Why do my sound files look like this?

Why do my sound files look like this…


…and not like this.
rms_in_waveform

Because the top one is badly overloaded? Nothing about that display looks like regular sound. Where did it come from?

Koz

What are you recording and how?

Koz

Because the vertical scale is logarithmic (dB) rather than linear
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audacity_waveform.html#db

log-lin

1 Like

Thank you.

Now I remember setting the scale to logarithmic because the scale is so large, without that setting it resembles a flat line.

A normal time-line blue wave only shows you the loudest 25dB or 30dB of the show out of a possible 96dB of range. That’s usually OK because a large portion of a useful show appears in that narrow range. If you start doing actual sound production and need that range, it’s time to ask what your show is. I think I did that up a ways.

Koz

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