Audacity Forum

This may seem like a stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway. I recorded a Skype call between two people, the record levels appeared to be the same for both parties, BUT, on playback, the other parties audio was extremely low, while mine was over-modulating. (I was the originator of the call) Does Audacity have a way of automatically balancing the two so they are at the same output (DB) level?

Thanks,

Owen

Because of the way that Skype works, Audacity is not very good at recording Skype (or other voip) calls. Specialist programs such as Pamela (not free) are often able to do a much better job. However, having said that, you may get some improvement by applying Chris's Dynamic Compressor effect to the recording.

Thanks for your prompt response, another question. Now that I have this unbalanced recording, what do you recommend I do to bring up the low (other persons voice) to come close to matching mine? therefore, giving me a balanced over all sound.

Thanks again,

Owen

Chris's Dynamic Compressor.
(try setting the "Compress" level up to about 0.7 or 0.8 and all other settings at default.)

His site does not load the page where the tool is, I'll have to hunt another way to get it.

owen

OK, I got the tool, nice work I must say. Another question.

During an interview you typically have two voices, mine and a guest via Skype. How can I filter my voice out and modify the guest voice ONLY, and then pull mine back in. I want to increase the guest volume up, I want to work on that track only without impacting my track. So I want to be able to split the track(s) and only work on one voice.

As you can see I'm kind of new to this software, I am a geek so I have a good grasp of technology.

Thanks,

Owen

Before you spend any more weeks working on this, what you're supposed to do is install Pamela Professional or Pamela Business (not the other two). Either of those will give you a recording with your voice on one side of a stereo show and the guest on the other. This makes it a snap to do production and level setting on only one side to balance the show.

http://www.pamela.biz/en/download/

You can do the same thing with Total Recorder (I understand).

They're all money-based software.

Nobody has yet figured out how to do a good job of Skype capture in Audacity. Once the two voices are on the same track, they cannot be separated. The very best you can do is brute force leveling which is what Chris does.

And to jump ahead a bit. If you're planning on producing a podcast with this technique, that's not how the grownups do it. You will never get rid of the Skype bubbling and skipping.

Each side of the conversation records his/her own very high quality voice in their own house and just uses Skype for coordination. Then one side emails or FTPs their very high quality voice to the other to be married in the final show. The gargling Skype voice never appears in the show.

Koz