One intrument too quiet, everything else great

Special Interest Groups Audio Processing
1

I’m a new user, when I recorded 3 different albums, the fiddle track from all 3 albums is hardly audible. I increased the gain, & overall volume is up, but I still can’t hear the fiddle track. All of the other instruments are of perfect mix. Any suggestions?
Many thanks!

2

How are you recording these albums? A USB turntable?
Try moving the Audacity track “Pan” slider all the way to the left, then all the way to the right - this should play your recording through one speaker then the other. Can you hear the fiddle when listening to just one speaker?

3

Yep, USB turntable.
I will try panning when I get home tonight. You can hear the fiddle, but just barely. It sounds pretty weird, as I’ve never heard the mix without it.
Thanks again, I will let you know what I find out.

4

You can also get this if there is damage in the wiring to the cartridge. It has the same fuzzy effect of having one channel out of phase, but it’s worse because the volume of each side also changes depending on the volume of the other. The Center of Performance wanders.

I don’t know a good way to test for this, either. I wired up a turntable this way once by accident and it took many days to figure out what I messed up.

Koz

5

I tried panning, I could hear the fiddle in pretty much equal volume on both sides. These albums are “The Bluegrass Album” series. I put on a Grapelli album, & the fiddle tracks are fine. All 3 albums had the same studio & engineer. I can hear the instrument fine when it is played through a stereo reciever.
I don’t know what to think. There’s probably not any way to elevate the level of that one isntrument, is there…

6

I think the problem is that the left and right channels are “out of phase”.
This is easy to test:

With your recording in Audacity:

  1. Click on the track name and from the drop down menu select “Split Stereo Track”
  2. Select ONE track (either track will do) and from the Effects menu select “Invert”
  3. Press Play.

Does that sound better?
If it does, we just need to work out where the “phase inversion” is occuring. To work this out we need to know exactly what equipment you have got and how it is connected up. Also, when you say “I can hear the instrument fine when it is played through a stereo reciever”, what exactly is your set-up there?