Why when I save my voice to an MP3, it sounds tinny??

[doodlebug1]

I got a new microphone called Snowflake. When I record my voice doing a monologue and replay it on Audacity, it's great! Good tone. Clear. This is a great microphone!

But after I have saved my monologue to an MP3 and replay that, my voices sounds like I'm in a wavy tin can. WHY???

And what can I do to save it in the same clearness and good tone I hear on Audacity?

Thanks for any help.

Doodlebug1

[kozikowski]

You probably have the Audacity MP3 preferences set for too low a quality.

Edit > Preferences > File Formats > MP3. Select a bitrate of 192 or 224. That may get you a much larger sound file than you have been getting. The quality and filesizes go up and down in opposition to each other.

Keep changing the bitrate down until you can start to hear the damage, then go back up one. Restart Audacity every time you change any preference and make sure the change sticks.

In Audacity 1.3, you can change the quality at the export step, not the preference step. It's much faster and you can have both Audacity versions on your machine as long as you only use one at a time.

Koz

[doodlebug1]

You probably have the Audacity MP3 preferences set for too low a quality.

Edit > Preferences > File Formats > MP3. Select a bitrate of 192 or 224. That may get you a much larger sound file than you have been getting. The quality and filesizes go up and down in opposition to each other.

Keep changing the bitrate down until you can start to hear the damage, then go back up one. Restart Audacity every time you change any preference and make sure the change sticks.

Thank you. I went in where you directed me and chose 224. But....when I tried to record, I got a box that said there was an error, telling me to check the "input device settings and project sample rate". Yikes, that is Greek to me. Is this related to the change, or do I have another problem? And what do I do now?

Doodlebug1

[doodlebug1]

Ok, re: the message I got about checking "input device settings and project sample rate".........I went to Edit>Preferences>Audio I/O tab. For Output, I can only choose Microsoft Sound Mapper or Sigma Tel Audio. For Input, I can choose Microsoft Sound Mapper, Blue SnowFlake, or Sigma Tel Audio.

When I put both output and input to Microsoft Sound Mapper, I can now "record" with no box popping up, but I'm not recording. And nothing plays back.

So I go back and keep MSM for output, and Sigma Tel for input, still the same.

When I go back a third time to try both on Sigma Tel, the PREFERENCES tab is now all gray!!

Helllllllppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

[doodlebug1]

Well...in playing around while waiting for help, I found out if I opened a new Audacity box, the preferences aren't gray anymore. I also realized that the "blue snowflake" for input device is my new microphone. lol. So it's the choice, with Microsoft Sound Mapper for output. STILL no recording happening. Also, the drop down menu where I'd do "microphone" is gray.

Hellllllppppppppppppp

[kozikowski]

<<<Well...in playing around while waiting for help>>>

You should not be hanging on the computer waiting for someone to respond. Some of the Windows people are multiple time zones away and it could take a half-day or longer to get a response.

Koz

[doodlebug1]

<<<Well...in playing around while waiting for help>>>

You should not be hanging on the computer waiting for someone to respond. Some of the Windows people are multiple time zones away and it could take a half-day or longer to get a response.

Koz

Hi. Hanging around occurred because I was continuing to play around with settings, and then would come back and report them. I had already gotten one fast response anyway. lol. So I'll let you "not" hang around, and I'll continue doing what feels right for me at the time, as it did. lol.

By the way, I figured it out--rose the Bit Rate settings to 96 and voila--sounded MUCH better.

Doodlebug

[kozikowski]

As a fuzzy rule, 32 is barely enough for a mono recording and 64 for stereo. There is a cliff at those two points, less than that even by a little bit and many people can hear damage. Above that many people can't. By the time you get to 192, a great many people can not hear any damage at all and many people consider that or 224 to be a perfect recording.

Koz

[doodlebug1]

As a fuzzy rule, 32 is barely enough for a mono recording and 64 for stereo. There is a cliff at those two points, less than that even by a little bit and many people can hear damage. Above that many people can't. By the time you get to 192, a great many people can not hear any damage at all and many people consider that or 224 to be a perfect recording.

Koz

Koz, great information. Was I right in assuming that bringing it down to 96 was going to better allow those on Dial-up to hear my recording? This recording is for my website. At 96, it still sounded as good as 124 and up, to me.