So I was using Audacity on my old pc (with windows system) for songs’ recording - I opened the file with background music, then I started to record my voice over it - using USB microphone, everything worked perfectly. But I changed my pc, I have Mac now. I installed Audacity and I started to record - I plugged the mic and headphones, opened the file with music. Everything works fine, but when I want to listen to the result, my voice isn’t as “fast” as the music … it’s much slower and it doesn’t fit the rhythm of the background music. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m totally desperate, because I use Audacity a lot, but it’s just not possible to use it like this … I can’t record like this. I would really appreciate any help.
Make and model number of the USB microphone? The mic may not be compatible with Mac OS X or you may need to install Mac OS X drivers for it.
Version of Audacity? Version of Mac OS X? See the pink panel at the top of this page.
When you have correct drivers if required, match sample rates everywhere. Read the manual for the mic. If the mic supports 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz, set the Audacity project rate (bottom left) to that rate.
Then In Finder, choose Go > Utilities then open “Audio MIDI Setup”. Choose the “Input” section. Set the “Format” for the mic to the same rate you chose in Audacity project rate and to the same number of channels that you are recording in Audacity. Mono may work best. 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit format should not matter, but if problems persist, try setting Default Sample Format in the Quality section of Audacity Preferences to 16-bit, and set the Audio MIDI Setup format to 16-bit.
Gale
The mic is M-AUDIO vocal studio (it is delivered with the code for downloading the “Ignite” recording software, which I installed on my Mac, but I don’t use it, because Audacity is much better and easier for me). The mic is compatible with Mac OS X (according to the manual). I have the newest MacBook Air with OS X Mavericks. The version of Audacity is 2.0.5.
I tried everything you told me. Though I have to admit that I’m not exactly a technical type, but I did my best and nothing worked. My voice is still delayed …
Vendy
Your mic requires 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz.
I understood you to mean that your voice was recorded at too slow speed, because you said “when I want to listen to the result” that your voice was “slower”. That could be caused by mismatched sample rates. If your voice was recorded at too slow a speed, you would be in time at the start but increasingly late as the recording goes on. Is that what happens?
If the amount of delay to your voice is constant (you are the same amount late at the end of your recording as the start) then all you need to do is use Time Shift Tool (press F5 on your computer keyboard) to drag the recorded track back to the correct place. See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tools_toolbar.html#timeshift .
What you could do to hopefully avoid that manual realignment of the recording is to make a Latency Test to measure the amount the recording is delayed by, then set that delay amount as the latency correction value in Recording Preferences. See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/latency_test.html .
Gale