I am having trouble with a reduction in my sound quality. I am using a Tascam DR-05 recording at a high quality of sound. The recording sounds great on my computer. I edit, add music and export in a high quality wav, but once it is put onto a music player, the sound is terrible. I can listen to the exported file on my computer in Windows Media Player and it sounds great. It sounds like I am in a tunnel and suddenly has a lot of static when I listen to it on any other device. It doesn’t seem to matter what device either. I had this problem previously and changed the settings for exporting to a 32 bit float wav file and the problem was fixed. This time, it is not fixing the problem.
There’s a lot of holes in that story and we live in fine details.
I edit, add music and export in a high quality wav, but once it is put onto a music player, the sound is terrible.
You mentioned multiple music players. Which ones? Specifically. I have an original issue iPod Touch® and an older 20GB Scroll-Wheel iPod.
There’s another hole between creating a high quality WAV and putting the music on your iPod. You can do that but you only get about three songs on an iPod if you do. Most people create an MP3, AAC or other compressed music file. How do you do that? In detail.
I don’t think my iPod will play a 32-bit sound file directly. When you increased the quality of your export, I think you also did something else which cured the original problem. Nobody can tell the difference between 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit by listening. 16-bit is Music CD quality and the other two are used for sound production.
Koz
I have tried my Creative Zen, LG Optimus V cell phone, and Sandisk Sansa player. I leave the file in WAV format for the high quality. I do not make it an mp3. I export under the category of Other Uncompressed files with the settings of 32 bit float.
I edit, add music and export in a high quality wav,
What kind of “editing”?
It sounds OK in Audacity before exporting?
Does it sound OK if you export without editing?
If you are mixing sounds together when “adding music”, note that mixing is done by summation and it can push your levels into [u]clipping[/u] (distortion). Audacity itself can go over 0dB, but most file formats cannot. Boosting the volume or certain other effects such as Equalization can also push the levels into clipping.
Run the Amplify effect and make sure your peaks are not above 0dB before exporting. If you just want to check the peaks without actually changing anything, you can run the Amplify effect, note the default setting, and then cancel. For example, if Audacity defaults to -3dB that means your current peaks are +3dB and you are in danger of clipping when you export. If Amplify defaults to +6dB, your current peaks are -6dB and you have 6dB of headroom.
Your analog-to-digital converter and digital-to-analog converter are also limited to 0dBFS. 16 and 24-bit WAV files use integers and they are limited to 0dB. 32-bit floating-point can go over 0dB and practically speaking it has no upper (or lower limit).
I am only doing very minor editing. The recording is just my voice as I am talking. I edit out if I say something wrong by cutting the bad part out. I am recording a hypnotherapy session, so my voice is clear, but not too loud. The music accompanying it is also a reasonable level with no high peaks.
It sounds great after editing and even after exporting on my computer. Once it is put onto another device, then the sound is off.
I ran the Amplify and the default was 4.7.
The odd part is that I used these same settings last time and it sounded great. Same type of speaking and using the same music tracks.
I would expect what you’re doing to sound perfect.
???
After you export to a file and then copy it to your device, does it still sound OK if you Import that same file back into Audacity?
A perfect sound file will have good size blue waves that never hit top or bottom. The bouncing green sound meters should spend most of their time in the right-hand third and never go all the way up.
Prepare a short segment as a test at 44100, 16-bit. Audacity Default. You didn’t say whether or not you were in stereo. Export it to your players to make sure it sounds bad and then select a short segment and post it here. Scroll down to where it says Upload Attachment. If it’s stereo you can post 5 seconds. If it’s mono, ten seconds.
Koz
To put the recording on my player, the computer converts it. I just checked to download it back to play in Audacity and it is a .wma file and will not play in Audacity. Is it wrong to have it convert to play on the player.
My green sound meters only go up about a third. I have been adjusting my recording levels on the Tascam trying to get it to the optimal level. In the previous recording that did work well, the green barely moved. I raised the sensitivity level and it sounds better on the computer than before, but still doesn’t move the green bars more than a third.
I tried putting it on my player without doing the convert to wma and it just gives a “playback error” message.
I need to sit and read that over again when it’s not midnight. We have a poster in the last few days who is using a stand-alone Tascam and she is cranking out good quality audiobook shows using very gentle processing in Audacity. There has to be something you’re doing wrong.
Koz
I agree that there must be something wrong I am doing. I appreciate the help. I have searched for recommended settings and tried following the directions recommended by audacity in doing the minimal editing and converting. The picture attached does not show it mixed and rendered. I tried it both ways and it still sounds the same. The top line is my voice. The bottom is the music.
To put the recording on my player, the computer converts it. I just checked to download it back to play in Audacity and it is a .wma file and will not play in Audacity. Is it wrong to have it convert to play on the player.
That’s strange… But, WMA is lossy compression and that might explain the loss of quality. (You’d need to select a higher quality WMA setting.)
When you export from Audacity to WAV, does it sound OK when played on the computer with Windows Media Player? It’s only when you send it to a hardware device that it sounds bad? If Audacity can export a good-sounding file, then we know the problem is not related to editing or Audacity.
…the computer converts it.
The computer does it automatically???
I have tried my Creative Zen, LG Optimus V cell phone, and Sandisk Sansa player. I leave the file in WAV format for the high quality. I do not make it an mp3. I export under the category of Other Uncompressed files with the settings of 32 bit float.
I’d be surprised if those players support 32-bit float.*** Try a “normal” 16-bit WAV,** or a high quality MP3, or high quality (high bitrate) WMA. (“V0” is the “best” MP3 variable bitrate, and 320kbps is the “best” constant bitrate.) Your portable players may also support lossless compression (FLAC or ALAC) if you feel that’s important.
***** 32-bit floating point is not a “distribution format”. It’s a “processing format” that’s sometimes useful if you want to save the file and do more processing later. There are no floating-point digital-to-analog converters, so when you play a 32-bit file the driver (or player software) converts it to 16 or 24-bit integer as required by your particular DAC.
It does not give me an option for quality of wma. It asks if I want to convert it to work on my player or not. If I say yes, then it converts to wma without further options. If I say no for the 32 bit, then it does not work on the player.
I tried the 16 bit wav with and without converting it for the player. The sound still is not right.
It does still sound great on my computer through the media player at the 16 bit wav level.
Any other suggestions? I just don’t understand why it would work one time and sound right, but not the next time.
I decided to search more on my computer to see if I could find converting options for to my players. I found options in Windows Media Player under devices. I changed the levels to the highest quality and tried sending the files over again. This time it works great on my Sandisk Sansa, but not my Creative Zen. I am unclear why it still is not working on the Zen. Last time I created a recording, I was able to put it on both devices easily. I think you are right that it may not be a problem of audacity and more of a problem of my computer or players.
I tried the 16 bit wav with and without converting it for the player. The sound still is not right.
In that case, I’m pretty sure it the player. Uncompressed 16-bit, 44.1kHz is “CD quality” and the format itself is better than human hearing. High quality MP3 and AAC (lossy formats) can often be indistinguishable from the uncompressed original, depending on the program material. I don’t know a whole lot about WMA, but I assume it can also be excellent.
This time it works great on my Sandisk Sansa, but not my Creative Zen. I am unclear why it still is not working on the Zen.
If it’s not working at all (not just poor quality) the Zen may not support the format.
Wikipedia says about the Zen -
All players support MP3 and WMA formats, while some models support also WAV and Audible formats.
I think you mentioned 4 players, and you’ll have to check what formats they support. MP3 is the most universal format. AAC (the default iTunes format) is also widely supported. WAV is is a “simple” format and it’s fairly universal too (at least the integer formats), but it’s not popular because the uncompressed files are large and tagging (artist, title, song, etc.) is not widely supported for WAV.
It will still play on the Zen, but has the sound quality degradation. Thank you for the help.