I’m working on a recording for a new project I’m working on: it’s not possible to re-record.
I stupidly did not make a backup copy of my project before messing around with the compression tool, Audacity crashed while it was applying and when I restored the project it had saved the compression which has made my previously usable audio tinny and of awful quality. I’m incredibly frustrated and wonder if anyone knows of a way to effectively undo compression/retrieve an old version of my project. I’m quite new to Audacity and audio editing in general so I’m at my wit’s end.
In theory you can sometimes expand (re-expand) but you have to know the exact compression parameters and you need an expander with those exact-reverse settings.
You can’t undo limiting (a fast kind of dynamic compression) because all of the new peaks are the same and there is no way of knowing the amplitude of the original peaks.
Expanders are rather rare. GoldWave has a compressor/expender but I’ve never tried reversing compression. And of course, you’d have to use their compressor.
…In the analog days, “companders” were sometimes used for noise reduction - The audio was compressed before transmission or before recording to tape. When it was re-compressed, any added noise gets expanded-down (quieter). These were “closed systems” where the compression and complementary expansion were known.
Dolby (tape) noise reduction used limited compression/expansion on the high frequencies and Dolby B (for cassette) was usable un-decoded.
DBX had 2:1 compression/expansion which was available on some cassette decks. It was unlistenable if not decoded (re-expanded).
Experience is the cruelest teacher!!! Next time you’ll save a copy of the unmolested original.
And if you are recording something critical where there’s no possibility of 'take-2", you should have two systems recording in parallel (they don’t both have to be computers).
And again if a recording is critical, keep backups, ideally in different locations.
And even if it isn’t THAT critical, it’s a good idea to make a WAV backup immediately after recording, whether you make an Audacity AUP project or not.
Honestly what’s extra frustrating about it is I usually DO record on 2 sources (in OBS with the video AND audacity) and I normally immediately make a back up on an external hard drive. However, I was incredibly sleep deprived and the recording took longer than I thought meaning I had to shoot off to work. I was so stressed I did everything wrong! Genuinely a random unlucky fluke that audacity happened to crash on the ONE project that didn’t have a single back up option.
It was a play through of a game I’d never played before for my YouTube channel and there were some incredible genuine reactions in there so im devastated to lose it all. The reality is, I’m just going to have to re-record and pretend I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. Let’s hope my acting is at least half way decent, though it’ll be no replacement for the real thing
Sometimes when there’s video, subtitles are a solution. But that wouldn’t be much fun with game playback…
That’s good to know.
But what I meant was two separate hardware devices, like two computers or a computer & phone or computer & solid state recorder. That’s not really practical with what you’re doing.
