PLEASE HELP! Audacity distorting my audio inconsistently

[WrestleRant]

Hello! I recently purchased an HP Envy 360x (AMD Ryzen 7) and downloaded Audacity, a program I’ve been using on various laptops for over a decade and have never had an issue with. I use a Blue Yeti Mic to record and always have. Upon recording for the first time, I noticed my tracks had inconsistent audio quality every time I start and stop recording. It’ll sound fine one time, and distorted the next as if there’s a buzzing while I’m speaking. There’s no way to tell before I start recording if there’s going to be an issue, so I don’t hear it until playing it back

I even tried downloading an older version of it and still had the same issue. Like I said, it’s inconsistent so there’s no easy fix it seems. I’m convinced it’s an HP Envy issue, but I don’t know what to do instead. I’ve attached an audio example below of what it sounds like when it’s fine, and what it sounds like when it’s distorted. I tried the built-in mic on the computer and that sounds totally fine every time. It’s something about the Yeti mic for some reason.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Trebor]

The second mic check sounds like ring-modulation with 60Hz.
e.g. interference by mains electricity.

[WrestleRant]

@Trebor

ring-modulation

Thank you! I’m not very computer savy. Do you know what that could be attributed to? Or if there’s a fix for that so it’s more consistent each time I stop recording?

[kozikowski]

There is another HP Envoy 360 up the forum a bit.

Audacity does not make any sense

I have been using Audacity for over 10 years. I just got a new computer and installed Audacity. I have turntables and a mixer going out to a stereo 8th inch which converts to a USB. Maddeningly, Audacity will only record audio from the microphone, which is plugged into the mixer, but not records, WHICH ARE PLUGGED INTO THE SAME MIXER! How is that even possible? I can hear both the mic and the record players through the speakers, but audacity only picks up things said into the microphone. It’s n…

They found a hidden Communications Processing section of the computer.

Koz

[WrestleRant]

Thanks for the help. Do you know how I’d go about accessing that hidden Communications Processing section?

[WrestleRant]

Scratch that. Just found it and set it to “Do Nothing”. Hope this works. Thanks again for the help!

[WrestleRant]

Gave it a shot and still no real change (the buzzing when I speak is still present). I tried a different audio recording/editing service all together and ran into the same issue, so I’m convinced it’s an HP Envy/Windows issue. Any other recommendations would be appreciated.

[kozikowski]

I know how darn popular this is.

I produced a good voice sample with my older iPhone in Lossless Voice Memos.

I shot it in my quiet, carpeted, echo-free office.

The phone is in Pressure Zone Configuration (lying flat on the desk). Its microphone is facing me. That gives full, good quality volume, and reduced noise. Yes, that does sound like me.

That cable is for wall power so I’m not running on batteries.

Voice Memos has a built-in gentle peak limiter which prevents accidental harsh, gritty overloading and clipping. I can’t hear it working and yes, I did test it.

It produces m4a sound files with about 2:1 modest data compression. Compressed VoiceMemo (the other option) uses 10:1 lossy compression. That’s the one for home reminders (take out the trash), not audiobooks.

I transferred my test file to Audacity, cut out the mistakes, applied 36Audiobook-Mastering-Macro (the new one) and ACX-Check tells me it passes audiobook standards.

Noise is close. Too close, so I applied Regular Noise Reduction at the 6, 6, 6 settings.

36Audiobook-Mastering-Macro.txt (585 Bytes)

ACX-Check.ny (4.4 KB)

The only real problem I had was transferring the sound from the iPhone to my Mac. This can happen if the versions are too far apart. I’m not done experimenting with different transfer tools.

Koz

[kozikowski]

@WrestleRant

I’m convinced it’s an HP Envy/Windows issue.

The Developers created a stunning number of problems and amount of damage in the 3.6.0 version. As suggested in the above post, the older Audiobook-Mastering-Macro crashed because they changed the built-in Limiter effect.

This is past plain, ordinary production problems and machine difficulties.

I keep being dragged back to the advice of Stop Recording on the Computer. This iPhone method has the additional advantage of a built-in top quality file backup.

Koz

[kozikowski]

You can still get into trouble. A recent forum poster bought a headset (headphones and microphone in one) with voice processing built-in—and you can’t stop it.

I think the best servicing problem of all time was the wanna-be theatrical presenter whose natural voice sounded like a broken microphone.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Being unable to resist an Easter egg, we will note that the only thing the Hudson Valley is famous for is fancy-pants houses owned by rich and powerful New Yorkers—and West Point.

There are actual cows, and rich, creamy, etc, but they’re in farms on the other side of the Catskill Mountains—some 50 miles further west. Three of my five neighbors were farmers with actual cows.

Mu.

Koz

[Trebor]

@WrestleRant

Do you know what that could be attributed to? Or if there’s a fix for that so it’s more consistent each time I stop recording?

If it’s not interference from mains electricity cables, it could be two software’s rapidly fighting over the audio. In Windows there is setting to give one program priority use of mic: “exclusive mode”.

[kozikowski]

So that’s Exclusive Mode, Communications Mode, and Windows Audio Enhancement.

Microphones, sound mixers, and audio interfaces with built- in voice processing.

Voice management, control, and supervision by Zoom, Skype, Meet, Teams, Games, etc.

[Runs screaming down the hall.]

Koz

[christop]

Ain’t technology grand? Especially when it’s being “helpful”!