Hi all,
I have this one track in my podcast of a guy who cannot seem to get any quality audio (even though we do this every week). I am using MAC OS Monterey. He is using a Blue Yeti mic, and like all the members of the podcast, he records his track on audacity and then sends it to me. I then compile and edit before distribution. Anyway, here’s a sample of the track.
(To add attachments to a post, click on the Attachments tab below the text entry screen.)
So, more than one user has meticulously set everything up to use an external microphone and then ends up recording from the wrong microphone by somehow neglecting to specify this microphone in the Device Toolbar.
Ask the guy to do the scratch test on the grill of the microphone (don’t blow into it!). Then do the same test near the microphone on his laptop to see which microphone is active.
There are a couple of different failures that can sound similar. We should really hear it to sort it out.
Also see:
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1
You won’t need most of that if you already have a sample sound file from the performer. Cut it down to ten seconds and post it on the forum. Scroll down to “Attachments > Add Files.”
You hit the one failure in the process of producing an excellent podcast by having all the participants record their own voice locally and then forward their clear, unprocessed sound files to you for editing. It’s a struggle if one or more performers can’t produce a good sound file.
How are you producing the podcast? That might be super important.
Zoom and local recording? The current easiest method is do the podcast on Zoom and have Zoom make sound files of each performer. I don’t know if you ever tried to record a Zoom call yourself, but it’s not fun.
You can call each performer on a phone party-line and chat away with each person’s computer recording their own voice. It’s starts getting sticky if you try to do two different sound jobs on one computer. For one common example, You might record Zoom’s environment and feedback sound errors and corrections by accident instead of the performer’s clear voice. Yes, that will sound honky, distorted, and talking into a wine glass.
Koz
I have not heard your track. Your description sounds like the person doing the recording is perhaps playing the voice out his speakers and recording it with the computers microphone. You need this person to install Blackhole from EssentialAudio and then record using Blackhole (or Soundflower if the machine is older) to get the quality recording you are seeking. It will be much better for you and for him. There are excellent videos on youtube about using BH.
I like this guy. Articulate, organized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRwuyPZ4nBM&t=210s
Best of luck!
No, not for recording with his Blue Yeti mic.
My guess is that the “guy who cannot seem to get any quality audio” is recording from their laptop’s microphone and not from the Yeti. If that’s the case then he will need to select the Yeti as the recording input in the Device Toolbar. However, there are many other possibilities, and without more information from the guy that has the problem there’s no way that we can be certain where the problem lies.