Need help with audio book recording

[sbilheimer]

I've taken tutorials on using Audacity, but it never seems to help the particular situation I'm in. I'm trying to create an audio book recording using the Zoom H2 handheld recorder. It sounds fine on the recorder's playback, but when I put it into Audacity, there is a static-y sound. I turn down the volume on the recording side and it's still there. I've tried recording directly into Audacity. It also sounds tinny, etc.

If I upload a sample or two, could someone please give me some specific tips on how to make this sound acceptable?

Thanks,
Susan

[kozikowski]

<<<when I put it into Audacity>>>

That's a lot more complex than one sentence. Can you expand on that? How did you prepare the the H2 file? How did you get it into Audacity? What kind of computer do you have?

Koz

[sbilheimer]

The H2 is set for wav 48kHz/16 bit. It saves as a wav file by default. I opened the wav file in Audacity. I tried different recording levels on the H2 (they say 104 is a good level). So with some test clips, the sound was too low when I played it in Audacity, so I tried normalizing. Then, the volume was fine, but there was a static-y sound with my voice (I don't know the correct technical term). I can upload a sample. Thanks for your help.

[kozikowski]

You haven't said anything that gives us bad dreams yet. Yes, please post a ten second raw capture file somewhere. I use 48000/16/Stereo all the time. That's the television sound standard. The test sound files on my web site are that standard.

While you're preparing the work, save and edit this file. Did it work OK?

http://www.kozco.com/tech/piano2.wav

Koz

[sbilheimer]

I have Windows XP. By the way, I also start sounding like Daffy Duck after it's in Audacity and I normalize or do anything to the files. ("Thuffering Thuckatash") Ugh.

I uploaded two tests with three variations each.

RAW FILE Test 1 - the wav from the H2 - http://www.becomeatechnicalwriter.com/t ... test1a.wav

Test 1 - the wav normalized in Audacity and exported - http://www.becomeatechnicalwriter.com/t ... test1b.wav

Test 1 - the wav normalized in Audacity and exported as mp3 - http://www.becomeatechnicalwriter.com/t ... test1c.mp3

**********

RAW FILE Test 2 - the wav from the H2 - http://www.becomeatechnicalwriter.com/t ... test2a.wav

Test 2 - the wav normalized in Audacity and exported as wav - http://www.becomeatechnicalwriter.com/t ... test2b.wav

Test 2 - the wav normalized in Audacity and exported as mp3 - http://www.becomeatechnicalwriter.com/t ... test2c.mp3

I'm really appreciative of the help. I have not been able to figure this out for so long with many recordings. It would be great if I could get this to work.

Thank you.

[kozikowski]

Could you play and edit the piano clip?

Koz

[sbilheimer]

The test piano file was clear as a bell. I know I'm just doing some setting incorrectly.

[steve]

Are you getting the problem with the Normalized WAV files? If so, then the problem is somewhere in the playback system.
The Exported WAV files, other than the obvious amplitude scaling, are virtually identical to the original WAV files.

Tell us about your playback system.

[stearman65]

Hi
I toiled with an H2 for 6 months. The voice over quality was totally unacceptable, I ended up using it as a glorified microphone via the usb connection. I eventually sold it and bought an Olympus LS-10. This boosted the quality of my voice-over recordings 100%. If you Google reviews for it there are lots of samples, alternatively if you log onto the Pictures to Exe forum, I have done an in depth critique on the LS-10 and that contains the links to the various sites.
Stearman65

[sbilheimer]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I got a lot of help from the H2 forum and figured out that my Audacity setting for bit rate was causing the problem. It's much better now. I will look into that other recorder, but I think my problem is resolved for now! Thanks to all.