Audacity Forum

Hi there,

I'm new here. Just joined the forum. I have had Audacity for a while now and never had any bother with it. I have a project that I'm currently working on - I'm recording a speech in front of my camera (kodak zi8) and I am using an external microphone (Rode VideoMic Shotgun Camcorder Microphone) that gives quite a decent sound from. However, the sound is not as good as the one that of BBC News quality, for instance.
I am just wondering if there are any filters close to the quality of studio sound and/or any work needs to be implemented in order to achieve a desired effect.

Thanks!

Post an example of the two. A sentence from a presenter and the same sentence from you. Do it in two mono files and use FLAC format for smaller files than WAV can do.

Koz

I don't know what you mean by posting an example. Sorry I am new here.

wczorajdzonson wrote:I don't know what you mean by posting an example. Sorry I am new here.

Export a short representative section of your recording as a WAV or FLAC format audio file and upload it somewhere on the Internet, then post a link so that we can download and listen to it.

Very short samples (up to about 6 seconds) can be uploaded directly to the forum using the "Upload Attachment" feature (below the "Compose Message" box).

To Export a short section from a track, select the section that you wish to export by "click and drag" on the track, then select "Export as WAV" from the File menu.

OK - I managed to upload two files on Megaupload server. Two files are very short, but you will hear immediately the difference between them. Is there anything I can do to sound like the audio 01 - the original file from the studio.

audio 01:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8MI1QLO7


audio 02:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KMFGYJZ1


Thanks!

There's a problem with your sound card.
You can see that the first track (audio01) is centred vertically around the centre "0" line, whereas the second track (audio02) the left (upper) channel is clearly centred below the "0" line and the right (lower) channel is above the "0" line. This is called DC offset and is caused by a poor quality sound card. Although DC offset can be corrected quite easily, if it is a poor quality sound card you will not get good quality recordings from it.
Better quality sound cards need not necessarily be particularly expensive. All but the very cheapest USB sound cards are likely to be substantially better than the sound card you are currently using.

Also, where the waveform touches the bottom of the track, the sound is being clipped and can be heard to be distorted.

While video shotgun microphones are good for video cameras (because of their highly directional pick-up), the frequency response is often not great for producing clear, bright, detailed, warm and airy voice recordings. If you have a reasonably quiet room to record in, you will get better results with a cardioid condenser microphone.

There is also quite a lot of "room" sound. If you compare with audio01 you will notice that you can hear the size and shape of the room that you have recorded in due to the sound reflections (reverb). On the professional studio recording, the sound is much "cleaner" as the recording room is less reverberant. Soft furnishings will help to soak up excess echoes and produce a cleaner sound.

So Audacity won't help improve the quality of this recording?

You can remove the DC offset with the "Normalize" effect.

You can probably brighten up the sound a little using the "Equalizer" effect.

There is really no satisfactory way to fix distortion due to clipping, but the "ClipFix" effect may help a little. You really need to record it again with the record level set a bit lower so as to avoid the clipping.

Studios use rooms with good acoustics, high quality microphones and recording equipment because that is really the only way to get a really good recording.

Beat me to it.

You can do quite a bit to improve the presentation past the sound card problems. Note that the presenter sounds a bit like she's on coffee and is bright and cheerful and forward. You're not. That's just paying attention to the rhythm and stress of your voice. It's not that hard.

Also see Equalizer. She's a lot crisper than you are and that can be put down to the microphone type.

You need to control the recording environment a lot more. We hear a lot of room noise back there. I know you're recording in the parlor on a card table, but it doesn't have to sound like it. Also you're too far from the microphone complicated by overload distortion. If you listen multiple times, it sounds like she's talking directly into your ear -- very forward and intimate -- and you sound like you're on the other side of the room.

If you do get closer, that brings up a lot of other problems such as popping plosives like "P" sounds. Those usually surrender to a pop filter like this.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/wynonna2.jpg

The microphone can be anything, but that little black tennis racket thing is a big deal.

Try recording in your bedroom. Do it with the equipment actually on the bed to help get rid of echoes. I know people who hang quilts inside a closet for recording.

Given you're not trying to sound exactly like her -- you have a slight Gaelic twist in there? She sounds pretty generic and that's what many international broadcasters look for. You will have flavor to your recordings as many BBC presenters do now, too.

What is the microphone?

Koz

Did you notice that there's only one vague reference to Audacity in that whole post? There is no "Professional Audio Filter."

Koz