Audacity Forum

Hello all. I need help with an audio file. I'm no audio engineer but I really need someone to give me a hand. I can barely hear parts of this audio file. How should I begin? Can I post a copy of the audio file here (mp3) so you can preview?

Before you post, give us a head start. Windows? Which One? Laptop? Which version of Audacity exactly?

Describe the show. Rock Concert? Trying to record a phone call? Guitar strumming?

Koz

Thanks for the quick reply! It was a phone call I recorded on my laptop. The original call was on my iphone. Unfortunately, Audacity crashed when I first tried to save the file but I managed to recover most of the audio. I'm using 1.2.6. The problem is that the other user's voice is very faint. I have tried using normalize and compressor but it just makes the audio worse and I can't hear anything. I'm not sure how to fix the file and it's a really important file.

Windows? Recording a phone call looks like it should be easy. It's not.

So yes. Post a little of it with some of your voice and some of the caller. If you know where the built-in microphone of your laptop is, you can park the iPhone right next to it and do remarkably well.

Koz

Well, the recording has already taken place. What I'm trying to do is fix the audio now and I'm not sure how to proceed. Here is a sample of some audio: http://sharesend.com/nxech

There's a lot missing from the other person's reply, i.e. dropout ...

A dropout is also a momentary loss of signal in a communications system, usually caused by noise, propagation anomalies, or system malfunctions. For analog signals, a dropout is frequently gradual and partial, depending on the cause. For digital signals, dropouts are more pronounced, usually being sudden and complete, due to the cliff effect. In mobile telephony, a dropout of more than a few seconds will result in a dropped call.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropout_%28electronics%29

Dynamic range compression can't amplify what isn't there ...

fullmotiongroup wrote:...The problem is that the other user's voice is very faint. I have tried using normalize and compressor but it just makes the audio worse and I can't hear anything....

if you have both voices on the same recording you will have to pick all of the low parts with their voice and amplify/normalise each one separately.

if you only have their voice recorded and normalise didnt help you dont have much you can do now, so get a better recording in the future.

Apart from the low volume there is also a lot of other "damage" to the recording.
There are "bubbly harmonic" sounds that are typical of "MP3 compression" and "Noise Reduction".

I can't tell how much of this other "damage" is directly from the iPhone, and how much has occured after.

Is the recording that you posted a direct unprocessed export of your Audacity recording, or have you already attempted to clean it up a bit?
The ideal sound sample to post would be one that is the original recording, unprocessed, and exported from Audacity in WAV or Flac format (these formats will not cause additional damage, whereas MP3 does). How close to that can you get?

Thanks Steve. That is a good point. Unfortunately, Audacity crashed at some point when I tried to save the original audio file. Immediately after my call with the other person I attempted to make edits to the original audio file to improve sound. Then I saved. I still have an original Audacity file (with I believe a few loudness edits). Those bubbly sounds are probably coming from the noise removal I may have done to the original audio.

Looks like I might not have much I can do here overall

The tools only work really well once. If you have no unprocessed original work and the only material you have is already damaged by bad application of the tools, that's pretty much the end of the story. We can't recover from that.

<<<I managed to recover most of the audio.>>>

What happened to that sound? We might be able to help with that. Do Not compress to MP3 for posting. You should be able to get five or six seconds of WAV to post here onthe forum. Compress to FLAC or ZIP to get more. Those two do not damage the sound.

Koz