song

Hello
Who can help me to mix 2 male and 2 female voices with a guitar and make the song nice? I would like to send the song by wetransfer and learn from you how to do the installation.

What do you mean “help”?

[u]Tutorial - Recording Multi-track Overdubs[/u]

Usually, you start with a backing track (i.e. guitar) and then record additional tracks separately while listening to the backing track with headphones.

Sometimes this is tricky because you can also hear yourself in the headphones but there is a delay (latency). If the delay is too long it can be difficult or impossible to perform. There are a few factors that determine latency (and I’m not exactly an expert) so IMO the best solution is to get an interface that allows direct-hardware zero-latency monitoring where the monitoring path doesn’t go-through the computer. You can still listen to the backing track from the computer. Or there are other options such as using a hardware mixer for monitoring.

Once you have more than one track you can open additional tracks by using File → Import instead of File → Open.

When you have multiple tracks in one project they will mix when you play or when you export the file. There are sliders to the left of the waveform to adjust the volumes and to pan left or right. There is also a [u]Mixer Tool[/u].

Another tricky thing - Mixing is done by summation so if the track volumes are too high you’ll get a clipped (distorted) mix. And unfortunately, unlike a hardware mixer or [u]DAW application[/u], Audacity doesn’t have a master level control so the individual tracks have to be reduced.

I can give you couple of hints to help with that but I have to sign-off for awhile…


…I’m back -

My handy-dandy spreadsheet says if you mix 5 tracks that peak at 0dB (the “digital maximum”) the mix will peak at +14dB. That’s “worst case” if all of the peaks line-up at the same time, but you WILL get clipping no matter how they line-up. So you’d need to reduce each track to peak at -14dB (peaking at about 20%).

But when you mix you’ll want to adjust the levels differently by-ear however the mix sounds best so that’s just an idea of where you should be.

The safest approach is to render as floating-point WAV which for all practical purposes has no upper (or lower) limits. That’s not a good final format and if it goes over 0dB the listener will clip their DAC if they play it a “full digital volume”. So, open the new mix and run the Amplify or Normalize effect. Using the defaults, that will bring the volume up or down for 0dB or -1dB peaks. Then re-export to your final desired format.

P.S.
Probably the most important thing is to “capture” a good performance with a good microphone in a quiet room. …That’s your first “link in the chain”.

Can you come by teamviewer on my pc and show me how you would adjust the 4 voices?

I totally agree with Teamviewer’s advice: Never give access to your computer (or tablet or phone) to anyone that you don’t know and trust. Teamviewer will prevent unauthorised access to your device, but if you grant access, the Teamviewer will allow it. Think of it as opening your front door and letting someone into your house - once you let them in, they could do anything.

This forum’s policy is for dialogue to be conducted in public forum. Telephone / email / Teamviewer support is not provided.

If you don’t like using forums, Audacity also has a discord channel: Audacity