Audacity Forum

Hey I need to make my voice like its over a radio, like a walkie talkie. Kind of like the voices in CSS, if anyone has ever played that. Well yeah, thanks.

You can get close in a hurry with the equalizer set to telephone numbers -- only pass 300 to 3000 -- and then push the sound through the leveler effect at "heaviest" settings. Maybe more than once.

If you personally are going to be the voice, get really close to the microphone and don't worry about breathing noises. That one step is worth all the rest of the filters.

Koz

So for the equalization, like this?

And I cant find what you mean by leveler effects.

Excellent, but no. Nothing up to 300, then leap up to normal volume and go to 3000, then drop dead. So you're missing one point in the curve. The Up to 300. You should experiment with moving the 3000 point further up or down frequency to get different effects.

Effect > Leveler may only be available in Audacity 1.3. It's a vicious, brute force volume limiter. It's really cool because most people are trying to make a musical, graceful limiter which is a complete waste of time for what you're doing.


You should be in 1.3 anyway. Audacity 1.2 is no longer supported and 1.3.11 (at last writing) is far superior -- and no, it's no more unstable.

http://audacityteam.org/download/

The equalizer floors most people, so you're far ahead of the game with this.

You can install both versions of Audacity, but only use one at a time. Audacity 1.3 Projects will not open in 1.2. Audacity will not Save a sound file. You have to Export one.

Koz

Okay, Im a little confused since I cant tell where the exact 300 or 3000 mark is, but is this right? Why dont you just make the curve then screenshot it?

You're almost there.
Remove the tick from the "Linear Frequency Scale".

Zero dB is 'pass the show with no interference.' -30dB (or lower) is quiet. So you want quiet from the far left to about 300 or so, then rise to 0dB and stay there until about 3000, then sink back down to -30dB for the rest of the graph.

Ideally, you would want lower than 30, like -40dB or so. Can't you change the range of activity? Yes, it's the sliders on the left. You don't need anything above zero, but you need more below.

If you apply that filter just as it is, it should sound much like a landline telephone (not a cellphone, they have other noises).

Here's one I designed to suppress anything under 100 Hz.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/100Hz_Rumble.jpg

That's where most truck rumble and air conditioning noises live. That noise can damage a live recording, so you rarely want it in the show.

Note that my frequencies along the bottom are easier to see? Deselect "Linear Frequencies."

Koz