Audacity Forum

Hi,
Should the wave pattern (not sure this is the correct term) be entirely within the upper and lower limits. If not, how does that effect what one hears?
Thanks,
John

The upper and lower limits are +/- 1 (or 0 dB if viewed with a dB scale)
The waveform cannot exceed these limits.

If the waveform appears to be bigger than this, it's because you have zoomed in and magnified the vertical scale.
If you move the cursor over the vertical scale, you will see it turn into a magnifier. Left click will then zoom in and right click zooms out. This does not affect the audio in any way.

Thanks Steve,
I'm obviously not explaining myself properly. I thought that if the recording input was too high, then the wave form would show that by touching the top and bottom of the of the windows. I'm probably using all the wrong terms.
...... john

Are you talking about the blue wiggly lines with "0.0, 0.5, and 1.0" labels on the left, like this:



..Yes, those waveforms should never touch 1.

But just to bring us into the world of audio, click on the black down arrow on the left and select WaveForm (dB).
Now grab the bottom of your waveform panel and pull down so the waveforms get bigger and bigger. You'll see the "1" turns to audio zero and the numbers get bigger and more detailed as you go down. That's how audio is properly measured, not in percentages.

Anyway, back to your problem. digital zero is the place beyond which audio does not go. Severe, immediate distortion and damage happens if your show is loud enough to touch that line, whether it's "1" on the old scale, or "0" on this one. You need to make sure, by whatever means you have, that you don't do that.

If you're audio is just a little bit hot, you might be able to bring it under control with the input level control which is at the microphone symbol in the above picture. Since you're on a Windows machine, there is also the chance that you have plugged a line level device, like a Zune or a cassette player into the microphone input of your sound card or laptop. That will not work no matter what you do. The microphone input connector for your Windows machine is expecting a signal 1000 times smaller that the one you're giving it.

Koz

Thanks Koz,
I see what you mean about the different waveform. And thanks for the info about maximums, etc.
By the way. I'm not using the microphone plug anymore. I've changed to the in-line and have put an amp between the turntable and the puter. (I think you suggested this in an earlier post.) This way I don't have to amplify the signal using audacity's amplify effect.
.... john