I apologize if this topic has been brought up in the past. I am new to Audacity and I am new to recording my voice in general. I have an Audio-Tech microphone, plugged in with USB. I have done repeated testing and adjustments in Audacity, but I cannot get the waveform to show anything other then a small almost flat line, other than when I do a finger snap or a clap directly in front of the mic. Looking at the recoding level while speaking, the range appears to be about -18 db. I have laptop input to max. I have to raise my voice a lot to get the recording monitor to go past the -18.
Am I possibly missing something in my settings, or do I just have to speak louder while recording? I have attached a copy of a test file if that helps with the review and response.
-18dB is a tad low but not an unreasonable recording target. Is your mic perhaps designed to be almost “eaten”, ie to be used as close as a centimeter away from your mouth?
Anyway: You may want to simply normalize before editing. If you weren’t using a USB microphone, you could’ve also considered putting a pre-amp inbetween to raise the level a bit more, but with USB you might be stuck with what you have.
Everything shows that I should have the mic about a hands width away. This mic is supposed to be designed for podcasts, narrating, as well as other activities, so I am thinking that you don’t have to have the mic right at your mouth to record a decent level.
I will try a few other things to see what happens. Thank you for your time.