Audacity Forum

I am trying to record songs by recording a lead track over a rythmn track. Whenever i start recording, it records too strong and sounds poor and then it gets greatly quiter and it sounds even worse. i have found a way around that but the lead track still sounds like crap. whenever i solo the signal sounds like it cuts in and out. it goes week and then strong and it clips horribly but i am recording at the same volume. and you can't clean it up besides stop the clipping but it still sounds horrible and it has weird fading in bass sound...kind of like a super long chirp. i have tried everything that does anything to the sound ( like normalize, amplify, compressor ). is it my microphone or is it something audacity is doing. i am only using the built in laptop microphone. do yall have any suggestions. if i need a new mic, are there any suggestions fpr a recording mic that you can stick to the amp and anything else to go with it like usb converters or whatever

tell us more

what pc what opsys what version of audacity
what else do you run eg skype

what settings in the opsys for sound
ditto the driver, and audacity
but key is likely the opsys settings

much more likely something with your pc or opsys or driver
than audacity

dburn42 wrote:is it my microphone or is it something audacity is doing

It's your microphone - or more precisely it's your microphone and sound card.

dburn42 wrote:i am only using the built in laptop microphone.

Laptop microphones and internal sound cards (on PC laptops) are renowned for being poor quality (the microphone and sound card on my Acer laptop is dreadful, and that's pretty typical).

dburn42 wrote:do yall have any suggestions.

Certainly - invest in a better microphone and an external sound card, but which sound card/microphone?
There is an excellent (and very long) topic where one user (bgravato) tried out a couple of different options for recording his (classical) guitar.
I'm guessing that you are recording an electric guitar, so the ideal choice of microphone may be different, though the one that he uses would certainly work very well.
Have a read through this topic - it also includes quite a few audio samples. I think you will find it interesting: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 27&t=22109

In choosing a microphone/sound card there are quite a few factors that come into play - one factor that will narrow things down a lot is budget (you will no doubt notice that bgravato went way over his original budget in the end, but when you listen to the samples I think you must agree that in his case the expense was definitely worth it.
If you can give a rough idea of the price range that you may be looking at it will help people to make relevant suggestions.

It would also be helpful if you could give an idea of the type of music that you play - some microphones will work really well for rock style electric guitar, but perform less well for folk or other less aggressive styles (and vice versa).

whomper wrote:tell us more

@whomper: Please try to avoid phrases that may give other forum users the false impression that you are in some way a representative of Audacity or this forum.

ok im new to the forum but i looked over all the topics and this issue seems to be running parallel with the problems i am expiriencing. i have used audacity for quite sometime now but i was using the older version for windows xp and it is flawless( sound quality of everything such as my guitar and vocals is excellent) but recently purchased a newer gateway laptop that has windows 7 so i downloaded the recomended version for windows 7 ( beta. . .or what not), well with the newer version the guitar tracks(which is just your standard six string acoustic electric) record so strongly it distorts the sound and the program does alot of clipping and when i try to correct it by playing softer or lowering the input volume it cuts in and out and does not flow smoothly, i too have tried everything that alters the sound to the best of my knowledge but still am not having any luck,also the vocals does alot of the same things but the reason this topic grabbed my attention is i am recording vocals through a microphone that is well suited for the type of music i play and worked well in the past with the older version.....so i guess i was hoping someone more qaulified could take a look at this and try to make heads or tails of my delima. i have enjoyed this program for a long time and have confidence that the problems i am having are purely my own ignorance with computers and such but i would greatly appreciate if somone would enlighten me. thank so much for this program it has really opened up a world of opportunity for me and i look forward to using the new version with as much confidence as i have in the older version for xp. thanks again!

Nobody hit the obvious yet? The poster is recording with conferencing or communications settings still running. "Gets louder and softer by itself?" Windows 7. New Machine? What settings do we know that can do that to a Windows machine?

The other thing that can cause high distortion on a "simple" capture is trying to record with Mix-Out, Stereo-Mix, or What-U-Hear running. That's a shortcut to a trashy sounding track with odd volume problems, particularly if you're trying to overdub.

Has anybody ever posted with a set of instructions about how to get rid of Skype-style microphone settings?

Do you use Skype? I don't know that we asked that. Skype Does Not Play Well With Others.

Koz

Sorry. I went right over that. Most modern Windows laptops have settings to tailor your microphone for video or audio conferencing. They're business machines. They do auto sound volume and echo cancellation, which during a conference is a good thing, but during a guitar solo, can drive you nuts. We know what's happening, but we don't exactly know how to turn it off. Dig in the Windows Control Panels and look for settings with "auto" in the title and turn them off. Then come back and tell us what you did.

Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel


Next is an instruction set for recording internet audio. You want to make sure you don't have any of these settings turned on. They can cause odd feedback, noises, and volume changes.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recor ... e_computer

Koz

i did what you suggested and turned off all "autos" dealing with sound and it solved the volume problem now everything flows much smoother and on the same level, but something is still distorting it slighlty not sure what is causing that yet, as for the vocals a simple configuration solved most of that problem, but it still has a slight distortion as well......thanks for the advice anyway much closer now than i was yesterday....i think everything is too new seems like right when i get used to something it changes.

I fixed my distortion problems by recording extremly low input volume then amplify and noise removal its a long way around but it works

If you stick with us long enough, I bet we can cure that, too. You're not supposed to need all those steps and a simple recording should sound clear and clean.

Koz

Do you leave the laptop speakers running while you're trying to record with the built-in microphone? Most people doing live recording of any sort should be on headphones to prevent distortion and feedback problems.

Can you post a sample of the work with the distortion? The guitar may not tell us anything, but just speak, "Hello, one, two, three, [pause] Hello, one, two, three." Export as FLAC and post it here on the forum with the "Upload Attachment" panel at the bottom of this page.

Koz