Bad recording, I begin now with Audacity

Audacity Help Forum GNU/Linux
1

Hello, everybody,

I use a laptop with Ubuntu 16.04. Now I have the version 2.1.2. of Audacity.

I recently bought a microphone (SM58 Shure), a cable like this one and an adapter for jack 3.5 mm of my computer.

I made a first test you can hear here (file Test_001)*. I modified no settings of Audacity.

How to improve the recording ? Where is the problem ? How must I configurate Audacity ? It’s the first time I use such a software.

For now, I just want to record sound (voice, music instruments, etc.), so that the file is directly ready to be listened.

  • (the song is in French ; my mother language is French but I post here in order to get more answers)
2

There is a lot of noise on that : so much it’s impossible to remove :¬( …

You should try to make clean, noise-free, recordings. You can add distortion later if you want that noisy effect.

Your noisy recordings may be due to something called “impedance mismatching” between the SM58 and the computer.
To fix that problem you need to buy a gadget which goes between the mic & the computer : either a microphone pre-amp, a mixer , or a USB adapter , see … http://shure.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38/kw/Microphone connected to a computer sound card

3

adapter for jack 3.5 mm of my computer.

Is there more than one? I have made that work with the Mic-In of my soundcard, but your machine may not have that and other connections may not work. Is your goal to announce or present a clear, quiet recording?

What’s your eventual goal? Announce AudioBooks and become world famous?

Sometimes we can be more helpful if we know what you’re trying to do.

Koz

4

Thank you for your answers.

I’ll buy and try the X2u USB adapter. The adapter (only one) I bought (separately) you can see it here (Adapter_Simple_To_Jack_3_5.jpeg).

Yes, I want to make clean recordings, so that I must not modify (or as few as possible) the file then.

What are my goals now ? Just make - with my voice - files with different sounds of French language, to help people (young or adult) who start learning French (married with a Swiss person ; immigrated ; refugee ; Swiss German people ; etc.). You know, French language is not easy. :mrgreen:

Another idea is to register voice that speaks in other languages, to help myself to learn these language. Mutual languistic exchange. :slight_smile: [Maybe some people like karaoke.]

I have some music instruments (piano, guitar, violin, flute) but it’s not my first goal. Of course, I could register myself training violin and ask violonist what I have to improve. I’m a beginner. :mrgreen: [Difficult to manage time when you want to learn many things. :stuck_out_tongue: ] “C’est de la musique d’avenir.” as we say in French (“That’s future music”).

5

I’ll buy and try the X2u USB adapter.

Before you do that, I have an X2U and I’m not a fan.

It produces low volume recordings with higher noise than I think is good. I haven’t done a real job with it because of poor sound. I complained to Shure and they said that’s the way it is.

I like a real sound mixer and digital interface

but if that’s too much for you, I also like the Behringer UM2 single microphone preamp and digitizer (now featuring back-ordered delivery). Full Compass says they have it in stock.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UM2usb

There have been good reports of the Focusrite Scarlett Solo.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ScarlettSoloG2

The Focusrite Fasttrack Solo is on the ACX recommended equipment list. The Fasttrack series is also called Avid Fasttrack and some people have had troubles with driver software if they don’t happen to have an Avid video editing suite.

Koz