Unwanted "squelching" on live recording

[vortexae]

Hello,

I'm using Audacity 2.3.0, though this started while using 2.2.2; I updated and reset all preferences in hopes that the problem would go away, but it hasn't. I'm on Windows 10.

As of Wednesday, out of the blue, I have begun experiencing an effect something like squelch or noise gate during live recording. This is not an effect I am applying to existing recording. It appears to be happening as I record, and I would like it to stop.

When I play back the brand new, unedited track, you can hear background noise in the silence before I speak and while I am speaking. But during the first pause in speaking, the silence squelches down completely. Ditto in every pause thereafter.

It sounds very unnatural and distracting, and, like I said, it just started happening out of the blue without me knowingly changing my settings in any way. (I don't think there was even a Windows update to blame it on.) I tried using that initial silence with background noise as a sample for the Noise Reduction filter, but it can't remove enough of the noise from spoken sections to make the difference between speaking and not-speaking less stark.

To isolate the problem, I have tested this with another sound recorder (Free Sound Recorder); it doesn't happen there. So I'm pretty sure it really is audacity doing this.

If anyone knows how to get this unwanted effect to stop, or can suggest why it started, I'd be grateful.

[steve]

Audacity doesn't (can't) apply effects during recording or playback.
Check that all Windows Sound "Enhancements" are disabled. See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq ... hancements

[vortexae]

I have - using a Blue Ice Snowball, it has no Enhancements in its Windows properties; and again, I'm not getting the effect when I record with the same microphone into Free Sound Recorder.

I know it sounds impossible, since Audacity can't apply filters live, but something is happening to produce an effect that sure sounds a lot like squelching on a live recording. Shall I upload a sample? I could try recording two files, one through Audacity and one through FSR, so you could see the difference. I may also be able to find a recording on Audacity before this started happening, for comparison. Let me know what format is best to use for this purpose - export to mp3, or just the raw aup, etc.

[steve]

Shall I upload a sample?

Sure, that may help. Short samples (around 6 to 10 seconds) in WAV format may be attached directly to your post (see: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=72887)

[vortexae]

Thanks. I'll try to get some samples up tonight or tomorrow morning.

[kozikowski]

Do you use Skype and is it running back there?

Do you like to record Internet music or sound?

Audacity can apply one tool in real time. Edit > Preferences > Recording > [X] Sound Activated Recording. But that doesn't do what you got. That stops recording dead if it doesn't receive any sound. It doesn't produce a blank track of the right duration.

background noise in the silence before I speak and while I am speaking

OK, so you're speaking. Into what? In detail. Part numbers.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Being an obsessive engineer, I would be "OO"ing into the microphone to see if I could sort which volume caused the trigger.

OOOOOOOooooooooo____________oooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOO

That would be much more valuable than reading a shaving commercial and leaving it up to us to figure out where the triggers are.

If you do it slowly, there may be Something Funny happening at the trigger point that would give us a clue.

If the test is in Mono (one blue wave) you can post a 20 second WAV file on the forum.

Koz

[kozikowski]

One more. Does the Audacity bouncing light sound meter drop to the left when the "squelch" kicks in? It's possible not. If it doesn't, that's a terrific clue.

Koz

[Trebor]

When I play back the brand new, unedited track, you can hear background noise in the silence before I speak and while I am speaking. But during the first pause in speaking, the silence squelches down completely. Ditto in every pause thereafter ...

All consistent with Windows enhancements, (a Windows-update can enable them).
You should disable all the enhancements in recording & playback tabs ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxnUjiGgBaI

[vortexae]

Hi y'all,

So, sorry it took me forever to make those samples. Turns out the one recorded on audacity from before this started happening, I'd already processed the heck out of it, so it wouldn't be useful. So I made two samples this morning, one with Audacity and one with Microsoft Voice Recorder (had to remove FSR; it stopped working after scrubbing for spyware). The latter is at a lower volume than the other, but I think the difference is telling. I just recorded the intro to the voice recording I'm supposed to do this morning for a local volunteer org, but I can redo with something more standard if you need me to.

As for the rest of the questions:

I'm recording speech into a Blue Snowball iCE microphone for both samples. I can't find a parts number on the thing, but it's this: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 00C9-00001

Regarding enhancements in Windows Sound, I can't imagine how those system-wide settings would affect recording and playback in Audacity but not in MS Voice Recorder? Nevertheless:

In Recording, there is no Enhancements tab for this microphone. In Advanced, default format is set to 1 channel/16 bit/44100 Hz and both Exclusive Mode boxes are selected.

In Playback, Realtek Speakers/Headphones also has no Enhancements tab. In Advanced, default format is 24 bit/48000 HZ. Exclusive Mode boxes are unchecked. Spatial Sound is off.

Audacity's Sound Activated Recording is not enabled.

Sound meter: I expanded that sucker to the width of the whole screen so I could get some details, but this is still going to be kind of vague. When I begin recording at the beginning of the track, and I let it just record background noise (mostly the hum of the computer and the house heater) the meter bounces around the -48 to -45 area for about five seconds and then drops down to -57 and below. Then I say a word or two and it jumps up high. When I stop talking it, comes down to absolutely nothing before flickering, just barely, so low down it hasn't hit any numbers on the scale; and it does that for the rest of the recording. (I can upload a quick screen capture video later.)

I don't use Skype. No other recording programs that I know of are running in the background.

I will try the OOOoooo....oooooOOOOO test later, but I've run out of time this morning unfortunately.

Thank you for your help!