I just updated to version 3.7.5 and have my settings how I had them in the old version.
But I now have to amplify each recrding manually. I just used the recording settings as is. (I was recording internal laptop audio).
This is a screenshot of a quieter recording, and I chose a section in the middle to amplify. As Audacity knows automatically how much to amplify, I just hit ok, and it was right.
Depending on how old the version was before upgrading you may not know that the recording and playback volume controls are now “hidden” under the recording and playback meters. They both should be turned up, since you are capturing/recording what’s coming out of the soundcard.
And of course, the loudness depends on whatever is coming into your computer and there’s nothing you can do about that except amplify after recording. All of the popular streaming services use loudness matching so that one stream isn’t a lot louder or quieter than the next and that ends-up lowering the volume of most tracks.
The perceived loudness doesn’t correlate well with the peaks so you and you can have a quiet sounding track with maximized 0dB peaks and you can’t always tell the loudness by looking at the waveform.
Click that little bubble that I see between -6 and -12dB and drag it all the way to the right. That should solve it as long as the audio stream is coming-in at 100%.
Your playback volume is already at 100% but you might need to check your Windows volume too.
If you feed Audacity a weak signal, that’s what you’re going to get.
Audacity can (usually) attenuate while recording but it can’t amplify.
You say it’s different from the old version but you didn’t say you are recording the exact same thing.
If you’re on Windows make sure Windows “enhancements” are turned OFF. They can cause all kinds of weird problems…
Digital amplification is lossless so it doesn’t hurt the quality. If it sounds good after amplifying there’s nothing to worry about.
Low digital recording levels are not a problem. Pros typically record at -12dB (25%) to -18dB (12.5%), leaving LOTS of extra headroom for unexpected peaks. But sometimes if you can’t get a strong signal it’s an indication of an analog or acoustic problem.
You don’t need headroom since the incoming stream is already limited to 0dB. It’s more for “live” recording when you don’t know how loud a singer is going to go or how hard a guitar player is going to pluck the string, etc.
When you digitize records or tapes the levels are more predictable but it’s still pretty-standard to leave 3 or 6dB of headroom and Amplify later.
I want my audio to look like this (like it used to in OLD versions) [Audacity’s own image]:
That’s TOO loud and (probably) clipped (distorted).
OK bad pic to use. The image I supplied in my first post is probably a better demonstration.
Now the tiny horizontal scroll bar that I hate so much has disappeared. I think it heard me! I have used Audacity for 20 years but I really don’t like this new version.
It could be that you formerly had the waveform displaying in logarithmic view instead of linear view, or vice-versa. Right click on the vertical scale numbers to get a pop-up menu of the different views.
