normalize is at 57% and hits content loudness at -3.0dB.

  • Effect → Equalization → Benson2.xml → Couture (I didn’t add any Noise-Reduction) uploaded onto YouTube, Volume/Normalize is at 57% and hits content loudness at -9.9dB.

The -3.0dB came out better (on YouTube), but then I went back into Audacity and added FinalLoud3 (effect/plugin) onto both tracks, targetting -14.0 LUFS and -1.0 dBTP, only one pass for both, and I was able to get:

  • YouTube-14LUFS-Mastering-Macro up to -0.5dB
  • Benson2.xml up to -0.2dB

Here are the audio samples (after adding FinalLoud3) that took me as close to the -0.1 content loudness target that I was aiming for:


Both excellent. I also compared both of these versions to older audio recordings of mine (older videos), and it’s night and day.

I thank you both immensely, and I’ll get out of your hair (unless you have any questions or need me to do something). I appreciate your patience, and willingness to help me out.

I changed my mind, if you wanted to hear what it sounds like on YouTube - because to me it always does a bit different - they’re each set as unlisted videos; though I’ll be taking them down over the next several days.

Macro version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KvlqNptzhg

Benson2 version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtiQj2avP_A

Again, thank you.

toggling between them it’s clear to me “Benson2 - FinalLoud3” is the better of the two.
The resonance difference is obvious using earphones which can reproduce bass.
Even on laptop speakers, which have no bass, there is still a difference,
as “Benson - Macro FinalLoud3 v.2” lacks treble, so seems slightly lispy in comparison.

Nitpicking alert:
at times the sibilance on “Benson2 - FinalLoud3” is slightly too much, IMO.
[applying a limiter with make-up gain, like FinalLoud3, will inevitably increase sibilance].
And there is a very slight hiss, (you haven’t used Couture).

You can Can kill 2 birds with 1 stone: apply Couture with these settings at the end of your effects chain, (must be applied after the limiter),


2birds1stone.xml (1.25 KB)

NB: when applied, Couture can sometimes take ~3 seconds to settle-down and behave properly,
a workaround is to duplicate ~5 seconds of audio at the start, which Couture may ruin, which you can chop-off later.

For the record, I did apply Couture (on that previous copy); but I hit Apply on the default settings. :blush:
Couture 2birds.png

I downloaded 2birds1stone.xml preset, but either I’m placing it in the wrong folder, or it’s just not saving it for whatever reason. The Import button isn’t greyed-out, so it seems like I can import it… Any ideas there? I press Import, and it takes me to the Roaming → audacity (folder); so I assumed that I was to copy/paste there.

The pic (above) is my trying to replicate what you were able to do in your pic.

For Limiter, would I be setting it to ‘Soft Limit’ and how much on the “Limit to (dB)”?

I understand what you’re talking about the Couture workaround, I remember compress.ny having a similar workaround (at the beginning and end).

So, it’s EQ (Benson2) → Limiter → Couture

I have to add though, that I would still be adding FinalLoud3 at the end of that chain; unless you have a better idea. If I don’t apply it, it will (likely) still be coming in too quiet on YouTube. While bigger channels somehow get away with having their content loudness well below -0.1dB (some are at -20dB and still fine!), I know that for myself, it has to be within -2.0dB to -0.1dB (I’m relatively happy with -1.5dB).

That’s perfect …
perfect.gif

From there you can go to desktop or downloads, or wherever you downloaded “2birds1stone.xml”

Your “FinalLoud3” is a limiter: you don’t need to add another one to the chain.

IMO: EQ (Benson2) ->FinalLoud3 → Couture.

You can do: EQ (Benson2) → Couture → FinalLoud3, if you want,
but the level of de-essing & expansion (noise reduction) done by Couture will be undone to some degree following it with FinalLoud3.

I’ve uploaded Benson2 w/EQ+FinalLoud3+Couture. Mind you, I only added 2 extra seconds at the beggining/ends, and forgot to cut them off. I’ll be sure to add 5 seconds instead (next time), and then cut them off after applying Couture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHx3ErLE9x4

I still have 2 issues. When I import the preset “2birds1stone.xml” and press “Open”, it’s still not loading onto the Couture plugin. Just to make sure, I select default, then import the preset again (just like in the pic below), and it’s not loading (the default settings are still intact).
2birds1stone not importing.png
In the uploaded audio clip to YouTube, I just went with the version I was able to replicate; I had already saved it just in case.

Also, a big problem going forward, is having to revert to and from version 2.3.2 (or perhaps it’s easier than I think). My approach is to apply the audio chain, save it as a WAV, then load it up to a newer version of Audacity to do the actual cutting/editing.

Would you suggest an easy way that I can go from one version to the other, relatively seamlessly. AFAIK, I can’t have two versions (old and newer 3.2.1) of Audacity on my desktop. If you know of an workaround for that, I’d love to know about it. There are so many editing options in version 2.3.2 that aren’t not there, that one can take for granted.

Update: I have versions 2.3.2 in my Program Files (x86) folder, and version 3.2.0 in my Program Files folder.

I hadn’t realized that I can have more than one version; I assumed that the newest version would automatically override (and update) the older version. So, they can work independently.

Also, I thought that before I had updated to version 3.2.0, that there was a slightly older version that didn’t have the “Effects” in the pic below.
Effects.png
Basically, what’s the oldest version you can think of, prior to that Effects button appearing? I could just be misremembering, and it’s been there over the past few years.

Steve wrote a LUFS measuring tool. Anybody remember where it is?

Koz

This is the most recent version that I’ve managed to find:

https://forum.audacityteam.org/download/file.php?id=36065

I found it in this thread:

Ding!

That’s the one.

I didn’t know about that process discussion. Even better.

Koz

I don’t think it’s possible to improve on that.

It is possible to use Audacity 2 & Audacity 3 on the same computer,
BUT you need to keep them separate, and should not have them open at the same time.

One or both should be run as portable versions, otherwise they will both share (& modify) the contents of the hidden audacity folder. That can result in disaster.
portable (independent) version of Audcaity 3 in folder.gif

Sorry Trebor, I’m a little bit lost here.

I did read the information from the link that you provided (portable versions), and I don’t quite understand what to do. I then read another thread…

… and my takeaway was to create a “Portable Settings” folder (I have version 3.2.0 in my c:/Program Files/Audacity folder).

I’ll show you what I did (which is wrong but…).


Then when I attempted to open it, two pop ups came one after the other.
Portable Settings 1.png
Portable Settings 2.png
I also created a “Portable Settings” folder in c:/Program Files (x86)/Audacity.

It wouldn’t even launch (Audacity.exe), so I deleted the Portable Settings folder, and this message popped-up right after…

FFmpeg was configured in Preferences and successfully loaded before, but this time Audacity failed to load it at startup.

You may want to go back to Preferences > Libraries and re-configure it.

It is possible to use Audacity 2 & Audacity 3 on the same computer,
BUT you need to keep them separate, and should not have them open at the same time.

Going by this, is it possible that since they’ve been extracted in separate folders…

  • Program Files (x86) v.2-3-2
  • Program Files v.3-2-1

… and provided that I don’t run both at the same time, that they’ll independent one of another? That everything should be okay anyway?

Also, if I forgot to mention it, I made a “Portable Settings” folder in Program Files and Program Files (x86), perhaps that’s a mistake? Should I only make one “Portable Settings” folder, and if so, under Program Files which stores v.3.2.0 or under Program Files (x86) which stores v.2.3.2.?

Everything in “Program Files” has been installed, rather than just extracted.
Audacity is available as “.zip” files, (e.g. “audacity-win-3.2.1-64bit.zip”),
which can be extracted into its own folder, which you create.

Such extracted Audacity versions are independent from each other,
whereas installed versions will share the hidden audacity file, with disastrous results.

Re: https://youtu.be/yHx3ErLE9x4.

Transcoding by YouTube can increase sibilance.
If you want to preemptively reduce it, the free desibilator plugin does a good job
optional de-esser settings for YouTube v=yHx3ErLE9x4.jpg
If your audience is the same vintage as John Travolta they may benefit from leaving sibilance it as is:
high-frequency hearing will have noticeably diminished by that age.

Okay, now I understand. I wasn’t quite getting what you had meant in a previous post, and I was confused by the .gif; not now mind you. What I did this time is:

  • I downloaded the audacity-win-3.2.1-64bit.zip
  • I created a new folder (in this case I just added a folder on my desktop), extracted into into this (new) folder
  • Extracted all
  • Also create a “Portable Settings” folder in this folder
  • And when I want to launch this version of Audacity, I must go to this folder, and click on the Audacity.exe icon to launch it


    Also, just to make sure that I’m seeing this through, by your recommendation, I should (perhaps) do the same thing for a .zip version 2.3.2? I went to Old Audacity versions download, to get the audacity-2.3.2.zip. So, I could/should do the same thing as I did with the audacity-win-3.2.1-64bit.zip (same steps that I outlined)?

And if I’m essentially always using the .zip versions going forward, should I just delete the other .exe versions that I already have installed onto my computer while I’m at it?

I would certainly love to hear what it sounds like, because I think it would help.

I read up on transcoding; thank you for that. It’s also worth noting, that I’ve been doing recordings in Mono, and that YouTube recommends stereo channels; not to mention that Filmora11 (where I do video editing and upload files to YouTube), AFAIK, converts the Mono into Stereo anyway; at least that’s how I understand it. Even if I exported a file as a 32-bit Float, I’m pretty sure it’s converted (for lack of a better word) to 16-bit (either through Filmora 11 or YouTube) by the time it’s uploaded and ready for viewing.

As a chain, would I now go: EQ (Benson2) → Desibilator → FinalLoud3 → Couture?

Also, should I apply the same settings for the Desibilator, that you had in the .jpg?

Gee, I wonder why you thought of John Travolta of all people. :wink:

Today, I learned:

  • FinalLoud3 is a limiter
  • extracted vs installed
  • that vintage has many meanings to it :smiley:

Portable Setting Zip.png
An example of what’s in the new “Portable Settings” folder, after launching the Auacity.exe via audacity-win-3.2.1-x64 folder. So, it seems to be working.

If there is already a “Portable Settings” folder after extraction you don’t need to create another one.

Only having one version installed is not a problem. More that one installed creates conflict.
Hold-off on deleting the “.exe versions” until you are happy working with the “.zip versions”.

De-essing like desibiliator should go after the limiter, i.e. after FinalLoud3.

That’s the desibilator settings I used on the YouTube audio …

YouTube broadcast level is not necessarily the same as your upload,
the only desibilator setting to experiment with is threshold, if you use too much de-essing it will sound lispy.

He’s one of the few on your YouTube channel who is currently “staying alive”.