Hello everyone!
I would like you to help me with this little problem that I encounter alot when I record my voice. Sometimes when I speak louder, the sound is kind of… high pitch sound? I don’t really know how to name it, as I am not a professional at this field. Here is an example how it looks in Audacity. It is highlighted by a red rectangle.
And audio example: https://www.sendspace.com/file/qp8p0w
It is the first word Čes - kee. Why I write kee is because the sound of it sounds so… uncomfortable, and that is the part that I want to remove.
The problem is I don’t know how to remove it and how to prevent from making it happen again. I don’t shout when doing voice overs, and I am recording at input volume 65% with a distance of 20 cm. I am using Samson C01U.
So if you know how to remove it and or how to prevent from making this happen again, I would be really thankful for your response
Your recording level is set too high.
That has caused the recorded audio to be “clipped”. (The audio signal has the tops and bottoms of the waveform missing - clipped off - because the waveform is too big for the track). The damage is permanent and in all probability is unrepairable.
When you record, allow a little “headroom”. When you set the recording level, aim for a maximum peak level of around -6 dB (half the track height). That will prevent the problem from occurring.
In that picture you are pushing it very close to the limit. That final large peak is dangerously close to 0 dB. I’d turn down the recording level a bit lower and allow a bit of a safety margin.
After recording you can use the Amplify effect (or Normalize effect) to bring the peak level up to 0 dB.
0 dB is the highest possible signal level for integer format digital audio. Attempting to go higher will cause clipping distortion.
It is still possible to make a track sound louder by using “dynamic compression”. The “trick” is to “squash down” the high peaks a little so that the overall level can be increased.
There are several types of “dynamic compression”. A typical “Compressor” effect (such as: Audacity Manual) acts relatively slowly in adjusting the gain. For your use, you would need to set the Attack and Release times to minimum (so that it acts as fast as possible) and Select the “Compressed based on peaks” option.
Another type of “dynamic compression” is a “limiter” which acts (almost) only on the highest peaks.
If you look around the forum you will find plenty of other posts about various dynamic compression effects that are available as plug-ins for Audacity, but the above “Compressor” effect is the only one that is included as standard (apart from the “Leveler” effect, but I do not recommend that as it causes distortion).
But doesn’t making compression have the same effect, as I would be recording at high input volume, because it is still near the limit of 0dB? When I compressed it, the sound looks like this:
Yes, but you’ll note that the loud segment in the middle didn’t go outside the bounds of the timeline. It didn’t get so big that it exceeded 1.0 (100%) up and down. That’s the trick.
You can get Audacity to show you out of bounds sounds more clearly by switching on View > Show Clipping.
A properly operating compressor rapidly turns the volume up and down depending on the content. If you have a very loud word, it doesn’t do anything, but if you start mumbling into your beer, it turns the volume up. How it makes those changes is all about those sliders and adjustments.
Chris designed his compressor so he could listen to opera in the car. It squashes all the dramatic theater volume changes into a very narrow range so you don’t have to constantly turn the volume up and down as you drive.
This is a timeline with no changes, Chris’s default settings, and bumping the first adjustment from 0.5 to 0.77. Note the blue waves are getting denser and more even, but at no time do they get damaged.
