Hello all,
I’m on Windows 10 using Audacity 3.0.2 This seems like a common problem but after searching for a while I still can’t find the answer. I’m still very new to Audacity. I’ve taken a series of nature clips and exported them as a wav file. The wav file that I exported has a crackling sound in it. I then went back to Audacity and instead of just exporting the seperate clips as a wav I first mix and rendered them. Then I saw that the audio was clipping and so I used the Amplify effect to put a new peak Amplitude of -1dB but the crackling sound persists. Even if I drop it to something like -5dB it still clips. How would I solve this? Is there something about combining certain sounds that just creates crackling even if the audio doesn’t clip or is this a bug?
Then I saw that the audio was clipping and so I used the Amplify effect to put a new peak Amplitude of -1dB but the crackling sound persists. Even if I drop it to something like -5dB it still clips.
If the wave is [u]clipped[/u] reducing the volume doesn’t change the wave shape.
Audacity shows red for potential clipping. It’s just checking the peak levels… It’s not checking the wave shape and you can get false positives as well as false negatives.
Is there something about combining certain sounds that just creates crackling even if the audio doesn’t clip or is this a bug?
Mixing is done by summation so the levels increase. Analog mixers are actually built-around summing amplifiers, but there is a level control for every input plus a master volume control. You can adjust the track level in Audacity but there is no master control.
Hpgow would I solve this?
There are a couple of solutions…
You can reduce the levels of the tracks. i.e. If two tracks peak at -6dB (50%) they won’t clip when mixed.
Or… Audacity uses floating-point data internally so Audacity itself won’t clip. You can export as 32-bit float WAV, and that can also go over 0dB without clipping. However, you can clip your DAC if you play a file that goes over 0dB and it’s “bad practice” to leave it that way.
So, load the mixed file into Audacity and run the Amplify or Normalize effect to bring-down the volume and then save in the format of your choice. If the file goes over 0dB it will “show red” but that’s just a warning and the waveform isn’t clipped.