I just started using Audacity and have not been in the recording game long, i just got a nice microphone headset and tried to run a test with my partner he was on skype and i successfully was recording (ONLY) him with another software and i was going to use Audacity to record ONLY me but when i record it picks me and him up but his voice is quiet and also has background distortion that im picking up from him
is there a way i can make Audacity only pick up my voice and not my guests on skype??
i attached a picture so anyone reading can see what i have selected
Cleanly recording a Skype or other Chat conference is crazy difficult to do.
Counting Audacity, you have three different software packages struggling to control your computer sound pathways. Skype, as a general rule, is going to win.
Skype has to do direction management, echo cancellation, and noise reduction in real time and coordinate with the other branches of the conference. It usually just rolls right over other sound software and resets their actions, whether they want it or not.
We found, after many bouts of digital fisticuffs that the best way was to have a separate computer join the conference with no microphone. Record that computers’ speaker feed. That will include everybody.
Note that can’t be the computer you’re on since it can’t have a microphone.
There is another way to do this. It’s still two computers, but you also need a sound mixer.
Audacity is recording on the left and Full-On Skype connection on the right. The machine on the right has no idea the rest of that is happening and I didn’t tell it. We did it stereo, but you can record you on left and the guest on right if you want. Mix later.
The left machine also has music playback. I wanted to see how much of this I could do in real time. I know production sucks. This is an engineering test.
If everybody is on Skype, they offer a recording service, but we had a poster who tried that and the voice was pretty dreadful. Noise cancellation and other artifacts and distortion.
We also had a poster who did a perfect podcast with Skype and Audacity. That’s it. Just those two. Nobody else on earth could do what they were doing and they were looking at us like we’re all nuts.
