Hi im sort of new to audacity (i AM new to the forums though) and i don’t really know the ins and outs of the software yet.
I have what i was tolad a high quality usb microphone (samson C01U) and i thought that this would be all that i need to change my recordings.
when i record, my vocals dont have a professional sound to them, im not sure what the right word to use here would be but im guessing it would be “distorted”
its sort of hard to explain but when i listen to my songs my voice doesnt sound clear. like when you listen to an actual song it sounds like the artist’s real voice but when i listen to my voice i sound a little “off” idk but im hoping that someone would have an idea of what im talkina bout and be able to help me. plz and TY.
Are you bet the farmhouse sure you’re recording your new Samson? Record a bit and scratch the grillwork of the microphone with your finger. It should sound monstrously loud. If not, you may be recording the laptop microphone instead of your Samson. It’s a lot easier to do than you think.
change your recordings? from what ? to what?
try to be specific.
usb mikes and built in sound card are “okay” but not a1 topnotch
and certainly not “professional” quality.
your vocals dont have a professional sound?
what is a professional sound? tell us what you mean by that.
do you know how much processing goes into a “professional” cd to make it sound that way?
nobody likes the sound of their own voice when they hear a recording the first time. and not every voice will ever sound professional. mine being one that wont pass even for amateur.
that said, you may be overloading the system and causing distortion as noted in first reply.
more clues please about your voice sounding “off”.
there could be many things that do that. too close to the mike. too far from the mike. gain set too high. singing off key. overprocessing the track, not processing properly. bad room acoustics. but it may just be your voice andor your voice and that mike combination plus bad room acoustics.
the better you can describe in detail the problem, the better chance we have of finding a fix.
my sound only looks like that if i use the tools to make it go around that sound lvl…umnless im recording in the new beta cuz that automatically records at that setting…
Live recording is messy and it’s easy to create damage by accident. People are used to the highly processed sound available on professionally mixed songs and it’s a nasty shock the first time they try to record their own music.
Recording at a low level is a really good idea because performance peaks are frequently hot (loud), and overload distortion is obvious, painful, and fatal. Once you get a good, clear, noise-free, vocal (or instrumental, etc) capture, there are billions of things we can do to it to polish it and make it very desirable.
I make it sound so easy. Not only can’t we fix overload (clipping, smashing, etc), but we can’t get rid of echoes, either. So if you like to vocal-record in your echo-y spare bedroom or other room with bare walls, no amount of polishing and fixing is going to rescue the show.