How to prevent loss of high tones on import?

umbrascitor · Post by **umbrascitor** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 3:17 am

Whenever I import a sound that has high tones, such as certain shrill beeps or even shakers in music, the high tones are dampened down on playback. I'm trying to work with a beeping sound right now, and as soon as I put it in Audacity I can barely hear it because of the damping effect on the high tones. And if I export it as a wav or mp3, the effect is still there (so it's not just the playback, it's completely taking out the high tones). There's a very noticeable loss of quality between the original sounds and the sounds coming from Audacity, with the new sounds coming out very "dull" compared to the originals.

I have the latest version installed, but I've had this problem since I started using Audacity over a year ago. I've worked around it before, but the project I'm working on now depends on these sounds keeping their high tones. Is this normal behavior? Is there a way to prevent this?

umbrascitor · Post by **umbrascitor** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 3:41 am

Also, I just noticed that if I go to Amplify or whatever other effect, if I play the Preview the sound plays just like the original (no changes were made, just playing the Preview). So apparently Audacity "knows" what the sound is supposed to sound like, it's just irreparably butchering it on the stage. At least, I hope it's not irreparable....

Ideas? Anyone?

Post by **kozikowski** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:05 am

<<<the new sounds coming out very "dull" compared to the originals.>>>

The originals being what? Are you performing live in front of a high quality microphone?

Play this 6 second piano solo in your browser, then Save The Page (piano2.wav) open it in a fresh Audacity and play it again.

Sound the same?

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

Koz

Trebor · Post by **Trebor** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:57 am

Possibly Umbrascitor is accidentally saving at a lower sample rate. This would result in loss of high frequencies, (example attached)

Look at your "Project sample rate" Umbrascitor, (bottom left corner in Audacity 1.3).

umbrascitor · Post by **umbrascitor** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:07 am

Hmm... I just had a moment when everything seemed perfectly fine. The only difference is, I was working in another Audacity window.

The sample sound I was working with is something much like an alarm clock beep. In one window, when I imported the sound it was reduced to sounding dull... but in the new window I opened (I opened it from the window I was already working in), the quality is spot-on. Both windows have identical settings in the Preferences, 44100 Hz sample rate and 32-bit float and everything else the same across the board as far as I can tell. What would be causing the difference?

Trebor · Post by **Trebor** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:13 am

umbrascitor wrote:Hmm... I just had a moment when everything seemed perfectly fine. The only difference is, I was working in another Audacity window.

The sample sound I was working with is something much like an alarm clock beep. In one window, when I imported the sound it was reduced to sounding dull... but in the new window I opened (I opened it from the window I was already working in), the quality is spot-on. Both windows have identical settings in the Preferences, 44100 Hz sample rate and 32-bit float and everything else the same across the board as far as I can tell. What would be causing the difference?

The sample rate for the track and the sample rate for the project can be different, if the project rates (in bottom left corner) were different in the different windows then the same track could sound different in different windows, (like the high frequency loss example I posted above).

umbrascitor · Post by **umbrascitor** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:23 am

That's the tricky part. The project rates, as stated both in the corner and in Preferences, were the same in both instances. I suppose I could be dealing with some kind of random(?) hiccup here. Thinking back, there are times when I notice something wrong -- but there are other times when I don't. And I never change the settings for anything.

Post by **kozikowski** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:43 am

<<<The sample sound I was working with is something much like an alarm clock beep.>>>

You need to work with us here. Where did the sound come from? Did you create the sound in a special effects program? Did you download it from the internet? Did you record it live with a microphone?

What happened to the piano notes when you played them?

Koz

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How to prevent loss of high tones on import?

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