I am using a USB Mic (Trust GXT-232) with my Win10 laptop and try to record my speech with Audacity. The record waves look very small, like on the picture below. When I play it back it is not terrible quite, it is actually quite ok…
Is this just a display thing? It makes it difficult for me to cut off external noises / silences before amplifying the recording as the waves are tiny.
I have found many similar questions in the forum but not managed to fix my issue with any of them. If you have any tips to fix this, I would be grateful!
First step. The recording volume could use a boost.
Recording controls are adjust for waveform or bouncing sound meter, not by number on the slider. It’s normal for home microphones to run all the way up.
You can change microphone placement. Use Oblique Placement (B) …
And get a lot closer. Power Fist Spacing. You won’t need the round pop and blast filter if the microphone isn’t directly in front of your lips.
That better? Ideal blue waves are about half-way filling the timeline top to bottom.
There is not a lot of detailed info on this microphone. They insist it’s end-fire like a rock-band microphone…
… but the grill is typical of side-fire like a studio microphone…
You may not be able to get close enough to your face with the little table stand. I’ve been known to use stacked paper towel rolls.
OMG! Thanks a lot Koz, very good point… It was really just the MIC volume control as you said, I don’t know how I could be this blind. Moving it to the max is a little too loud actually, so I am playing around with it now.
Is it better to keep the MIC as close as you said and turn the volume down a little or keep the volume on max and move the MIC further a little? I like your idea about the paper towel and the coffee
The personality of the sound will change a bit between the positionings. As posted, you don’t need the pop and blast filter if the microphone isn’t in the line of fire of your breath, but it won’t sound the same, either.
Fair warning if you’re recording a long presentation over days (audiobook) Do Not change anything once you start.
Microphones and microphone systems have noise that doesn’t change. The “Noise Floor.” It’s your job to make your voice louder than that. The easiest way is to get close and talk loud. You will be so much louder than the noise floor you may be able to produce your product or service with no Noise Reduction or other rescue efforts.
The other extreme is you get lazy and put the microphone on the other side of the desk when you perform. You may get a voice recording, but it will be weak and quiet and you will also get the natural noises of the system as well as the room. When you boost your voice, the noises are going to get boosted too. You can’t stop it. Now you’re into all the noise reduction, filtering, gating, keying, and rescue tools, and they can all make your voice sound funny. Audiobook Human Quality Control is listening for this damage and will bounce you if it’s too bad.
People generally pick somewhere in the middle. If you use your blast filter, talk about a power fist away from it…
…and adjust the sliders for blue wave size and bouncing sound meter color. The meter should just start to turn yellow. It’s hard to see in my illustration VoiceSampleWave. The meter at -9 is just starting to change color. If the meter goes all the way up to red, you got problems. It’s possible to get your voice so loud that it becomes permanently damaged. Record it again.
