I found a 2021 post about this but couldn’t get options to work. The file (voice recording only) sounds OK in audacity (I adjusted using comprssion, - to + on left side for volume, effect/volume and compression/normalisation, etc. When I export to .wav and .mp3 and listen on media player whether stereo or mono, the sound is distorted. I am also a new user so need help or would like to pay someone to help.
I did what was suggested on the 2021 post to use mediainfoonline and get the following (also, I am not able to import it back into audacity):
Format : Wave
Format settings : PcmWaveformat
File size : 229 MiB
Duration : 20 min 50 s
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 1 536 kb/s
Audio
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 20 min 50 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 229 MiB (100%)
I had a look at the exported WAV file and the project it was created from. I have ‘Show Clipping’ turned on permanently on my machine. Once the WAV file loaded the entire waveform was one big red block - no blue visible at all. It sounded horribly distorted. No surprise there.
However, when I opened the project file it looked normal but when played the playback meter was permanently in the red. Can anyone explain why the waveform looked ‘OK’ but the audio was still terribly distorted, please?
Mark B
If you are mixing (like mixing a vocal with a backing track) the audio is literally summed and it will get “louder”.
And in that case, normalizing may not help.
Also, the volume slider to the left of the waveform changes the volume you hear and the exported volume but it doesn’t change the waveform and won’t necessarily show clipping. Sometimes it gets accidently moved.
In any case, you can export as floating-point WAV which can go over 0dB without clipping. If you re-open the exported file it may “show red” for potential clipping. You can normalize that and then export to your final desired format.
The top volume slider was all the way to the right. Your priceless nugget of information meant I was able to revisit the project and improve it considerably. Thanks a million!
Mark B
Thanks for the “sometimes accidentally got moved” note - I think that must have been what happened at some point and in trying to fix that I caused a whole bunch more problems!