We recorded a quartet using an instrumental track and separately recorded voice tracks (one for each quartet member). After getting the tracks down, we split the vocal tracks, deleted one of the tracks for each vocalist, assigned them left and right channels as we desired, and added a small amount of reverb to the vocal tracks using Gverb. Everything was fine. We saved the project file, exported the tracks to a wav file, and closed the project file. The wav file sounded great. However, we noticed a click in the wav file, so we reopened the project and removed the click. When we exported the project again, we noticed the instrumental track was barely audible, even though it was still at -3db. That is where it was before when we exported the first time. We reopened the project file, and sure enough, it played just as the wav file with the instrumental track barely audible. I am at a loss to expain this. This was all done on an XP SP3 machine using a Creative Audigy SE sound card and Audacity 2.0.3. I copied the project file (aup) and the data folder to a CD and brought it to my house where I have Audacity 2.0 and Ubuntu 12.04. The same problem exists here. Can anyone help me recover this audio track? Even if we amplify it to 0db, it is entirely too low. We worked on this for five hours and hate to do it again, Any help will be appreciated
I just realize I posted this on the Linux forum, and the problem initially occurred under Windows. However, I am having the same symptoms under Ubuntu and am trying to fix it here.
Well, it seems that I’m not going to get a reply. However, I’ve come up with a work around. I duplicated the instrumental track, and the two tracks additive effect is what the original track was in terms of loudness. It seems that no one, including me, has an answer for why Audacity failed as it did. Perhaps it’s a bug, but I don’t have enough information to file it as such. C’est la vie.
Well, it seems that I’m not going to get a reply.
I don’t know how many user forums you’ve posted on, but it usually takes days to get an answer. We usually hit it within a bunch of hours, if that.
I need to go back and read through that. It’s good you included that detail. We like detail.
Koz
If you have a sound track pounding away and nobody can hear it, it’s almost certainly a cancellation problem. Download and play this test sound clip. It’s really short. 39 seconds.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/LRMonoPhase4.wav
It’s in four segments. I bet you’re going to be missing one of the four – one of the last two.
Let me know. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your performance. I think your sound system may have a problem (there’s a remote chance of show damage, but I don’t think so).
Koz
What happens if you solo the track that is too quiet?
Where is it showing at -3 dB - in the green playback meters?
Gale
If you have a sound track pounding away and nobody can hear it, it’s almost certainly a cancellation problem. Download and play this test sound clip. It’s really short. 39 seconds.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/LRMonoPhase4.wav
It’s in four segments. I bet you’re going to be missing one of the four – one of the last two.
Let me know. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your performance. I think your sound system may have a problem (there’s a remote chance of show damage, but I don’t think so).
I hear all four segments, so I think cancellation is not the problem. We can hear the instrumental track, but it is so faint as to be mostly inaudible when the quartet tracks are playing with it. As I said in the original post, the sound with all tracks playing was well balanced as to loudness. It was only after saving and re-opening the project that the volume of the instrumental track dropped significantly. The only operation performed on anything after re-opening the project was the removal of the click on one of the vocal tracks. All vocal tracks remained at the same loudness level. Only the instrumental track dimimished in volume, and no operations were performed on that track or any other track. The operation performed to remove the click was a cut at the end of the vocal track on which it appeared, and that was at the end of the track after all tracks had no additional sound. We had run the tracks for about three seconds after the instrumental track fininhed to allow for some silence at the end of the song. The click occurred during this period of silence, so the removal did not occur during any part of the instrumental or vocal tracks that contained sound.
What happens if you solo the track that is too quiet?
Where is it showing at -3 dB - in the green playback meters?
The way I got the -3 db was by using the Amplify effect on the instrumental track to see how many db’s it would take to bring the level to 0 db; this showed the loudest portion of that track at -3 db. I actually applied the Amplify effect at 3 db and brought the instrumental track up to 0 db, but the track remained very weak. So, I undid the Amplify, added a new stereo track, copied and pasted the instrumental track to the new empty stereo track, and the sound was back where it should be with both instrumental tracks unmuted.
Did you bump the +/- volume control to the left of the track. That shows up in the speakers and green sound meter, but not the blue waves. Koz
Koz, that is exactly what happened. Through some inadvertant cursor movement while trying to highlight the entire track, we must have reduced the volume of that track. Because we had so many tracks visible, the volume sliders on the left of the tracks were not visible. Wow, that makes me feel pretty stupid. Thanks for helping me see the error of my ways. I should long remember this lesson.