Hi All!
I just recorded an interview via skype using the stereo mix input and my blue snowball mike as the mike for skype on Audacity 2.02.
I’m not experienced at all with audio creation but I have been using audacity to record my podcast for the past year so I’m not completely unfamiliar with the interface.
What i am unfamiliar with is terminology so hopefully I don’t sound too much like an idiot as I try to explain my question.
I have attached a screen cap of the wave forms from the recording, as you can see my levels are quite shallow whereas the person I recorded’s levels are sharp, hitting the top of the bar quite often.
My questions are thus:
- Is this an issue?
- if it is, how can I stop this happening when I record via skype again?
- is there a way to equalise the levels?
The recording sounds ok, there is a little bit of a volume difference between the two of us but nothing drastic, his end is a little sharp for want of a better word.
Thanks so much for reading my question, sorry to be such a noob 
JaniceMarie
I marvel every time somebody posts that they got Skype recordings at all. That process is beyond reach for a number of users.
You might try Chris’s Compressor.
http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/chriss-dynamic-compressor-plugin-for-audacity/
Unlike normal sound “volume managers” (not data compressors), Chris looks ahead in the show to try and determine before the fact what is going to sound good in the show, not just blindly reassigning tones and sounds. Oddly, this is called look-ahead compression. I use it on a talk show where the two performers are significantly off volume from each other.
This is a sample of that show illustrating no compression, normal (0.5) compression and finally advanced (0.77) compression.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ChrisCompressorBeforeandTwoAfters.png
Koz
The current Audacity is 2.0.5: http://audacityteam.org/download/windows .
So are you making the Snowball play through the computer by using “Listen to this device” on Windows Vista or later?
Getting unbalanced volume between the sides is almost inevitable if you use the stereo mix solution. Have you tried turning down the input volume of the Snowball in Windows Sound?
Other minus points when you record Skype with Audacity are that you will record yourself a little bit late, and you can’t get yourself in one stereo channel and the other person in the other channel.
Specialist Skype recording programs don’t usually have any of these problems.
http://voipcallrecording.com/
http://scribie.com/free-skype-recorder
http://www.ifree-recorder.com/
http://atdot.ch/scr/
Gale