What am I doing wrong with the settings? - Please help!

[rrudy]

Hello all,

I'm a newbie and have a question that I haven't been able to figure or find in the tutuorials. I'm trying to record something to launch my website and I'm getting hung up a bit on this. I'm happy to provide as much info to give you the full picture, but at this point I don't know what all you'd need. Here's the situation:

When I record something my voice is quiet and there's a slight buzzing noise in the background. But when I record using my laptop's program "sound recorder" which plays using Windows Media Player the quality is fine, so I think I have the settings wrong in Audacity. Here's what I'm using:

Compaq Presario V6000 with Microsoft Windows Vista
Using Logitech USB desktop microphone

- I downloaded Audacity 1.2.6
- For Audacity Preferences I have Audio I/O for recording set to Microphone (USB recording device)
- I couldn't select Mic on the main page of the program next to the input and output volume because this drop down box is disabled and I can't figure out how to enable it
- In Microsoft Vista and went to the control panel -> sound -> and selected Microphone USB audio device. I also made sure the recording volume was med-high

Any other information I can provide to figure this out? Thank you for your help!

Rudy

[kozikowski]

That's the microphone I have. My sound captures only work with the Audacity settings 44100, 16-bit, Mono. If you have to change these settings, be sure and restart Audacity.

Koz

[rrudy]

Thank you! I'll try this tonight and see if that fixes my problem.

[kozikowski]

It's one of these, right?...

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/webca ... 1&cl=US,EN

It's a perfectly nice microphone. It's modestly directional so it will help you pull a performance out of a noisy room. It will help. It's not perfect, so you should try and make the room as quiet as possible.

You also shouldn't get too close. This microphone will pop and bump if your breathing is too close.

Koz

[rrudy]

It sounds much better, thank you! And yes, that's the microphone I'm using.

Any other suggestions for settings? I'm recording a cd where my voice is softer, quieter, and in a deeper tone than my usual speaking voice. There's not as much variation as when I normally speak.

Thank you for your help!

[kozikowski]

Generally the best you can do is make your regular voice slightly better. Sometimes.

If you try to move the pitch too far (Effect > Change Pitch) you start to sound like a martian or other space alien. If there was no expression or character in your voice to begin with, there won't be any at the end.

There is no "Professional Announcer" plugin that will make you sound like Don Lafontaine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMGS7l0wT8

Koz