Making voice recordings sound similar

Hello! I recorded an interview and am now putting it together. In a few instances, I had a garbled recording (of my own voice) and I’m trying to fix that by re-recording those parts and replacing the garbled ones.

These new recordings sound very different even though it’s still me and they were recorded on the same equipment in the same environment. Now, I’m very new to Audacity! I applied the same Filter Curve EQ to both recordings - I don’t think I did anything different to the first recording (?!) so I’m trying to figure out why, when played one after the other, it’s easy to tell they were made at different times.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

  • Nick

I had a garbled recording (of my own voice)

Do you know why that happened? Was this a street interview where you swing a directional microphone back and forth?

Describe what you were doing. Describe the interview.

Were you recording in Audacity in Windows?

Post one of the bad patches. Five seconds of original work and five seconds of you trying to fix it. Drag-select that ten seconds and File > Export > Export as WAV. From a forum text window, scroll down > Attachments > Add Files.

Koz

Sorry about that! I’ll try to be more clear. It was a phone interview - all of the subject’s recordings sound the same (thought not great because she was on the phone!)

My portion of the interview was done using a Zoom H6 recorder. Now that I’m putting the interview together, I had to rerecord some of my portions. I’m using the same equipment in the same setting. When played side by side, though, you can hear a difference in the audio - so the listener will think, “Oh, that portion was spliced in later.” It’s like the original recording is “richer” in sound?

I think I must have manipulated the recording, but for the life of me, I don’t know what I did. I’m hoping the sound quality could be similar enough that the difference is not distracting in the final format.

In the portion I am including, the first 10 seconds were added later - this sample ends with the original (now richer sounding?) recording.

Thank you for any advice!

Here’s a second recording. The first six seconds are “new.” Immediately after that, after I say “um,” is the original recording. Again, I think they sound different, especially side to side like this.

I can get closer with Effect > Bass and Treble.

Screen Shot 2020-09-29 at 7.58.40 AM.png

Nice recorder.

You and me both. Little question marks floating over our heads. What could cause a new recording to be weak with low bass—or alternately, “presence” boosted.

Do you have the recorder pointed at you, say, over your desk or work surface? Are you using an external microphone? The H5 will do just about anything. If you’re not paying strict attention, I’m going to take it home with me.

How are you recording the call? As bad as you say it is, just that you got it to work at all is noteworthy—and a popular question on the forum.

There was one difference between the clips. Only one had a call connected.

And I’m still curious about what caused your damage in the first place.

Koz