I am a podcaster and I record skype conversations in stereo, but when I drag the file over to Audacity it often snips a second or two out of one of the voices which causes overlap. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? I want both voices to start exactly when they do from how it was captured on Skype. I don’t want Audacity to cut bits out.
Thanks.
How do you do that?
Audacity will only do what you tell it to. It is not able to automatically edit on import, so something else must be occurring.
Also where does “mono to stereo mix” come into it? Are you saying that it’s a problem when you export?
If there is blank space before the start of the track, Audacity does not export that blank space as silence. You have to add a little silence at the start of the track.
Gale
I record the conversations on skype in stereo. When i drag it to Audacity there are 2 voice files: mine is the top and my guests are the second. The second voice files slips back a second or two. Are we saying that it slips back because the person hasn’t spoken yet, and audacity makes it start when they start talking? That can’t be, because as a host i always speak first!
Sorry, and mix and render comes into it because i split the stereo track into two mono tracks at the end and remerge them with mix and render. otherwise each voice comes through a different speaker/headphone.
Audacity does not do what you are suggesting immediately upon import.
So I suggest you use Audacity supplied by us Audacity ® | Download for Windows.
You did not answer how you are recording Skype but I suggest you look at the settings of the recording application that you are using. Perhaps there is an align setting you were not aware of.
Gale
Gale - are you saying the download you provided will do what I want? Is it Audacity?
Sorry, I am using Pamela to record.
Audacity supplied by us will align all imported tracks to time zero. It does not push the second track backwards as you say is happening.
I do suspect thought that Pamela might be the application that is truncating the guests’ recording. Play the guests’ file in Windows Media Player. Do the guests start talking at once?
Gale
wow you’re right! It’ happening with Pamela. Can you state what the problem is so I can tell them that they may help me? Or if you suspect they won’t help, what can be done?
Look in the help for the version of Pamela that you have and see if there is some setting that auto aligns the host and guest recordings, or does not start guest recording until the guest speaks. Or contact Pamela support directly. You can tell them that when you look at the guest’s waveform in Audacity, it starts where the guest starts speaking.
You can work round it in Audacity. After you split to mono, use Time Shift Tool (F5) to drag the guest’s track rightwards to the correct place. If you then Mix and Render as you say, the guest’s audio will be in the correct place in the mix.
Press F1 to go back to Selection Tool after you have done time shifting.
Gale
Thanks Gale, you’ve been SO helpful.
The problem with doing it manually in audacity is you have to get it perfect and it’s difficult to gauge.