Audacity Forum

hi,
my audacity is making files , but Im sure you ll agree
there is an unacceptably buzz in there
go here
http://rapidshare.com/files/170593114/BIG__BUZZ.mp3

it sounds a lot worse when I play it back on audacity but you should
still hear it

Im not getting through sound also so Im recording blind as it were

thanks for any ideas or comments

im on xp
pack bell computor about 1 year old

It sounds like you have a bad earth connection somewhere, or have unshielded cable connecting the sound source to the sound card - somewhere along the line you are picking up "mains hum" interference.

How are you recording? What's your set-up? (sound card. microphone, etc)

not sure wot my sound card is

the comp is pack bell about a year old

Im just recording by a mike into wot I think is the mike slot

there are 6 slots at the back all bunched together

I ve got the mike in the top right slot
the speaker in top middle

I have got a good clean recording in the past and through sound as I was recording
from a radio etc

but now theres no thru sound and Im getting a buzz from somewhere.

the sound going in is exellent so the buzz must be internal to the computor in some
way.

I don t think the comp manufacturers give enough thought to this aspect of
the computor, that people will want to record into the software etc
They could make things a lot easier and straightforward... but they don t.
( that poxy windows recorder for eg ! )

the plug system could be laid out better too.

silverstar wrote: I don t think the comp manufacturers give enough thought to this aspect of
the computor

Which is why some of us buy external souncards. One key advantage is that the soundcard is removed from the internal envirinment of the PC box - which can be very electrically noisy. The other advantage of an external soundcard is that you get portability - you can move it from computer to computer.

So if you can't find what is causing this hum it may well be worth the outlay on an external card.

And don't try fixing the problem post recording with noise removal tools - it's much better fixed at the source signal stage. Noise removal will always remove some signall too ....

WC

I never thought of that, an external sound card, I suppose it
has all the sockets on mike speaker etc and plugs in by usb ?

Ive got an external video card... win tv usb
spose I might as well go for an external sound card too !

But would it involve taking the old one out ?

Personally I much prefer internal PCI sound cards to external USB sound cards.
Internal PCI sound cards are not to be confused with the cheap and nasty internal sound cards that are often included on motherboards these days.

Sound cards that are specifically designed for music will tend to be higher quality than other sound cards whether they are internal or external.

You do not have to remove an internal sound card in order to use an external one, as long as you don't get confused about which one you are using.

I waas wondering, maybe Apple do more for sound ?
maybe these PC s are just built for surfing the net and don t
give much thought to sound input and manipulation.

The audio input on Macs are said to be pretty good, but they have some drawbacks.
1) You can't record sounds that are playing on your computer without additional software.
2) For the price of a decent Mac you can buy a PC, a really good sound card, a pair of decent microphones, a pair of headphones, a mic stand, a pop shield, a little mixing desk, leads, and a pair of monitor speakers.

THANKS I ll give an external sound card idea a little thought
it might be handy as it will give me an alternative

maybe I ve recently damaged my sound card by accidently having
the input signal too loud or something

its a pity it was recording great and the input sound
was coming thru on the computor speakers ok so I could monitor

but now with no through sound, once I put the plug into the
radio " phones " socket , the radio sound is gone and Im
recording in the dark, with only the visual signal of the audio in audacity

I can t think of any way of getting round this other than something
like a plug that will plug into the phones socket
then have two sockets one for the comp signal and one for an ear phone

maybe such a plug exists Ill have to check it out .

.

Im a bit better organized sound wise these days.

To begin with I ve finally discovered that I need to have
my sound feed into the 'line in ' socket

there are 6 sockets bunched together 3 on top of 3
the 'line in' socket is top left... I have to remember that
that has cut out the buzz

I got another problem though... a hiss !
I suffered this for weeks before I realized the problem

I had the 'sound in' setting on audacity at 10 ie full on
I adjusted that to 'sound in' 0.5 and that has cut out the hiss
I can make files now from a radio feed or tape cassette feed
and get ok results.

Im finally getting there with audacity