Okay…so I have an audio recording that was made on a recorder…its about 12 hours long…the initial intent was so that we knew what our 15 year old son was doing on a day to day bases…he was acting strange n I feel like he might be using…so I sent him on his way with a usb secret recorder in his backpack for the day…now I cant seem to make out what is being said and done…at some points its almost like he is whispering and other times its just to loud to make out what is being said…I think I hear a lighter constantly being used then again I dont want to jump to conclusions…I would like to know if audacity has the capability to allow me to hear what is really going on???..and if so what steps do i need to take to improve the audio…I know its wrong to intrude on ones privacy but this is my son and I dont play when it comes to acting strange and being disrespectful. So before I take any further action, I would like to know exactly. Please n thank you
This is similar to another posting today from someone who wanted to rescue a fatally damaged cellphone recording. Audacity can’t do “CSI” TV show style rescues. There are no forensic tools or filters. We can’t start with unlistenable trash and pull out the words or sounds.
The best we can do is Effect > Equalization > Telephone Filter. Past that, we run out.
Recording sound is a lot harder than everyone thinks. Worse, there is a psychoacoustic effect where people listen to trashy recordings and “make up” their own sounds and words and swear they’re real.
They’re not real.
Koz
A tell-tale sign that it’s Rorschach audio , ( like the inkblots where people see meaning where there is none), is that only a word or two can be occasionally “heard” (perceived). However if coherent sentences of say ten words can be heard then it’s astronomically unlikely to be Rorschach audio.
If the problem is that the volume of his voice varies, wouldn’t it be best to try to amplify the quiet ones to match the loud ones? I once had to do that for a recording of two people speaking. It was made with a phone in the pocket of one of the speakers, and his own voice was much louder.
I started out doing it manually, section by section, but I ended up using an effect to fix it. I think it might have been Compression, and that I had a lot of trouble understanding how to set the parameters then, and still do.
wouldn’t it be best to try to amplify the quiet ones to match the loud ones?
at some points its almost like he is whispering and other times its just to loud to make out what is being said.
This is not an intentional interview that happened to come out a little off. This is a clandestine recorder in a backpack alternating between background noise swamped with fabric rustling and crashing overload.
Koz