Very basic recording setup

[jcwelgemoed]

Good day

I am *very* new to audacity. I have read the manual and some tutorials but would like some first hand tips from other users please.

I have been tasked with recording the sermons at my church. At present I use my laptop, which I connect via the Mic to the Rec Out of the PA system's amp.
I can record and it sounds ok when I export to mp3 using LAME, but I would appreciate if someone could just give me some guidance/pointers as to the optimal/preferred settings in audacity using this kind of setup.

the settings I currently have is:
2 Channels (Stereo) - Do I need stereo or can I safely change to mono?
Sample Rate : 44100 Hz
Sample Format: 24-bit
Realtime sample rate converter : High-quality sinc interpolation
High-quality sampel rate converter: High-quality sinc interpolation
real-time dither : none
high-quality dither: triangle

File format:
mp3, bitrate 128

Input volume set to 0.3

Regards
Johan

[steve]

If you are just recording from one microphone, use mono.

I'd recommend that you give Audacity 1.3.11 a go, it has lots of improvements and in many ways is easier to use. (you don't need to uninstall 1.2.6 - just use one at a time.

Try these settings:

Sample Rate 44100
Sample Format 32bit
Realtime sample rate converter : Fast Sinc Interpolation
High-quality sampel rate converter: High-quality sinc interpolation
real-time dither : none
high-quality dither: triangle

Aim to get a recording level that is about half the height of the track, but avoid having a level that touches the top or bottom of the track as that WILL distort and ruin your recording. Better too low than too high.

[jcwelgemoed]

Thanks, I will give it a try. I think my main problem is with the recording input volume being too high, and I can't really change it.

[steve]

At present I use my laptop, which I connect via the Mic to the Rec Out of the PA system's amp.

I think I may have misread that.
I bet you're not recording with a microphone at all - you've connected the Line out (Rec) from the amp and have it plugged into the Mic input of your laptop. Am I right? That would explain why the recording level is too high - "Line Level" (from the Rec out) is massively too big a signal for a microphone input. Even if you manage to juggle the levels so that it does not distort you will still get a recording that is very much sub-optimal. You need a sound card that has a line level input. You can buy quite cheap USB sound cards that will do this really well - I use a Behringer UCA 202.

[jcwelgemoed]

Thanks for the tip. I will look for a sound card.

I did find out though that my laptop's mic in has a "microphone boost" option, which I turned off and it improved quality quite a bit. it still clips now and then but it is barely noticable.

regards
Johan