Audacity Forum

Hi all,
To give you quick background, I'm a Hypnotherapist and Meditation teacher. I have purchased the gear and have recorded a number of hypno & guided meditations in just voice and live sessions with music and voice. I use a behringer cheap mixer, DR-VX1 mic, and record onto a M-Audio Microtrack II. I record in BWF and at 24bit 88200.
I have purchased my music to mix with my recorded vocals and just realized its in 44100. How do I mix my 88200 voice with my 44100 music.

I will change my voice recording down to 44100 fore the future.

I tried using the noise reducer ( big hiss) on the voice/music tracks and it makes my voice slap or go electric if I go over 5. any help on either question would be a huge help! I'm a total newb and have spent hours reading all the directions and searching everything/where. I just don't think I'm using the proper term to find it in the search as I know this can't be a hard problem to solve.

Thanks!

Namaste,
Guru Jasmine

If al you smart cute boys wouldn't mind, I can't fit my pretty little head around the differences in Nyquist, a Gate, Noise remover. The wiki shows them to be all the same. I tried the noise removal and it worked an EpiLady. It would make your leg hairless but it also took some flesh.

Thanks again my knights in shining armor!

Guru Jasmine

Ps. the Guru nickname is a joke, I don't profess to be a guru (although I think millions of people should worship me, why not?)

GuruJ wrote:How do I mix my 88200 voice with my 44100 music.

In Audacity 1.3.12 you can just Import (from File menu) your tracks into Audacity. Audacity will support multiple sample rates in the same project.
When you get round to Exporting (from File menu) your finished project (to create a normal audio file from the Audacity Project), look in the bottom left corner of the main Audacity window and set the "Project Rate" to 44100 (or whatever you want for the finished file). The exported file will use the Project Rate setting.

GuruJ wrote:I will change my voice recording down to 44100 fore the future.

That will simplify things. 44100 is the standard rate for CDs and is the most commonly supported format - "44100Hz 16 bit (Microsoft) PCM WAV" should work with virtually any other program.

GuruJ wrote:I tried using the noise reducer ( big hiss) on the voice/music tracks and it makes my voice slap or go electric if I go over 5.

Noise Removal can work very effectively if there is a constant low level noise. If the noise is not constant or not low level then the effectiveness becomes an unpleasant compromise. Minimising the amount of noise in the original recording is much more important than trying to fix it after making the recording.

To minimise noise, use the microphone close up (you may want to use a "pop shield" to avoid blowing on the microphone). Set the levels on the mixer and the M-Audio Microtrack II carefully so that you have a strong signal (but not distorting) both in the mixer and on the Microtrack.

Gate vs Noise Remover.
A "Gate" (Noise Gate) is a simple effect that gets its name from the idea of a physical gate. When the gate is open, things can pass through. When the gate is closed the path is blocked. For a "Noise Gate", the level of the audio determines whether the gate is open or closed. If the sound is below the "threshold" level, then the gate closes and mutes the sound (does not allow the sound to pass through). When the sound level rises above the threshold the gate automatically opens and allows the sound to pass through.

The Noise Removal effect in Audacity is a more complex effect that uses a gate and other processing to reduce noise. The noise profile (which you must make from a representative noise sample before applying the effect) is analysed and the effect attempts to remove any audio that matches this profile from the track. This more complex method can be more effective than the simple Gate effect, but in some cases (depending on the actual audio) the side effects (wobbly bubbly electronic sound) can be too distracting, in which case the simple gate may sound better.

The Noise Remover can give a smoother shave than the Gate, but is more likely to remove a bit of skin in the process.

Thank you for your excellent reply! The knight in shining armor!

Thanks for the simplified noise vs gate explanation. After reading that it makes me think I might want to spend $60used $99new for a Behringer XR4400. I hate to ad a rack as my system is so small and portable now. I remember when I was a kid that guitar pedals could knockout finger noise or sliding on the strings. Maybe something like that might work?.?

I never knew about the turning it up as loud as possible, that already made a recording test 50% better. To be honest it added another problem. When I turn up the levels enough on the mic to get the LEDs up to the red line I'm way over the input (clippping) on the Microtrack. I have turned the levels down on the microtrack to the lowest setting and still get clipped. When i turn the mixer levels down ( so I don't clip the recording device Microtack) the levels again don't register on the mixer. The sound comes out but the mixer leds barely give me the lowest level response.

I was also hoping to use this setup to podcast with thinking that all this stuff will help my sound. Now I almost wish I bought a YETI with usb and called it a day.

thanks again for your help..... I'm so frustrated I'm about to pull my real blonde hair out!

GuruJ wrote:I never knew about the turning it up as loud as possible, that already made a recording test 50% better. To be honest it added another problem. When I turn up the levels enough on the mic to get the LEDs up to the red line I'm way over the input (clippping) on the Microtrack.

You shouldn't need to turn it up "as loud as possible", just enough to get a nice healthy signal. If it's going up to the red line, that's a bit too much - back it off a bit then try again setting the Microtrack input level. You are aiming to get the balance right so that the signal is "healthy" all the way through the system, but never so loud as to red-line (which will cause "clipping" distortion).

BTW, USB microphones have their own set of problems - your set-up will eventually produce good results but you will just need to spend a bit of time playing with it to discover how to get the best results. Just remind yourself that this is a "new thing" and like all new things that are worthwhile there is stuff to learn and experience to be gained.

I think I have found a happy medium. I have turned up the mixer levels as high as I can and then turned down the Microtrack's input as low as possible. This doesn't make the mixer's pretty leds jump with my voice but it allows a clean sound to the microtrack and won't clip the recording. The input on the micro track is at its lowest level and just doing light talking (meditative) can make the red leds light up. If I do anything louder then talk it clips.
Should I give up on trying to get the berhinger mixers level monitor leds to show up?

I just feel that cranking the mixer and lowering the input on the recorder is a fix but it doesn't seem right..... I can't help but think I should have the recording input higher and the mixer lower but when I do I get that his you already cured.

If nothing else changes you have helped my quality of recoding 75%! Thank you for your help very much.

GuruJ

after rereading all that you said and others post with similar problems I can't help but think the problem is the mixer. If I can't get the leds to bounce at the levels I'm at then something is wrong. I went on youtube and watched a few others with behringers and their levels and no one had their mixers half as loud as mine.

That said I went to Bestbuy and got the 802 mixer (already I'm upgrading) to see if the mixer is the problem. I will swap it out later and check it.