Hi
I recently recorded some music on to my laptop using windows 10 and Audacity 2.1.1. I used a stienberg ua 22 via usb to get the sound to my computer i monitored the output levels on it and they were not peaking, and i kept the sound waves well below clipping volume. I proceeded to use my Headphones to monitor the rest of the recording session which sounds awesome. Upon re-listening i have discovered that the track has some distortion quality when played back on my laptop speakers, but not at all on the headphones. My speakers on the computer work awesome for everything else so they are not broken. I sent it to my old mac book and you can’t notice the distortion nearly as much. i tried to turn off my computers sound effects and it worked but it reduced the volume of the computer like crazy… so maybe it didn’t work… Iam not sure…
anyways I’ve tried reading as much as i can and figuring it out but I’m completely stumped!!
I’ve attached a quick example
Upon re-listening i have discovered that the track has some distortion quality when played back on my laptop speakers, but not at all on the headphones.
Obviously, the problem is related to your laptop speakers. If there’s lots of bass in your recording, your laptop speakers may be getting distorted by the bass they can’t reproduce.
Also, homemade recordings are usually not nearly as dynamically compressed as commercial releases ([u]The Loudness War[/u]) so your homemade recordings will clip/distort at lower perceived volumes. (Your file does not appear to be clipped, but your DAC, amplifier, or speakers could be distorting.)
i tried to turn off my computers sound effects and it worked but it reduced the volume of the computer like crazy.
If your WAV file is representative, you’ve got almost 9dB of headroom.
Re-open your project (or import the WAV file) and run the Amplify effect. Your file will be pre-scanned and Amplify will default to whatever gain is needed for 0dB normalized (maximized) peaks and it will be about 9dB louder.
Your left channel has almost twice the headroom as the right. If the left-right balance sounds OK, don’t monkey with the balance, but if the left channel sounds quieter, run the Normalize effect and normalize the channels independently and the left channel will be boosted more than the right. Again, that’s assuming your short clip is representative. (You can skip the Amplify effect if you Normalize.)
Thanks for your reply!
I’d thought that the bass might be responsible so I’ve tried to bring it down with eq and with the bass treble, neither really worked. Any suggestions on trying to reduce the stress on my speakers? other than bringing down volume?
i tried to turn off my computers sound effects and it worked but it reduced the volume of the computer like crazy.
by doing that to my computer it not only reduced the volume of the track in question, it changed everything such as songs that i was listening to off of youtube. I can listen to other music on the computer with absolutely no problem. So iam assuming it the track or something in the track that is pushing the computer too hard.
I could post a link to a dropbox with more of the track in it so that you can see more of wave file/ listen to or help me trouble shoot? did you notice fuzz in the clip?
I can’t listen 'till I get home form work this evening (California time). You said it sounded OK on headphones…
Looking at the waveform in Audacity you see it’s not as “loud” as a typical music file. But, it does have a 0dB peak. That tells my it has more dynamic range (or dynamic “contrast”) than a typical file. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and like I was saying, that’s typical for a home recording that hasn’t been professionally mastered.
My speakers on the computer work awesome for everything else so they are not broken.
I guess “awesome” is relative. I think my home theater system with a pair of 15-inch subwoofers is awesome (with the right recording).
Doesn’t the “Bass Cut” in Effect > Equalization… fix it?
What laptop speakers are they - built-in? You can’t expect much from those and it would be wrong to master for them in my opinion. Speakers that attach to the audio output can be quite good without spending a lot of money.
yeah, the bass-cut helps but i can still hear the speakers breaking up. Iam using built in laptop speakers which believe me i know is not the best thing to use/master but the song is for a youtube video and i know 85% of the people who listen to it will be using similar quality speakers…
I can hear what you mean in my laptop speakers but only very slightly in HiFi speakers (which cost £80 many years ago).
I think there is fizzy middle frequency crackle which the bass (and treble) covers up when heard in speakers that can reproduce a greater range of frequencies. Even reducing the bass and treble, the crackle is still a good deal less evident in proper listening equipment than when listening to the original file in laptop speakers.
You can’t repair that sort of crackle that is built into the recording. If you can’t obtain a better source file, try reducing 2000 to 6000 Hz in Equalization (Graphic Mode). Play with each slider in that range. You may improve it a little.
I didn’t notice the “fuzziness” so I don’t think it’s that bad. (I didn’t bother listening on my laptop speakers.) I do hear some “clicking” around the middle of the song, but to me that sounds “real”… An acoustic noise that the microphone picked-up rather than a recording artifact.
IMO - the bass is not too strong.
It is very “quiet”, but it’s quiet acoustic music!
There is some 60Hz power line hum. I used a 60Hz Notch Filter to knock-down the hum. I used a “Q” of 6, but I just randomly pulled that out of a hat. The default Q of 1 is probably too wide of a filter and it might affect some of the other bass.
I tried the Limiter to make it louder and I’d say it worked pretty well. Limiting is a special kind of dynamic compression* (it’s basically fast compression). Limiting pushes-down the peaks (without clipping if you use the right settings). That allows you to then re-amplify (or use “makeup gain”) to bring up the overall loudness without clipping/distorting.
I chose the Hard Limit setting, and I set the limit to -6dB. I changed Makeup Gain to Yes, and I left the other settings at their defaults. You can try more or less limiting (and associated makeup gain) to find the optimum compromise. Again, I just pulled the 6dB value out of a hat. Limiting will affect the sound quality/character to some extent and it is reducing the dynamic contrast** (trending everything toward the same volume).
Dynamic contrast (very quiet and very loud parts) is one thing that makes live music sound better than recorded music (although “better” is a matter of taste and there’s a reason producers use dynamic compression). But, highly dynamic music requires more amplifier power and bigger speakers in order to get reasonably-loud and natural sounding reproduction. You need your music LOUDER (more dynamically compressed) for YouTube! Radio stations add dynamic compression and almost all commercial music is highly compressed (except some classical and jazz recordings).
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Don’t confuse dynamic compression with file compression, such as MP3. File compression makes the file smaller (hopefully) with little or no effect on the sound. Dynamic compression (and limiting) intentionally changes the sound.
** Musicians talk about “dynamic contrast” and technical people use the term “dynamic range” to mean almost the same thing.
I think my home theater system with a pair of 15-inch subwoofers is awesome (with the right recording).