MP3/WAV Project burned to CD sound awful

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I recently created a multi label project that was Exported to WAV and MP3 ;and finally burn to CD

As the original clips were shot in a church with Audio Dolby Digital Stereo ( I split the Audio ) I found that I believe 2 problems
Mainly I was taping songs that were interpretated by 4 singers there was only only one musician with a guitar

A)Sound from a guitar is pitchy (only one guitar was used)
B)Hard to explain but I find that all songs are carrying echo (obvious as original clips shot in a church)

Any suggestion as to which effect I should I be using to improve quality

Thanks

snowstorm :smiley:

2

I don’t know what you mean by “pitchy” but you can’t reliably remove reverberation from a recording. Occasionally Noise Removal can help with mitigating reverb.

Please post a sample of the pitchiness and another of the reverb. See How to post an audio sample .


Gale

3

Yeah… Other than adjusting the levels and EQ (frequency balance) you are pretty much stuck with what you’ve got. The CD doesn’t sound any worse than the video, does it?

Pitch correction is normally done to solo vocals before mixing. If you have a mix (as you do) you can’t change the pitch of one vocal/instrument without affecting them all. Pros use Auto Tune or Melodyne. There is a free pitch correction plug-in called Gsnap, but I’ve never tried it. Of course, in a professional studio there is rarely a need to correct the tuning of instruments, only vocals.

The natural reverb that sounds great coming from all directions when listening live sounds excessive and unnatural when coming from a pair of stereo speakers in a smaller room. The trick is to get the microphones closer to the performers to get the right balance of direct and reflected room sound. This may take some experimentation. Getting the mics closer will also reduce room noise, which is also a lot more annoying on a recording that it is live.

Most modern recordings are recorded in soundproof “dead” studios, and any reverb is added artificially in post production. But, some acoustic recordings are recorded in a room with good-sounding reverb and careful mic positioning.



P.S.

MP3/WAV Project burned to CD sound awful

One more minor thing for future reference - MP3 is lossy compression. Dolby AC3 is also lossy compression. Regular audio CDs use uncompressed PCM like WAV files. You are stuck the Dolby AC3 but you should avoid MP3 as an intermediate format. These formats are not “terrible”, but if you want to distribute your recording in MP3 (or another lossy format), the “best practice” is to compress once as the final step.

4

Good afternoon
I applied noise removal and yes I noticed good improvement

If I ever shoot again in a church my recording set up will be definitively different

I exported as MP3 and WAV just to experiment different quality and yes my CD will be burned with WAV files ;
I can say now that the sound on the CD is “acceptable” but was hoping for much better

Thanks to Gale and DVDdoug

snowstorm