Sound

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi Folks, new to the forum (and Audacity)

I’m using windows 8, not sure what version of Audacity. Recording just keyboard at present.

I’ve totally messed-up with the sound / effects and not sure how to rectify, I think I’ve tried pretty much everything.

You will hear what’s wrong, this should be a nice sounding piano recording.

There’s a sample below, maybe someone with a keen ear can identify the problem and advise what I’ve done wrong. I’d re-record however the sample is part of 4 tracks I spent ages recording and then cutting down to the right length and merging together i.e about 3 hours of work already. Hopefully there’s an easy way if anyone can help (I managed another track well last night without any major hiccup)

thanks

2

Do you have the Line-Out or the Headphone Out of the keyboard plugged into the laptop Mic-In?

Stop doing that. The two connections normally are incompatible with each other.

This is another version of the same problem.

Sometimes you can force that to work by adjusting levels and turning off Windows Enhanced Services. If that still doesn’t sound right (it may not be in stereo, either), then you can do what I did and get a stereo high-level USB adapter such as the UCA-202.

Put your keyboard in place of my mixer.
Also see:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements

Koz

3

Hi Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

The problem isn’t with the connection, prior to me trying to enhance the effects, the original recordings are fine (I’m using a USB Interface similar to yours). The problems occurred when I started playing around with the effects and saved the project at some point without realising what I’d done.

It’s trying to get the sound back to ‘normal’ that’s the issue :frowning:

4

Sadly, that’s a bit like trying to take the banana out of a banana milkshake …

The key learning that you should take away from this is to make backup copies of your project at varying known stages, particularly the raw capture. Use File > Save Project As … for this. That way you can always revert to one of those known states. Just remember that Save Project As makes that new project name the current project - so you either need to name for the upcoming edits or you need to close the backup known-stage project and re-open the active project.

WC

5

Thanks WC, I understand.

Is there a way of ‘removing all sound effects in place’ which might reinstate the original recording / data?

thanks
Sean

6

To find your Audacity version, please look at the pink panel at the top of this page.

If the project window is still open, Edit > Undo, but you will also have to undo everything you did after the unintended effect.

If you want to try special effects you are not sure about, you could Edit > Duplicate the track to a new track and experiment on the new track.


Gale