Please help.

[Inshallah]

I just downloaded Audacity on my laptop and everytime I try to record, when the sound plays back, the levels in the song keep going up and down. It's almost as if it sounds like it's panning from left to right speaker and it's annoying me. This never happened to me before when I used to record on my computer, so why is it doing it now? Is it because I'm using a laptop? Has anyone had this problem and can someone please tell me how to fix it? I'd really appreciate it.

[kozikowski]

<<<everytime I try to record>>>

...try to record.......What? and How?

My money is on a record or origination problem. But just to make sure, pull down the Left-Right test audio track and play it on your machine.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html

Do the first three clips sound OK and the last one wacky which is how I recorded them? If cuts 3 and 4 are reversed, you have a playback problem which could profoundly affect how you experience sound.

Koz

[Inshallah]

Thanks for the advice. My problem's kinda hard to put into words so I was thinking, I'll just record something for you and let you listen to what it's doing. Here, I hope this will help you understand what I mean; http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... RC9IRGc9PQ.

[sp84]

If you're recording from an external piece of hardware (e.g. a musical instrument), have you checked the cable that connects your hardware and the laptop? The problem might be caused by a dodgy cable.

[kozikowski]

My money is on a dirty connector.

Both 1/4" and 1/8" plugs can be cleaned with alcohol and paper towels. Windex, rubbing alcohol and vodka are all cousins of each other. All work. Throw some alcohol on a paper towel and scrub the electrical connections on the end of the cable. then dry the connector by scrubbing with a dry paper towel. Plug the cable into the equipment, turn it a couple of times, pull it out and clean it again.

If you have a broken cable, of course, this won't help a bit, but dirt is much more likely to cause the problem I heard.

Skin oil will degrade electrical connections, so as much as possible, don't touch the ends of the cables.

Koz

[Inshallah]

The microphone I bought was new though..? I'm not using any fancy equipment. It's just my acoustic guitar and a regular PC microphone. I know it works because I've used it so many times before. I don't know why I'm having problems now.

[steve]

That sample shows quite a lot of clipping (recorded at too high a level) this may have something to do with it. Try moving the microphone further away from the guitar and see if that fixes it.

[Inshallah]

I've tried that, but it needs to be miles away so when I listen to it back, I can hardly hear it. I used to have it right next the strings when I used to record before on my old computer and that seemed to have worked fine...?

[kozikowski]

We're chasing our tails here. You described about fourteen different symptoms and have been very light on actual data.

What kind of computer did you used to have? Who was it made by and what were the model numbers if you have them? What computer are you using now? Maker and model number and type of computer.

There is no "standard" PC microphone. Who made it, how does it plug into your computer and does it have a web site? Going between two different Windows machines--especially old and new can give you a huge number of problems and we need to know in particular terms what happened.

Koz

[MDOC]

That sample shows quite a lot of clipping (recorded at too high a level) this may have something to do with it. Try moving the microphone further away from the guitar and see if that fixes it.

If that's true, you must remove the amplifier that drives it too high or reduce the amplifier gain.