Podcaster can't get Quality sound

[ibleedv20]

I am recording live podcasts from Skype with this method but quality is eluding me.My sound seems scratchy

I use 2 PCs both running Windows 7 64 bit.

The recording pc is a sandbagging account with muted mic that sits in the conference and records through stereo mix
while also recording and broadcasting live to ustream in addition to recording on Audacity.My onboard sound is Realtek for
stereo mix.

I speak on another pc controlling the conference using a Blue Yeti. A usb mic.

I export as wave and use Levelator to balance the highs and lows

I then edit and export as an mp3.

I am not knowledgeable in sound technology and this setup took me quite awhile to figure out.
I guess sometimes we have to pick and choose our battles in life and any help would be appreciated.

I have attached a sound snippit to demonstrate the embarrassment I am creating.

[kozikowski]

That's fascinating. It's not flat-topping, but it sounds like it. It has very serious distortion, worse as the volume goes up.

What is this Levelator thing? Is that the Audacity Leveller tool? Leveller is a brute force volume compressor. If the loudness goes up too far, hit it with an AK47 and hollow points. If that's not enough, fire up the M2A1 flame thrower.

Instead of that, try Chris's Compressor. Chris figured out a way to suppress the volume extremes in a performance without seeming to do anything to the quality at all.

http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

Koz

[ibleedv20]

This is how the authors describe it. But I get the distortion independent of using it.
Occasionally it is somewhat better but always present.
And it seems the more I process it the worse it gets.IE going from wav to mp3 and such.



So what is The Levelator®? It's software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It's not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It's much more than those tools, and it's much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler's application window, and a few moments later you'll find a new version which just sounds better.

Have you ever recorded an interview in which you and your guest ended up at different volumes? How about a panel discussion where some people were close to microphones and others were not? These are the problems the post-production engineers of Team ITC here at The Conversations Network solve every day, and it used to take them hours of painstaking work with expensive and complex tools like SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge or Audition to solve them. Now it takes mere seconds. Seriously. The Levelator® is unlike any other audio tool you've ever seen, heard or used. It's magic. And it's free.



The CNUploader's normalizer acts similar to an intelligent RMS-based compressor/limiter combination, and it therefore affects primarily the short-term (transient) sounds and the long-term overall loudness of the file. It doesn't make the kind of adjustments that a skilled audio engineer can perform in software or at a mixing console, riding the levels up and down to compensate for medium-term variations.

[kozikowski]

<<<I am not knowledgeable in sound technology and this setup took me quite awhile to figure out.>>>

I can well imagine. I have trouble following it and I've read it three times.

<<<it therefore affects primarily the short-term (transient) sounds and the long-term overall loudness of the file.>>>

Precisely like the CBS Laboratories Audimax and Volumax for FM stations in, I want to say, 1968. The original set had vacuum tubes and didn't catch on, but the solid state set took over broadcasting and some are still on the air.

Do any parts of that sound reasonable if you don't send them through the system? If you just plug your USB microphone into a freshly rebooted computer and just record it straight with Audacity. Does it sound OK? How about Skype? If you listen to the Skype with the computers doing absolutely nothing else, does it sound OK? Skype and Audacity typically don't coexist in the same computer. Neither of them Plays Well With Others.

You have multiple recursive pathways in there -- computers recording and playing at the same time, and the distortion could be coming from anywhere.

Just as a Scientific, Wild-Ass Guess (SWAG), did you turn off the audio conferencing settings when you set up the Win7 machines? That causes terrific problems if you're not actually conferencing (which, I guess you are, but still). Follow this thread.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 79&start=0

Koz